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Thank you to everyone who has supported this podcast with their prayers and financial gifts!!
Thank you for being with us!!
Tomorrow we are going to…
(SQUIRREL!! 😁)
This is a MCNUGGET DAY!!
Did you know that?
MCNUGGET DAY at the end of the section
We have the IN BRIEF
IT IS INCREDIBLE!!
The Catechism SUMMARIZES everything we have been diving deeply into for the last number of days
BUT ALSO…
We are grateful!!
Here we go!!
Do you feel this way too?
GOSH!!
It’s like…
We are finally underway
It feels like we are REALLY MOVING
Don’t know if it feels like that to you
BUT…
WE ARE MOVING!!
And it feels like…
(SQUIRREL!! 😁)
So I don’t know…
Hey guys, by the way, if you like ANGELS…
We are talking about angels tomorrow
People are like, OH MY GOSH!!
LET’S TALK ABOUT ANGELS!!
LET’S HEAR ABOUT THOSE!!
Why are we talking about angels tomorrow?
Because we’ve talked about Creation for the last few days
Among the first things that God created are the ANGELS!!
WHICH IS AMAZING!!
Maybe even the very first thing
The very first thing that we know about, I guess
Anyways…
Let’s open this day up with a prayer
Then we are going to highlight the MCNUGGETS
Then we are going to launch into them today!
Let’s pray!!
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and thanks. Thank you for continuing to reveal yourself to us. Thank you for continuing to speak to us. Thank you for giving us your Word in Scripture. And thank you for giving us the way to clearly understand your Word through the interpretive lens of the Church and the voice of the Church that continues to speak truth in this world. We thank you. Thank you for creating this world. Thank you for creating us. Thank you for walking with us, even in the midst of our pain and our suffering, our grief, and our loss. We trust in you this day. We love you, In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”
So here’s a SUMMARY OF THE SUMMARY
We are going to cover the fact that God created the world ON HIS OWN
WITHOUT ANY HELP
HE DIDN’T NEED ANY HELP
HE DIDN’T TAKE ANY HELP
HE DIDN’T ASK FOR ANY HELP
BUT ALSO…
God created this world GOOD
In order to show forth His Glory
TO COMMUNICATE HIMSELF
To actually GIVE HIMSELF to His creatures
We have been highlighting this and Scripture DECLARES this and the Church REMINDS us of this
God did not create this world ARBITRARILY
God did not create this world BECAUSE HE WAS BORED
God created this world because HE IS LOVE
God created this world because HE DESIRED TO BE ABLE TO SHARE THAT LOVE WITH FREE CREATURES HE MADE IN HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS
THAT IS REMARKABLE!!
The WHOLE UNIVERSE is meant to PROCLAIM GOD’S GLORY
The WHOLE UNIVERSE is meant to COMMUNICATE HIS DIVINE LIFE TO US
WHICH IS JUST INCREDIBLE!!
GOSH!!
OH WOW!!
The fact that you have been pressing PLAY for the past 45 days is REMARKABLE
We have also been talking about the fact that God KEEPS THE WORLD IN EXISTENCE…
BY HIS WORD!!
GOD HOLDS US IN BEING!!
Remember DEISM?
God did not make the universe like a clockmaker makes a clock, winds it up, and leaves it
God is PRESENT to us
GOD HOLDS US IN EXISTENCE
That is how CLOSE God is
That is how TRANSCENDENT God is
God exists OUTSIDE OF TIME AND SPACE
BUT…
God is present TO EVERY MOMENT
God is present IN EVERY PLACE AT THE SAME TIME
Yesterday we had some of the most challenging but beautiful days
We talked about the MYSTERY OF SUFFERING
NO SIMPLE ANSWER WILL SUFFICE IN RESPONSE TO THE PROBLEM OF PAIN!!
The Church declares that the Christian message AS A WHOLE is the ONLY ANSWER
IN FACT…
Remember this quote?
Paragraph 309 says, “There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.”
That is consoling
So let’s get started…
MCNUGGET DAY!!
Tomorrow we are talking about ANGELS!!
But today we are summarizing what we have been hearing for the last couple of days (thanks to Fr. Mike giving a summary of the summary before he reads us the summary and then summarizes what we learned in the summary!! 😉😁)
MCNUGGET DAY!!
We have a bunch of INCREDIBLE MCNUGGETS!!
Here’s another reminder of what we have been reading the past couple of days
God created the world and proclaims His almighty love and wisdom
Creation is the BEGINNING of God’s plan of his loving goodness which is FULFILLED in Jesus Christ
BUT ALSO…
Remember how we talked about The Trinity
Paragraph 316 says, “Though the work of creation is attributed to the Father in particular, it is equally a truth of faith that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together are the one, indivisible principle of creation.”
What does that mean?
The Father is the Creator in a PARTICULAR WAY
BUT ALSO…
Remember in St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, “All things were created through Him.” (Colossians 1:16)
And in The Gospel of John 1:1-2, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.”
The Son is a definite…you know…
(SQUIRREL!! 😁)
Where the Father is, there is the Son and the Holy Spirit
Where the Son is, there is the Father and the Holy Spirit
Where the Holy Spirit is, there is the Father and the Son
The Trinity is ONE BEING and THREE DIVINE PERSONS
AND YET…
They are SEPARATE but they are NOT SEPARATED
Right?
If that is a way to understand this
They are separate PERSONS
BUT ONE DIVINE BEING
When one DIVINE PERSON acts, the other two DIVINE PERSONS act
Particularly when it comes to Creation
Paragraph 317 says, “God alone created the universe freely, directly, and without any help.”
God is the PRIMARY CAUSE of all things that exist
Also God creates in a UNIQUE WAY
Remember that Hebrew word BARA-?
This means to CREATE OUT OF NOTHING
The Latin term is EX NIHILO
No creature has the power to create what our God can create
Because when WE create, we use stuff that PREVIOUSLY EXISTS
BUT…
God creates OUT OF NOTHING
THAT IS INCREDIBLE!!
Because of that EVERYTHING comes from God
SPACE!!
TIME!!
Paragraph 319 says, “God created the world to show forth and communicate his glory.”
IT IS SO IMPORTANT FOR US!!
At this moment, wherever you’re at…
Maybe you’re driving…
Maybe you’re in your kitchen…
(or maybe you’re sipping on some orange pekoe chai while typing out The Catechism in a Year Study Guide 😉)
Look around and realize that THIS IS THE UNIVERSE THAT GOD CREATED
God created THAT TREE (Yeah, that one over there on which that really fat squirrel is running up and down harvesting his acorns!! Wow…he’s really fat yet quick!! Oh wow!! Now my dog is chasing the fat squirrel!! Oooh this may not end well 😉)
Why?
TO SHOW FORTH AND COMMUNICATE HIS GLORY!!
He wants us to share in His TRUTH…
He wants us to share in His GOODNESS…
He wants us to share in His BEAUTY…
THAT IS THE GLORY FOR WHICH GOD CREATED YOU!!
WHICH IS INCREDIBLE!!
HE HOLDS THIS CREATION IN BEING!!
Paragraph 322 says, “Christ invites us to filial trust in the providence of our heavenly Father”
FILIAL TRUST means the TRUST OF A CHILD TO THEIR PARENT
This means that we trust that even in the midst of danger…
Even in the midst of suffering…
Even in the midst of uncertainty…
WE CAN TRUST IN GOD AS OUR FATHER!!
St. Peter says, “Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you.”
Another translation says, “Cast all your cares on him, for he cares for you.”
HE CARES FOR YOU!!
We talked about the REALITY OF EVIL yesterday
God PERMITS physical evil
We get sick
We grow old
We die
God PERMITS moral evil
We can actually CHOOSE the wrong
We can actually CHOOSE the not good
We can actually CHOOSE to use and abuse each other
God PERMITS those evils
PHYSICAL EVIL
MORAL EVIL
IT IS A MYSTERY THAT WE COULD NEVER POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND!!
BUT…
God ILLUMINATES that mystery
God doesn’t SOLVE this mystery for us
Remember, when we talk about MYSTERY in the religious sense we aren’t talking about Sherlock Holmes solving the case
We are talking about this DEPTH OF UNDERSTANDING that we are called to enter into that we will NEVER BE ABLE TO PLUMB
BUT…
God illuminates that mystery in Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ ENTERED INTO OUR SUFFERING
Jesus Christ ENTERED INTO PHYSICAL EVIL
Jesus Christ ENTERED INTO MORAL EVIL
Jesus Christ allowed PHYSICAL EVIL to afflict Him
Jesus Christ allowed MORAL EVIL to destroy Him
And then in the Resurrection, Jesus Christ CONQUERED THAT
Jesus Christ TRANSFORMED IT
Jesus Christ REDEEMED IT
Jesus Christ DID NOT REMOVE IT
Jesus Christ DID NOT TAKE IT AWAY
BUT…
TRANSFORMED IT
REDEEMED IT
Remember…
The ONLY reasons that God would permit this evil is twofold…
TO PRESERVE OUR FREEDOM!!
HE KNOWS HE CAN BRING ABOUT A GREATER GOOD!!
That is why we need to have that FILIAL TRUST
We have to lean in and pray, “Ok God, I will cast my cares on you because you care for me. I will cast my anxieties on you because you care for me. I will cast my sorrows, my griefs. In my sorrows and my grief I am not going to stay away from you. In my sorrows and in my grief I am going to draw close to you because you have revealed, ultimately, that you don’t stay away from my grief. You don’t stay away from what hurts us. You’ve entered into our grief. You’ve entered into what hurts us. You allowed it to OVERWHELM you. You allowed it to KILL you. And then you took it and TRANSFORMED it so now it is POWER.”
We will talk more about this in the days ahead
How is it possible that Jesus Christ can actually transform evil into something that is POWERFUL?
It can actually be a source of REDEMPTION
Even though God can bring GOOD out of evil…
That in NO WAY makes evil itself good
THAT IS SO IMPORTANT FOR US TO UNDERSTAND!!
EVEN THOUGH GOD CAN BRING GOOD OUT OF EVIL THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT EVIL THING IS NO LONGER EVIL!!
IT IS ALWAYS EVIL!!
IT HAS BEEN REDEEMED!!
Does that make sense?
If it doesn’t, that’s ok!!
BECAUSE IT IS A MYSTERY!!
It is a mystery that we LIVE
It’s one thing to hear about it right now
It is another thing to LIVE IN IT
So that is Fr. Mike’s invitation
PICK UP YOUR CROSS TODAY AND FOLLOW AFTER THE LORD!!
“Ok God, I am going to trust you. In the midst of this world that is good, that you created good, but is broken. I trust you.”
That’s our prayer today
Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!
Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!
I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!
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