 Let's begin our time in a word of prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Almighty God our Father in heaven we give you thanks for the beauty of creation and for the joy of assembling together For the presence of Christ For the gift of your son our Savior and Lord and in his precious and powerful name We ask you now to pour out the Holy Spirit upon us To illuminate our minds with the word of your truth To in kindle our hearts with the fire of your holy love But to empower us to go forth to live out all that we've learned to be informed but to be transformed So hear us as we pray our father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses As we forgive those who trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary mother of God Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen. Well as Kimberly mentioned, we've been hearing a lot about well fear a pandemic of fear but also How to cultivate a pure and holy fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom We're living in challenging times We all recognize it even the optimists among us. I should say both of you Kimberly and whoever else is so positive as she is You know, we do have six kids at our youngest just graduated from Franciscan in May and He is continuing to read. He just is a lover of books. I don't know exactly where he gets that from But he's really into Charles Dickens and more recently a tale of two cities Which I think all of us know at least the first line It was the best of times and it was the worst of times and Dickens Of course was not simply talking about what London in Paris, you know, or the French Revolution He was describing what it's like to go through history. I'm reminded of A book that a good friend has recently published Austin Roos has published a book under siege Perhaps you recall the movie from the 80s, but he says something like this. Let's face it. We're surrounded We're outnumbered. We're outgunned and We're infiltrated So what must we conclude that there has never been a better time to be a faithful Catholic Are you serious? You really believe that I do. I'd pass a polygraph. I'd get a high a But it calls for a supernatural outlook and one that needs to be renewed Continuously at least for me But we can take God at his word and we can especially do that if we come to know His word in sacred scripture and we come to know his word in Jesus the word made flesh Who did more than just fulfill every promise? He surpassed the highest hopes of the Hebrew people He brought a fulfillment that went beyond their wildest dreams and it will for us as well But we need that supernatural outlook you go back into the Old Testament and as early as Genesis 32 there is this Fratricidal feud this rivalry between the two sons of Isaac Jacob and Esau and no wonder because Jacob supplanted Esau and So Jacob is trying to figure out a way to be reconciled with his own brother And that's what Genesis 32 describes and he is going with great fear because his older twin brother is stronger and more powerful and so What is he gonna do? Well in verses one and two of Genesis 32 He looks up and he sees Angels of God this is the army of God and with that he can go forth Otherwise he probably would have shrank back and then of course he has in the second half of that chapter an all-night wrestling match a Mixed martial arts sort of thing with an angel and he gets the blessing by the end. I Mean God does right straight with crooked lines Back in Jacob's day, but also in ours and likewise in Joshua's time Here is Joshua crossing the Jordan with the second generation come of age and what does he discover? Oops, we forgot one thing. None of them are circumcised Now I won't go into any details. I promise unfortunately scripture doesn't either but they had to receive this Covenant ritual which they had not received for 40 years in order to celebrate the Passover and now we can get on with the Conquest of the Promised Land and then suddenly this being appears before Joshua and Joshua demands to know are you on our side or on the other side and This angel says as commander of the armies of God at which point Joshua rightly took off his sandals and Then he knew that the battle was the Lord's and so the weapons would be spiritual supernatural And that's how we had that supernatural outlook and continuously through salvation history the Old Testament describes how Elijah take it up in a chariot of fire hands this blessing on to Alisha and Alisha recognizes that God's people have become corrupt. They're infiltrated They're surrounded. They're outnumbered and So Alisha's servant is just cowering in fear and so he prays Lord open his eyes that he may see and at once Alisha's servant looked around and above the mountains Were these angelic armies in chariots that greatly outnumbered all of the Israelite enemies That doesn't happen very often, but it's not just in the Old Testament. I like the The passage that we just read recently in the liturgy in Acts 12 The first of the 12 apostles was martyred by Herod and so Peter was arrested and he looked to be next. He's in jail. He's in chains. He's surrounded middle of the night Oh Get up Okay, get dressed Whatever follow me And he does and the chains fall off the doors all open and Suddenly he finds himself out in the middle of the night Free and then he says something now. I am sure the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me It's about time Peter, you know So often we tend to forget that the Lord is with us more than we are with him We affirm the real presence when we come before the Blessed Sacrament But perhaps it's time for us to admit the virtual absence That is me. I am there, but I am distracted. I am weary. I am sincere, but I'm also divided of heart and So we've got to recognize That God loves us more than we love ourselves He loves our loved ones more than we love them and he calls us he commands us To love him with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. How does that work? Who else can do that? Since when can love be legislated Well, really and truly it can't be unless you happen to be the Lord God and then suddenly you don't just slip this, you know Bill into Congress and get it through of the 613 commandments that constitute the law of Moses Even the lawyer agreed with our Lord as to which of them was the greatest Deuteronomy 6 5 following the Shema here Oh, Israel the Lord your God is one Lord and you shall love the Lord your guy with all of your heart mind soul and strength Well, is it really fair? Lord to legislate love to command that. Oh, yeah Because he's loved us into existence out of nothing He's loved us to the present day and he who is faithful get us all the way home and make us holy and So it is only reasonable To respond with love it is right and Just And I think we have to take God at his word I'd like to just kind of create for a moment a narrative arc That would lead us from Luke 24 to the ascension You remember Luke 24. It's my favorite story in all of the Bible. It's the Emmaus road story And I'm always tempted to start there But I'm always finding it difficult to get out because the story is just so exciting for me I get more out of it every year Clopus and his companion are walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus It's Easter Sunday and Remember they meet up with an apparent stranger and for some reason they don't recognize them He withholds his own identity the risen Savior and And so he asked them what they're talking about and of course they say are you the only one who doesn't know? Which is a good example of Luke's sense of humor as well as Jesus Is he the only one who doesn't know the things that have happened in this city? He is the only one who does know Exactly what has happened and why and what difference it's gonna make for the rest of all of history But he plays along what things? Concerning Jesus of Nazareth the prophet mighty indeed and word before God and the people and they basically recount all that has happened Because this was the single darkest week of their lives After this amazing grace filled time that lasted days weeks months years following Jesus And at some point you'd expect our Lord to say time out take a closer look But he doesn't he lets them go on until they're finally done as They recount some women from our company who came back from the tomb with a vision of angels and said that he is raised And at this point you'd think he'd give them some comfort. Hey, it's not as bad as you think cheer up trust me But instead he rebukes them a foolish man and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken and And suddenly he begins to conduct this long Bible study that lasted for hours Mile after mile and again press pause and ask yourself if you were the Lord of lords and the king of kings And this was your first day back from the dead. How do you think you'd spend it? I mean drop in on pilot Caiaphas the Sanhedrin, you know pyrotechnics. I'm back It's not looking good for you I mean we could come up with a list of at least 15 or 20 options But I dare say that none of us would have on that list that my first day back from the dead as the risen Lord of lords would be to spend a really long journey Spending hours leading a Bible study with Moses and the law and the prophets To show that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer all of these things before entering into his glory with two lowly people who don't even recognize me You know, I am convinced this is a an aside, but I am convinced that quite possibly we have neglected one of the most Wonderful attributes of God God is all-powerful omnipotent. He's all-knowing omniscient He's present everywhere on the presence But I am convinced that we may be in for a surprise when we enter eternity to find out that he's also Omni humorous That a billion years of joy will pass by like a second and will realize that was the first minute of eternity This is the divine comedy that goes beyond Dante and So they just walk hours Mile after mile and what are they feeling their hearts are burning? But they can't admit it until finally they arrive at the village. He there at the table He takes blesses breaks and gives the bread and finally their eyes are opened to the risen Savior And finally Jesus says it's about time No, he doesn't he vanishes and this is a deliberate disclosure of the real presence of the risen Savior in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread And so that departure was itself a way of teaching and What do they do they admit did not our hearts burn within us as he opened the scriptures and it's a curious Thing that Luke does as he's opening the scriptures and as he's breaking the bread their eyes are opened they go all the way back and Get to Jerusalem they find the 11 minus Thomas and They recount what has happened and I can just picture Peter listening Wondering why wait, what's your name clopus? Okay, and your friend, okay? And we were here the whole time and you're telling us that Jesus chose to spend most of Easter Sunday with you Just saying you know I could feel clopus maybe getting defensive and saying well, you know, maybe if you hadn't denied in three times, you know Well, it wouldn't have taken me hours to recognize him even then, you know This is an opportunity for you know these laypeople like clopus and the clergy the hierarchy our first pope to square off But instead it really is a kind of partnership We're the laity who have seen there is an Lord just bear witness to the spiritual heartburn We had for hours until finally we recognized him in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread And this wasn't a flashback because clopus and this friend weren't numbered among the 12 they weren't in the upper room So it's not just a deja vu Where else have we seen someone take bless break and give no This is the unveiling of the real presence of the risen Savior in the Eucharist and As these 10 disciples are trying to figure out what to do with it Suddenly who appears and leads the second lengthy Bible study of Easter Sunday our Lord Clearly he seems to prioritize the importance of knowing the word of God more than many of us Perhaps we should rethink our priorities But it's not to make them Bible scholars They weren't biblically illiterate they knew or at least they thought they knew because they had kind of read Moses and the law and the prophets and the Psalms, but now that Christ was risen It's almost essential to read the scriptures backwards in order to see How it was Intended from the beginning because we always tend to think usually unconsciously that what God has done through his Son by the power of the spirit has to be plan B because of how badly we blew it But what if just maybe this was plan a and we had to become Utterly convinced that what Jesus says and John's gospel is true that apart from me you can do Nothing, I mean I can I can do a lot of things. I teach you know I can Clean the garage Don't ask I can though But no we can't do anything supernatural we can't do anything worth eternal life apart from him But we don't really believe that until we're forced to and That's what happens and that's why the Old Testament is like a story in search of an ending Because we usually think that God helps those who help themselves right that's in the Bible No, that's Benjamin Franklin and so we have to recognize that God is not our copilot He is the Lord and so We have to learn how to live our lives in a new way. Well, let's trace that narrative arc From Easter Sunday to a sentient Thursday Because there we read in Matthew 28 verses 18 19 and 20 all about what Jesus gives them as their marching orders as our marching orders and it isn't ambiguous verse 18 begins with this announcement all Authority in heaven and earth has been given to me We've heard it so much. Perhaps we haven't pondered it enough Because you know when you step back and really look at it upon closer analysis, it seems like a gross Overstatement all authority in heaven and earth will be given to you at the end of time Lord When you come back and it's no more mr. Nice guy and it's you know payback But no, he says all authority in heaven earth has been given to me all authority in heaven and on earth Yep, that is the announcement as he proceeds to prepare them for his ascension Because he's going to take the throne of the universe Now as the second person of the Godhead Jesus has always been King and Lord But now he has come down to take our humanity and he is going up to divinize our humanity which is now his and To make that accessible by the Holy Spirit through the sacraments But especially in the blessed sacrament the Eucharist all Authority in heaven and earth has been given to me not will be not most of it, but all of it So what well because of that announcement the commandment comes next and what is that go there for and make disciples of all nations Again, we've heard it. We call it the great commission We think about it and in my generation. I might describe it as the great omission and Why because listen carefully to what our Lord said to them Go there for and make disciples in all the nations No of all the nations now the Greek term for nations there is ethnic We could translate that Gentiles we could translate that ethnic groups We could translate that communities because it isn't just the gargantuan secular nation states that we associate with the word nation today In any case, what is he talking about go and make disciples of all nations? Yeah, and the word for disciple is interesting, but they taste it comes from on Donald Which means not just to kind of listen not just to kind of learn, but the study to memorize to follow the rabbi as a disciple It means to really allow your mind and your heart to be reconfigured So go there for and make disciples of all nations Not just individuals within all nations But if all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus There isn't a single person on this planet Jesus doesn't point to and say mine. You are mine I bought you with my own blood right father. Yes, son There isn't a family. There isn't a neighborhood. There isn't a town. There is an estate All of this belongs to him as One inner city pastor here in Steubenville said he paid the cost to be the boss Amen, so go there for and make disciples of all nations Which of course includes persons married couples families and neighborhoods But wow the scope of the great commission Eludes us because we don't even think that's within the realm of possibility But it's not a suggestion. It's not merely a divine proposal It's a commandment and so it represents our marching orders, but is it reasonable? come on now as A man in the White House says come on man You think about that? I mean, it's a band of 12 now down to 11 You know and you want to make disciples of all nations in the first century when the Roman Empire is in charge of most of the World then you ought to choose the 12 from the Roman Senate the most educated the most eloquent the most popular Yeah But no you go to the backwaters of Palestine up to Gadda Lee and you choose fishermen and tax collectors Lord with all due respect What were you thinking I? Suspect he knew because God always tends to prefer to do less with more to get all the glory and So these 12 minus one hear him say go forth What are the chances zilch and yet against all odds what happened? Slowly, but surely like a pebble in the pond that sends out the ripples The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church, but especially the Apostles But that's not all folks the command is to make disciples of all nations But how well the promise is Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Why is that a promise? Because we can't do it on our own This is where hope comes in Hope is desire for a difficult good and Eternal life is not just difficult. It's humanly impossible, but with God all things are possible and with baptism We are not just redeemed from sin. We're not just redeemed from hell We're not just redeemed from everlasting condemnation if that was all it was that would be good news But it's far better than that. We are redeemed for Sonship sharing Jesus own sonship for rebirth Regeneration through baptism that makes us children of God more than our six kids are the children of Scott and Kimberly Han Really and truly? So this pledge that our Lord gives shows us that the divine initiative didn't cease when Jesus ascends to heaven and So Baptism is the first of the seven sacraments and that reminds us that the sacraments are the powerful things that God does To make up for what we lack to give us all that we need It doesn't make holiness Automatic or easy it makes it possible and Then comes the instruction further instruction teaching them to observe whatsoever. I have commanded you Not just the natural moral law not just the Ten Commandments, but whatsoever Jesus has commanded us When you look at the Sermon of the Mount turn the other cheek and love your enemy it goes beyond the 613 Commandments So how is this burden easy? How is his yoke light? I mean it just well apart from the Holy Spirit. This would be a counsel of despair We would be hopeless, but because he's going to conclude by saying Lo, I am with you always to the end of the age and how is he with us through the Holy Spirit? And so a sentient Thursday sets in the motion the first novena as the church waits with our lady in Jerusalem Waiting for the power of the Holy Spirit to come down upon them Just as we need the power of the Holy Spirit to come down upon us and then we go forth like they did and Against all odds within three or four centuries the Roman Empire this ancient culture of death corruption Moral relativism and violence Becomes what even secular historians describe as Christendom read Tom Holland's book Dominion He's an agnostic historian Who tries to explain to the people in woke culture that the very Tradition you're canceling you're cannibalizing Without the Christian values of the last 2,000 years this agnostic historian says we wouldn't even have a comprehension of love It's an exciting but challenging thing to recognize that God Transformed the Roman Empire and made it Christendom it was flawed defective never utopian to be sure But it's what John Paul once referred to as an example of a civilization of love I mean we know that the Holy Roman Empire was not holy It wasn't Roman it was moved to Constantinople all of those things we might have learned in public school But the fact is if God could do it back then against all odds There's no reason for us to conclude that he can't do it again or that he doesn't want to he wants to and he commands us to So I think it's time for us to reassess What we do in the mass in the lines that we? Recite and we hear in every Eucharistic liturgy the Lord be with you And with your spirit. Yeah, lift up your hearts and we lift them up to the Lord Let us give thanks to the Lord our God and it is right and just Dig them at Ustam est Dig them it is right. It is fitting. It is proper. It is our dignity It isn't demeaning to give God praise But it's not just right. It's just And this isn't a lower form of justice This is the highest and the hardest but The Greatest justice, you know when we think of justice we often reduce it to commutative justice, which is Transactional you pay for the groceries before you leave We might think of distributive justice for the common good what used to be called equity before that term was hijacked and So those are the two forms of justice aren't they no there's another one there is preeminent justice Because if justice is giving to others what you owe them then commutative justice means checking out paying for your groceries Distributive justice also means paying your taxes and the speeding ticket to for that matter and Observing the laws from that point on and these sorts of things that create for the common good social harmony But what about the debt we owe our parents? Can we ever pay them back by giving them life and love food clothing shelter and nurture? No, so what do we do? We honor our father and mother and so right after the first three commandments in the 10 where we Worship God and him alone. We don't take his name in vain But with sincerity and integrity and we keep the Lord's day Then the next form of justice is to honor your parents and no wonder And this is the ancient virtue of Piatos Piety and Likewise honoring our elders our rulers those father and mother figures who lead us and guide us in the social order But there's a higher form of justice the highest form of justice the preeminent forms of justice is What's Cicero? called Religio To rebind ourselves to heaven to the deity and it wasn't just Cicero. It was Seneca. It wasn't just the Romans It was the Greeks it was Plato an Aristotle who recognized the fact that There is a form of justice and remember that justice is the highest virtue Well, we don't use that word virtue enough these days. And so what do we mean by virtue? Well, I mean virtues are to the soul what muscles are to the body Just as muscles make us strong so that we can do more and more good more for more and more people more and more easily The virtues enable us to do that from the heart with the mind and the will and so it is Right and just Which implies that it's wrong and unjust It's a cosmic injustice to not give God thanks and praise We owe him more than all of our parents put together Than all of the leaders that we have to obey He is the source of our parents and our leaders as well as the grocery store And everything else so Religion as a form of justice is a virtue that Even the pagans in ancient Greco-Roman times recognized Augustine quotes him in the city of God He purifies it because he warns of the danger of false religion Irreligion idolatry superstition and all of that and he shows that the city of God and the city of man are Not two entirely different civilizations because one is religious and the other ones not because the true religion has this unique power To form a civilization of love and he traces it all the way back to Genesis and Then the city of man which is defined by the love of self even to the contempt of God is not without religion But it's run by false religion idolatry Where the rulers want to be worshipped they might not say it in so many words But you can tell by the way they wheeled power that they want to be regarded as The source of law Well, once you identify the source of law and the standard of justice if so factive you've identified the deity It might be a false God But as Dylan Bob Dylan sang in his conversion days back in nine in the 70s you got to serve somebody Homo religiosa, that's what Augustine says. We're not just homo sapiens who seek wisdom We are rational animals as Aristotle said we are social animals, but we are religious homo liturgic We worship either rightly or wrongly and So to worship God with all of our heart mind soul and strength is not only reasonable It is right and just But not to worship the one true God after he's given us his own son is not a misdemeanor. It's not a felony It's a kind of capital offense with eternal consequences And not because God is getting back at us No in time in history. God punishes his people just like Kimberly and I punished our kids. We didn't punish the neighbor's kids even when they deserved it much more But they're not our kids and so God does punish us but not to get back at us But to get us back to him and so you can see in the biblical record of history How the punishments of God are intended to warn them and to draw them back to repentance back to the family of God and Then of course God is an infinite Respector of persons even when they misuse their freedom and they abuse it to the very end And so as CS Lewis said the doors to hell are locked, but from the inside They hate hell, but they'd hate heaven even more because that is the cumulative result of their decisions in pride and folly So we've got to rethink some things here Aquinas building upon Augustine's citing Cicero Describes justice as the highest moral virtue Religion as the vertus vertutum the virtue of virtues. What does he mean? Well, he's looking at history the same way the ancients did and recognizes the fact that Religion has a unique capacity to form civilizations In fact, if you look at the societies that become civilizations are according to historians Not only are they always with the religion the religion is always front and center Now apart from Israel almost all of them are false Idolatrous and so the prophets have got to warn the people against those errors that come from the pit back then and there but also here and now and So We say these lines, but have we learned them or have we only learned them by road? It is truly right and just our duty and our salvation So it is right and just implies that it's wrong and unjust and it's not a minor injustice, but a massive one But then the next pair is It is our duty and our salvation. Well, which one is it? Is it our duty or our salvation? It's both Why because God is fathering us as beloved sons and daughters and even though we're prodigal sons and daughters Who are wayward and have wandered far off into wickedness? He wants to get us home more than we'll ever want to be home and So it is our duty and our salvation Once a week. No always. Well in the church. No everywhere Do you really believe it? It is right and just It is our duty and our salvation always and everywhere To give him thanks Lord That sets it right Holy father almighty and eternal God through Christ our Lord and then as the prayer continues which we've heard since we were Little in your case if you're cradle Catholics for the last 35 years for me We're described as a chosen race a loyal priest at a holy nation You haven't seen my parish Holy yeah, okay We'll get to that in just a few minutes. I Already mentioned that earlier today that when we speak of the church as one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church We're not talking about the Roman Catholic Church that is just simply on earth global planetary international no The Catholic Church is Catholic because it's universal the head of the church is not the Pope The head of the church is Christ and he is in heaven and the heart of the church is the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Angels and Saints don't form a higher and holier denomination. They are the primary members of the Catholic Church and We are secondary members. We're the pilgrim church. We're called to be the militant church. So often we're the somnolent church sleeping But the fact is there aren't two churches. There's one and it's united by the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and it's holy because the Saints and the angels in the presence of God Live the life of the Father Son and the Holy Spirit. It's one holy. It's Catholic It's universal and it's apostolic because the Apostles aren't dead They're alive in heaven and they're more alive than we are and they pray far better than we do And they're hoping that we would turn to them and ask them for prayers because they're truly our spiritual fathers and older brothers And it isn't quaint imagery that we you know concoct on our own and project into heaven to kind of domesticate the The celestial realm they're more of a family than the haunts could ever be And this is who we are Because this is who God is as our father Sending his eternal Son to give us the spirit of sonship through the waters of baptism to be reborn Again, we're not primarily redeemed from we're redeemed for It's one thing for Israel to come out of Egyptian bondage, but the exodus is primarily ordered to What you're going to find and that is not just former slaves, but sons of God You're going to worship the Lord you're going to find out that this nation is now his family But remember this make disciples of all nations God called Israel My firstborn son at the burning bush go tell Pharaoh Moses that Israel is my firstborn son What does that imply about Egypt and all the other nations? They're younger siblings who have wandered off and so God wants to groom Israel So that through his firstborn son Jesus becoming man he might make disciples of all nations Which means an international family? So this goes back to the Old Testament Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord we read in Psalm 33 But that isn't retired with the Old Testament. No Jesus warns the Pharisees I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it and Among the earliest nations Ethiopia the Armenians even before Constantine was baptized Now I admit we don't really think this way in fact we tend to think that we shouldn't think this way You know or else our enemies are going to be confirmed in the suspicions that they have that you keep using the language of the Lord to be Jesus Christ and that has Social and cultural implications as well as moral and legal ones. Oh, no. No, it doesn't. No, this is just a private matter Is it really? I? Mean we are rational animals We've got to love the Lord with all of our heart mind soul and strength But we're all so social animals and so the catechism is very clear on this it says and I quote from 2105 the duty of offering God genuine worship concerns Man both individually and socially this is the traditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals and Societies toward the true religion and the one Church of Christ Now you wouldn't begin the sentence This is the traditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals and societies Unless the ones framing the catechism are well aware of the fact that many Catholics throughout the world have forgotten or Denied or wandered away from the traditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals and societies Toward the true religion and the one Church of Christ. So how do we do that? We take up arms. No But we receive the power of the Holy Spirit We go forth to make disciples of all nations the next sentence by constantly Evangelizing people the church works toward enabling them to infuse the Christian spirit into the mentality and more is laws and Structures of the communities in which they live just like Vatican to call lay people not only to the universal call to holiness to become saints But also to sanctify the temporal order not just to clean it up not just to sanitize it Not just to create a legion of decency for everyone who makes another movie Although that would be nice The social duty of Christians is to respect and awaken and each person the love of the true and the good It requires them to make known the worship of the one true religion which subsists in the Catholic and Apostolic Church Christians are called to be the light of the world Thus the church shows forth the kingship of Christ over all creation and in particular over human societies There is religious freedom for other people non-christians But it is not unlimited and so we have an opportunity. No, we've got an obligation We've got a privilege to go share the gospel and yet and yet I'm not sure we really want to It reminds me of what happened back in August of 1974 When these two Swedes invaded a bank in Stockholm and they took four hostages in the vault They held them for five days until finally the Prime Minister reluctantly sent in the sent in force and they used tear gas and they they took these two Captors they took I'm sorry. They they took the two robbers who were holding these hostages and then a strange thing happened and That is the hostages Were upset with the police Not because they were injured they weren't and in the trial they not only spoke out in defense of The robbers their captors they tried to help raise money for their legal defense Why no one knew and so psychologists studied this incident and that's how the Stockholm syndrome entered the American vocabulary Because sometimes you internalize the values of your captors as a coping mechanism as a way of dealing with this stress that lasts for hours for a day and then for days and Either you're going to be humbled and admit the fear or you're going to internalize their values and Suddenly everything is inverted And I would suggest that there may be a spiritual Stockholm syndrome That we have internalized the values of a secularized culture that wants to privatize religion It considers the voicing of religious belief in the public square Religion is irrelevant. In fact, it's dangerous if you appeal to that in any kind of public context well Dr. Mary Healy last night Disabused us of that with the examples of the apostles and we have the martyrs and so we have not just the opportunity But the obligation the privilege as well You know, I'm not saying that every single Catholic is you know a victim of the Stockholm syndrome But I would say that as American Catholics we forget that we have dual citizenship like Paul reminds the Philippians in chapter 3 verse 20 He says our citizenship is in heaven. He's not asking the Philippian believers to renounce their Citizenship in Philippi. He's just reminding them that they have a temporal and eternal a human and a divine citizenship as American Catholics do too and So we have obligations toward our country Patriotism gratitude and all of the respect we owe our leaders and at the same time We recognize that Christ is the king of kings He is the Lord of lords and it's not just a theory or other world here at the end of time People say yeah, but Jesus said my kingship is not in this world He didn't say that in John 18 36 He says my kingship is not of this world if my kingship were of this world My servants would fight that I'm not be handed over but My kingship is not of this world means it's not a majority vote. It's not the power of the emperor Caesar No Pilate says so you are a king you say I'm a king for this I was born for this I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth everyone who is of the truth Here's my voice and Pilate asks the question which is really not a question But the cynical voice of many politicians down through the ages. What is truth? What is truth when you've got power when you've got money when you've got the Caesar backing you well truth is the essence of reality and So we've got that on our side even if we have people who deny the notion of reality Objective truth and say that's hate speech, especially if it ventures into the moral realm But it's not rude. It's not un-American. It's not wrong. It's not inappropriate Oh banish this illicit thought of bringing credit It's not going to be by force, but it will be by faith hope and love To withhold the faith from a neighbor because you think it might alienate him is not an expression of respect Or friendship. It's a betrayal of friendship To say well, I want holiness for myself It's good But not if you add well not for my spouse. That's up to her. Well, you want it because it's holy matrimony Yes, I want it for me for my wife, but not for our kids No, we wanted for our kids, but not the neighbor's kids No, we want it for the neighborhood, but not the city of Steubenville. No, we want it for the city But not Ohio. No, we wanted for our state, but forget the other 49 We wanted for all 50 states for the entire nation, but not the others We want to make America great, but no other one else. We want to make every nation holy starting with ourselves our Families our neighborhood our parish our town Where does Jesus draw the line say oh not that far? I Didn't die for them And so we've got to rethink this This is what John Paul was calling for the new evangelization that will lead to a civilization of love Because the true religion not only has the power to form a civilization of love like no other religion It has something even more and that is the power to form saints The power to do things for us that we can't do for ourselves Such as happened on May 21st of this year when I saw my son our son Jeremiah Get ordained to the priesthood for the diocese of Steubenville by Bishop Monfort and laying his hands upon our son our son It was long-awaited it was well attended But I mean it was special special it was surreal You know the line formed for people to get blessed by our son the priest father Jeremiah I'm the father. I'm the breadwinner But even if I speak the words of consecration at the dinner table, it's still bread I Watched we all did as our bishop in the line of Apostolic succession knelt to get blessed by this newly ordained son of ours who's now our sacramental father and Then the line formed it got long and eventually it came down to Kimberley and me and we were not dry-eyed I assure you and Within the next day we see him say his first mass the words of consecration. Just who do you think you are son? I mean you're a mortal man. You're our son You think you can turn earthly matter into the body blood soul and divinity of the God man the creator and with the redeemer of the heavens and the earth Yeah Okay To God be the glory. I Mean this doesn't just call for Eucharistic faith This doesn't just call for Eucharistic devotion This calls for Eucharistic amazement as Pope John Paul said in his last encyclical back in 03 the church of the Eucharist It's amazing how unamazed we are I Honestly believe that the Eucharist is far more unbelievable than we let ourselves believe There is no way it can be true unless of course it is and Then it's amazing how unamazed we are and not just the words of consecration But the words of absolution the line formed on our back porch His niece our nieces and nephews his cousins he heard their confession and then Kimberley's turn and mine and What a good confessor he was to give us the comfort and the encouragement, but above all the words of absolution Our priests become our fathers in the family of God. They raised the dead more than Jesus raised Lazarus He just gave him his body back for a few more years God the Father through Christ by the Spirit raises us up to divine life eternal life. That is the real resurrection The priesthood the words of consecration the words of absolution the real presence Transubstantiation we are so accustomed to these ideas these truths these realities that we don't always see how truly fantastic they are But they're real. They're true. They're beautiful. They're powerful It's what makes us sons and daughters of God. It's what will make us saints and believe me. It is right and just it is our duty and our salvation always and Everywhere to give him thanks and praise in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Almighty God our Father in heaven our words fall short when it comes to expressing our Thanksgiving our praise For you excel all creation By fashioning the universe You excel all the other gods the false deities by the truth of your love by the justice of your law and Worship as a command performance for us is our duty, but it is our salvation It is our dignity because by it you get nothing out of it, but you fill us with all of your very life Forgive us for taking so much grace for granted dear father Help us to make up for lost time for the rest of our lives in our in our prayer in our own homes In our neighborhoods our states and nations Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be World without end. Amen. There's never been a better time to be a faithful Catholic. God bless you brothers and sisters