Become Who You Are
What’s the meaning and purpose of my life? What is my true identity? Why were we created male and female? How do I find happiness, joy and peace? How do I find love that lasts, forever? These are the timeless questions of the human heart. Join Jack Rigert and his guests for lively insights, reading the signs of our times through the lens of Catholic Teaching and the insights of Saint John Paul ll to guide us.
Saint Catherine of Siena said "Become who you are and you would set the world on fire".
Become Who You Are
#513 President Trumps Assassination Attempt: We are approaching an Apocalyptical Crisis, a Collision of Two Opposing Forces. Ultimately It Is A Battle For the Human Soul, a Culture and a Nation
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What if the recent attempt on President Trump's life is even more tragic than seems? What if it's a signal of deeper moral and cultural battles waging within the human heart and our nation? Join us as we take a sobering look at the aftermath of this violent act, the profound impact on those injured and their families, and the broader implications for our society. Through personal reflections and insights from the John Paul II Renewal Center, we investigate the opposing forces that shape the human heart and our collective future.
History teaches us that culture is the bedrock of any nation, but what happens when that foundation starts to crumble? Drawing wisdom from historical figures like John Adams and Bishop Fulton Sheen, we discuss the erosion of objective truth and the rise of moral relativism. We emphasize the critical role of the family in maintaining cultural integrity, especially as Western civilization faces unprecedented challenges and a shift away from Judeo-Christian values. This chapter serves as a stark reminder that the health of our nation relies on the moral and ethical principles upheld by its people.
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This is part two of a special edition I'm doing on President Trump, who survived an assassination attempt and again, like I said in part one, our prayers go out to him and thank God that he wasn't hurt worse than he was, but also for the people that did get hurt behind him. A man was killed, two others are in critical condition, so let's keep their families in our prayers and in our thoughts. Their lives have been changed forever. Their family lives have been changed forever. Their family lives have been changed forever. I mean, there's a legacy of kids and grandkids and blah, blah, blah that'll be affected for the rest of eternity, these evil forces that come in and we're trying to make an understanding of it. You know, bishop Sheen Fulton Sheen said only those who live by faith really know what's happening in the world. The great masses without faith are unconscious of the destructive processes going on because they have lost the vision of the heights from which they've fallen. If you go back and listen to part one we talked about this you know all the things that we're falling for today. We don't realize how far we've fallen, isn't it true? Again, I'll repeat that I'm amazed at what people fall for today. You know, between the climate hoax and the vaccine hoax and all these different things and the evils, and they don't seem to see it. You know, with Trump, derangement syndrome, and it's this mysterious force. So I want to unpack this collision of these two opposing forces that are after the human heart, after our culture and then our nation. At the end, we're approaching an apocalyptic crisis and we have to stand up, we have to all take it upon ourselves.
Speaker 1:You know, I knew this evil when I was a young guy already. I graduated from high school in the 70s, in the mid-70s, and my friend, jimmy Patrick, was a young Marine, just a little older than I, had already come back from Vietnam missing both of his legs, was legally blinded by shrapnel, and our country had passed a law in the mid-70s, early 70s, really giving us the right to take the life of our own children in abortion our Roe v Wade. And so I became conscious of a dark force early on in the world that opposed another force, that of my conscience, and I rebelled against what I didn't understand, this mystery of evil that I mentioned in part one Mysterium Inequitatis. I caused this rebellion. I was a young guy, I didn't know what was going on and I caused more than a little strife at home in this rebellious phase and thought it best to strike out on my own before my family and I did any harm to each other. The day I graduated from high school, I received my diploma, I threw it in the back seat of my car along with my backpack and I drove off, and I proceeded to spend the remainder of my life trying to make sense of these two opposing forces.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to attempt today, just in brief, to summarize what I discovered, really a summary of what I've been sharing and my colleagues have been sharing at the John Paul II Renewal Center for going on two decades now. At its foundation, there has always been just two worldviews, two systems that humanity is free to choose from the city of man, in which man makes himself God, we will be like God, deciding what is good and what is evil Genesis 3, verse 5. Or we build up and choose God. We reject evil and we build up the city of God, where man acknowledges God and goes out to seek the truth what is the truth? And then asking himself we should all be doing this. How should I live? See, this is why we're put here in this short time called our lives to discover this, to discover what is the truth. How should I live?
Speaker 1:A culture turn than a nation, of course, doesn't exist without people. The foundation of culture and you see, today's culture and Western civilization's culture and the countries are coming down right Well, the foundation of culture is ultimately the united body or force of individual human hearts who come together to create either a culture of love, individual human hearts who come together to create either a culture of love, life, truth, or a culture of death, division, falsehoods. The nation, then, in turn, is in fact this great community of men and women who are united by various ties, but above all, precisely by that culture. They create. The great community of men and women who, in turn, formed today's culture and extended through time and human history, were first educated and formed by culture, the culture that we create around us, and the moral. That's why John Adams said that our country was based on, and must be based on, a moral and religious people. Without it, the republic will fall. And that's true, because we create this culture, and then the nation then is built on that culture, and that's what unites us, that's what united all these different people, my grandparents. They came from four different countries. Three of them were orphans. What gave them a unity, and also what gave them a chance for prosperity, was that we were based on Judeo-Christian principles and, as much as we all fall and we're all sinners, that was the country and that's what made it great, with all its flaws, right, we know all this right.
Speaker 1:So what happens is the culture also forms us. We become a product of our culture. So the culture, the smallest part of culture, is our family. You know marriage and the family. We create a domestic church or a domestic home, and then that culture leaks out and goes out into the world with art and beauty, the buildings that we build, all the good things that we do, the literature, the good books, et cetera. If we don't do that, it starts to get twisted right. Evil comes into the world. So that culture then forms us, and then we go out and get jobs. We work in economics and finance and in the government for the state, for the feds, and we either bring what's true, good and beautiful in there or we don't, and it gets twisted. So that builds the nation. So now you see the problem that we're in right now. Today we're faced with a culture and a nation in crisis and decline. We know that, ultimately, this is a crisis of individual human hearts, men and women who've rejected objective truth and instead have embraced subjective constraints of individual thoughts and feelings. We no longer. This is what makes it unprecedented.
Speaker 1:I spoke to Bishop Athanasius Schneider fairly recently In fact, I'll be putting up a podcast this week, monday and the audio and probably Tuesday the video and he said with all the different evil and he's a historian he wrote a book, belief from Evil, showing all the different heresies that have been coming into the church throughout history. And I said well, you know, is today's time just another heresy? You know another time where the Vatican and the Pope on down are even pushing different things on us? Are these any worse than they were in the past? You know we've always been bad at this. And they said, yes, it's unprecedented. Because he said, in the past you had like what've always been bad at this? And they said, yes, it's unprecedented. Because he said, in the past you had like what's called the Arian history, which Arian heresy, which I won't take time to go into.
Speaker 1:That was big, but the church was fighting that then. Right, because it wants to bring the truth. It wants to bring this deposit of faith down to us through the ages. And he said today it's not one, it's a hydra. You know, in essence, we've thrown out the truth. The truth is always the most important thing, right, you have to be able to say what is the truth, what is the truth of things? When you throw out the truth, a man can become a woman, a baby is no longer a person. We can just destroy it in the womb. So when we throw out the truth, things get twisted and distorted very, very quickly, and that's what we're seeing today. We've thrown out objective truth and we accept moral relativism. So that's why, again, I said, ultimately, this is a crisis of individual human hearts, men and women who have rejected objective truth and instead have embraced subjective constraints of individual thoughts and feelings. This is my opinion, right? This falls closely on the heels of Europe now and the United States and Western civilization as a whole, which, for all practical purposes, is not only in decline but it's already dead. It's already dead, it's already thrown out Christianity and it's allowed this evil to come in, and you're starting to see this accelerated.
Speaker 1:Bishop Fulton Sheen, with a saintly long-ranging spiritual vision, saw the roots of this decline and today's crisis, firmly planted and growing in 1974, warning of a crisis in Christendom already then. He said first of all, we are at the end of Christendom, he said solemnly during a television show. Now, this is what I mean by that, not Christianity, he said, not the church. The church isn't going to go away. Christ will be here forever. It might get smaller, it is going to get smaller. People are leaving, but Christ isn't going anywhere. But he says Christendom I mean because that's the economic, political and social life as inspired by Christian principles that is ending. We've seen it die, he said.
Speaker 1:Look at the symptoms the breakup of the family, divorce, immorality, general dishonesty. Well, that was 1974. Today, as we know, it got much worse. Right, almost every institution has been compromised by corruption, including parts of the church. The murder of the innocents is a right, marriage and the family have been redefined to mean anything and so nothing. Gender ideologies are pushed on, children and parents are forced to comply by a weaponized justice system. Bishop Sheen reminded us that of the 22 major civilizations that have decayed since the beginning of human history, 19 rotted and perished from within. We live in a day-to-day, he said, and do not see this decline. So today, many people have a sense that something's terribly wrong.
Speaker 1:I speak to these people all the time. I'm sure you do too, but because they live day to day like the frog in a proverbial pot, consciences dulled by moral relativism, they've become apathetic to the evils of this present age. Consciences are close to death in so many people today. They're easily manipulated by anyone who appeals to their emotions and feelings. When we have no truth, when we live on the surface of things, then we just get moved around by the spirit of the age. So they're moved by all these words and feelings. And these are professional marketers and professional people in government. They know how to manipulate people. They've been doing it for many, many years. They study that. They know how to manipulate you and how to push your buttons better than your spouse does right.
Speaker 1:They use words such as nice, kind, compassionate, accepting of others, regardless of what's objectively true, good and beautiful. They've forgotten that being kind is not the same as love, that to love someone is to will their good, to sacrifice yourself for their good, to know and want what's good for them. You know, as an example, you know allowing children to be murdered in the womb, rendered sterile and to have their sex organs cut off is not kind or loving. You have to love them in the truth. You have to tell them the beauty of love. The culture of life, john Paul II called it, and one built on the other side, one built upon the shifting sands of lies, evils, and the profane one, especially opposed to authentic love. We call it the culture of death. It's, it's a turning inward selfishness.
Speaker 1:Just sex, you know, pushed on our kids and you know cares what? Yeah, I mean I won't go off on a tangent on this, but at the end of the day, uh, you know this lbgtq. Uh, you know we're fighting for freedom. They're telling little kids. Little kids don't understand what's going on. What do you mean fighting for? You know we're fighting for freedom. They're telling little kids. Little kids don't understand what's going on. What do you mean fighting for freedom? You know I mean. What freedoms don't they have, you know?
Speaker 1:And, of course, uh, it's got nothing to do with their personal freedoms, but but of taking the, the robbing, the innocence of young children is really where. You know, it's not about the individual person. We're all sinners, we all fall, we all have different addictions and crazy things that we do. We all need to be redeemed. But when you foster this, you know. If we can't foster this on our children and rob them of their innocence, it's really sad to see and something we all have to stand up. Well, anyways, it's the culture of death.
Speaker 1:What has become increasingly clear is that the battle is intensifying, while what many fail to understand is the real battle is not about left or right, black or white, but it's between our Lord and Satan. This is so important to remember. We're in a spiritual battle with forces led by Satan and they have as their primary goal the destruction of humanity, and we see this on a mass scale today. The solution to this problem of evil? St John in the first letter of John says it clearly it's the reason the Son of God appeared, and it was to destroy the works of the devil. This is scripture. This is scripture. This is scripture. Now, sometimes you think, well, it can't be true, right? I mean, can Jesus really come in to destroy the work of the evil? One Look around today and you'll start to see this, and you just have to call a spade a spade In John Paul II's final message.
Speaker 1:He would die in 2005. So this is on April 3rd 2005. He said to humanity, which at times seems to be lost and dominated by the power of evil, egotism and fear, the risen Lord offers. So I should say that to humanity, which at times seems to be lost and dominated by the power of evil, egotism and fear, the risen Lord offers as his gift his love that forgives, reconciles and reopens the spirit to hope. It is love that converts hearts and gives peace. How much need, he said, the world has to understand and accept divine mercy. Lord, with your death resurrection, you revealed the love of the Father. We believe in you and, with confidence, repeat to you today Jesus, I trust in you. Have mercy on us and on the whole world. This is the opposing power that we have to open ourselves to so that we can accept his grace and become people of love in the truth and speak the truth in love.
Speaker 1:So we arrive at this crucial question now concerning man and his destiny how are we to understand the deepest mystery of history? Is it sufficient? John Paul asked to adopt an approach to the question that remains within the limits of time and space. In other words, is it just what we see today? Is this materialism? This is all there is. He said nah, human history obviously unfolds in a horizontal dimension, within time and space. Right, this is where we're living in time and space. Yet it also has a vertical dimension. It is not only we who write our history. God writes our history with us. In what way does God write our history? An answer is given in the Bible, from the book of Genesis right up to the final pages of the last book, the Apocalypse, the book of Revelation.
Speaker 1:At the very beginning of human history, god reveals himself as the God of the promise, immediately after we fall original sin. The promise of the future plan of salvation is already contained in the curse addressed by God to the serpent After the fall. After he tempts Adam and Eve, god curses the evil spirit, the instigator of the original sin, on our first parents, but at the same time he utters words that express that first messianic promise he's gonna send his son, he says to the serpent. This is Genesis 3.15,. Right after the fall, I will put enmity between you and the woman, ultimately our blessed mother, between your offspring and hers, the weeds and the wheat that we're seeing today. He will strike your head and you will strike his heel. He will ultimately be the force right that can take you out while you're striking at his heel, you know you're there. The evil one's pushing, pushing, tempting, taking, but it doesn't have the ultimate power right. This, then, is the battle between truth and lies, good and evil, love and death, beauty and the profanity of beauty. It rages until the end of time.
Speaker 1:Yet already in Genesis, god is writing history in yet another way. God makes a promise, then to Abraham that was fulfilled. Gradually, abraham's descendants grow into a nation. Israel is God's chosen nation, to which he appointed a Messiah. The entire history of Israel in the Old Testament is a time of waiting for God to carry out that promise. It's that story, you know, leading up to what?
Speaker 1:Then, in a particular place, in a particular time, this dramatic event in God's plan of salvation takes place His son, a man born of a woman, jesus Christ Messiah, is born With power. He ushers in the opposing force that will defeat sin and death once and for all. He is that force, he is that power. He said this in John 12, verse 32, when I am lifted up from the earth this is on the cross I will draw all people to myself. It's a magnetic force, that opposing power, that's opposing evil in the world. The whole world, says St John. The whole world is under the power of the evil one.
Speaker 1:The victory which overcomes this world, this power is our faith, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcomes this world. This power is our faith, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcomes the world our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Again, this is for the first letter of John. This is chapter 5, verse 4. Who is it? It's the person that accepts Jesus Christ. Right, we have that power. We take that power within us, john again, st John, the beloved apostle of our Lord, was not only full of confidence in the promises of his heavenly master, but likewise endowed with the spirit of prophecy.
Speaker 1:He announced with so much assurance the victory of Christian faith over a world fortified against its doctrines by inveterate prejudices and ready to come forward with all means of resistance. So he claims this, just like all the prophets do, that this power is coming into a world fortified against us and against his doctrines, against Jesus Christ. Who's going to resist that power. What the apostle foretold came to pass. The faith of Christ then overcame the world. We see this in Western civilization. You know, it took a long time, a lot of battles.
Speaker 1:The doctrine of the gospel enlightened mankind. The darkness and delusions of false religions faded, the pagan religions before the resplendent light of Christianity. The church of God rose conspicuous on their ruins and has always remained in the public profession of the same faith all the way. This is the positive faith that's being handed down to us today, in the teaching of the same doctrines, in the administration of the same sacraments, in possession of the same ministry uninterruptedly derived from Christ and his apostles. This is so important, right, if you have the truth. The truth doesn't change. It comes, like I said in the first part, like Amos the prophet, I'm a shepherd and a dresser of sycamore trees. The gospel presupposes culture. It always goes in and just ripens it. It drains out the infection, the virus, and it goes in and ripens all that's true, good and beautiful in that culture already. And so this holiness comes down to us, the positive faith. It's the one holy, adorable sacrifice to the Eternal Father, which of course is the Mass and retaining its distinguishing and characteristic title of Catholic. Catholic means universal. This is given to everyone.
Speaker 1:Reading these divine words gives us the perfect awareness of what's really happening in the world, within human history. Considered in its depths, the human story is a confrontation between two forces the forces of attraction, whose source is the wounded heart of the crucified risen one on the cross, and the power of Satan, who does not want to be ousted from his kingdom. This is what you're seeing. You know, when you have this Trump derangement syndrome, you know you have this force of evil that does not want to give up power, deep state, deep church, but also in the individual human heart. So this is a meaning to all of us when we all get mad at other people, start in your own heart.
Speaker 1:The area in which this confrontation takes place is the human heart. It is human liberty, and the confrontation has two dimensions the interior dimension of the human heart and the exterior dimension, since man is not pure spirit, the human person is not solely interiority. Human interiority is expressed, then, in construction of the society in which he or she lives. The human heart starts here, then, right, we express it in art, in kindness, in the things that we do that are good in the world. We create a culture, a society that expresses these values of the human heart. That's one victory over sin in your own heart, right, and you can only do that with the power of Jesus Christ. We don't have the power to do that right. So human interiority is expressed and manifested in culture as an essential dimension of human life. As such, culture is the mode of living which is specifically human. Only human beings have cultures. You know, we're the ones that build up cultures, artworks, buildings, et cetera, et cetera, great literature. You know, the animals don't do this. So this is specifically a human task given to us by God, and then that builds up the nation.
Speaker 1:Given that man is positioned between these two opposing forces, the condition he finds himself in must necessarily give rise to these cultures the culture of truth and life or the culture of life and death. And we're free to decide. There's a voice of the faithful here that the tyrants of this present darkness, who are seeking to build the city of man, have rejected. So what's the voice? This is from the Apocalypse, the very final book of the Bible, and he who sat upon the throne said Behold, I make all things new and write this down, for these words of mine are trustworthy and true. And he said to me it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life. He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be. My son shall have this heritage and I will be his God and he shall be my son. For the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
Speaker 1:Revelations 21, verses 5-8, the second death. So when you pass from this life, you're going to enter the second death. So when you pass from this life, you're going to enter into the second death. We're called to go into eternal life, not to the second death. Be careful what you choose here in this life. Listen and you'll hear St John Paul II calling out, as he did so often, encouraging us be not afraid. Be not afraid, I'm with you to the ends of the earth. God bless you. Good to be with you. Goodbye everyone.