# 538 Maybe I'm Not Gay?

Rediscovering Identity and Authentic Love.

What if understanding your true identity could transform your life? Join Jack as shares the story of a young man named Sean. 

Explore the biblical account of Adam and Eve's fall from grace in Genesis 3 and the original Oppressor of human freedom. 

Immerse yourself in a personal and spiritual journey that highlights the transformative power of faith, forgiveness, mercy, Reconciliation, and the Eucharist. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:07

Welcome to Become who you Are podcast, a production of the John Paul II Renewal Center. I'm Jack Rigg, your host. Hey, thanks for joining me today. St Catherine of Siena said that if you become who you are, that you would literally set the world on fire. And St Athanasius, an early church father and a doctor of the church, said the son of God became man so that we might become God. You know I make a wild guess at this, but I bet you, most of us, are a bit disconnected from this divine life that these saints are pointing us to. Yet Saint John Paul II said there's an echo of the story of this divine life that we're created for, inscribed in each human heart, in your human heart, and if you put on the proper lens if I put on the proper lens we can get in touch with this echo within us in such a way that we have that aha moment. See, that's the genus of St John Paul II's theology of the body. It connects our lived experience of life to the gospel in such a way that our life takes on a whole new meaning and helps us answer those big questions that our whole culture is so confused about today meaning and helps us answer those big questions that our whole culture is so confused about today. Who am I? What's my purpose? Why were we created male and female? How do I find happiness here on earth? How do I find article that I'm writing called Maybe? I'm Not Gay, and I want to dedicate it to a young man that I met, named Sean, with the hopes that it helps some young people out there. Very confusing time for a lot of people, isn't it? Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Matthew 6, verse 33.

Speaker 1 1:54

After a presentation to teens at a local church about the beauty of God's plan for love and marriage, I looked up and I caught the eyes of a young man approaching the stage. Marriage. I looked up and I caught the eyes of a young man approaching the stage. Hello, I'm Sean, he said. I hope it's okay. Can I ask you something? Sure, sean, I replied. What's on your mind? He continued.

Speaker 1 2:14

You said during your presentation that our attractions don't define us, that love is more than a feeling and that sex is not just sex but has a profound meaning and purpose. I never heard that before and it got me thinking about something I'm confused about. You see, I met this guy at school some months back and we became friends. Since then we've been hanging out. He's a great looking guy, athletic, smart, really funny and he's really kind, compassionate too. I can't get him out of my mind. But now, after your presentation, it makes sense to me. What love is, what our sexuality is about? And I started to think maybe I'm not gay I've been anxious about this and whether I'm still welcome in the church when I'm having all these thoughts and temptations, whether I'm still welcome in the church when I'm having all these thoughts and temptations.

Speaker 1 3:11

What do you think? I replied. You know, sean, from what you shared with me. It's not clear if you're describing same-sex attractions what you're struggling with, or is it simply just a natural attraction and affection for your friend? Let me share something with you. Ever since I can remember, I've been attracted to men and the way you described your friend and I have a whole list of friends just like the one you described. What's not to be attracted to? These guys are athletic my friends right Smart, intelligent, but they're also courageous and they stand for all that's true, good and beautiful in the world, and they challenge me to be a better man, a better husband, a better father. These are attractive guys and, as you're learning today, it's an illusion, it's a lie. What's happening in the culture today? You know the culture today, sean, has taken love and reduced it down to a feeling, and then further reduced that down to sex, right, something to be sexualized, and again, as you learned today, that's a lie, it's an illusion. In fact, that could be the opposite of love. It's a self-seeking love. What the culture is doing today, a love that uses people. You know we have it all backwards today, don't we? We're supposed to use objects and love people, but what do we do? Oh, we love our screens, we love our objects, we love our things, and we're using people. It's a selfish love, and we don't really understand it sometimes. You know what I'm finding, though, as I'm speaking to young people the more the world deprives you of what's true, good and beautiful, the more earnestly you start to yearn for it. See, this vacuum of modern secularism, as John Paul II would say, actually can become a fragrant invitation to rediscover the sacred, and thus a rediscovery that will lead you to self-discovery. There's an echo of the story from the very beginning, this love story, this infinite love story inside every human heart story, inside every human heart. I said, sean, I'm going to come back to session two and I'm going to focus on your question and we're going to go further into this story and build on the first session that we have. I said, for right now there's some other young people waiting for me, but I'm going to say a prayer for you, you say a prayer for me, and we're going to enter into the second session. And so that's what I did. I had this on my mind and I'm going to say a prayer for you, you say a prayer for me, and we're going to enter into the second session. And so that's what I did. I had this on my mind and I'm going to unpack now to you that are listening to me today kind of what I went over with these young people, in the hope again that we can meet some of these young people where they're at and help them through this confusion.

Speaker 1 6:01

And you know what John Paul would say this never impose, only propose what's true, good and beautiful. And that fragrant invitation to the sacred is going to touch some hearts. It always does. Young people yearn for meaning, for beauty, for freedom In their bodies, they feel love stirring and they seek it. They want to use their freedom to find love. Yet they're led so often to a counterfeit, a lie, in today's culture, and it's sad how often their freedom leads them away from their authentic identity, away from the very meaning and purpose that we were created for is to become persons of love, self-giving love, not self-seeking and taking right Away from authentic love, then away from that authentic love that you feel in your heart that you want, and so away from God. Why? Because he is actually love and he's the source of all love. When you twist and distort and you take away God, you take away the love story. It's amazing how that happens.

Speaker 1 7:10

And so what happens young people?

Speaker 1 7:12

They get themselves into no small amount of trouble, confusion, attempting to unravel these mysteries of life and love. Don't we all do that to a certain extent? We all stumble to find answers, and I know young people are growing weary and so often of a culture that clearly manipulates them, exploits them as consumers of whatever they're selling. You know they're manipulated by professional marketers who understand their passions, your passions, better than they do themselves. Then along comes John Paul II declaring do not be afraid. Life exists, love exists for a purpose, for a meaning. Don't be dispirited by those who are disillusioned with life and have grown deaf to the deepest and most authentic desires of your hearts. Young people, you're right to be disappointed with hollow entertainment and passing fads and with aiming at too little in life. Lower the bar, ah, that's the world's job, not ours. He said to young people. You can use your freedom to find easy life, but you're going to find it to be an illusion and insulated by your own value system of subjective moral relativism that we're all swimming in today. Everything's an opinion your opinion, my opinion. You get blown around by the spirit of the age and you can never find the beauty that you seek. Isms huh, all of the isms that we know progressivism, marxism, modernism, one thing after another. Huh, they're all distorted lies.

Speaker 1 8:49

Who was standing there at the very beginning, tempted by Satan? When we go back to Genesis 3, huh, do you remember Genesis 3? We're standing at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Who's standing there? Adam and Eve, and what happens? Huh, what happens? Satan comes to them and he twists and. And Eve. And what happens? Huh, what happens? Satan comes to them and he twists and distorts. Watch what happens, right, he comes to Eve and I'm just going off the top of my head here but he tempts Eve. And Eve comes over by the tree.

Speaker 1 9:15

Huh, and what did God say? He says you have all of this creation, the whole garden is yours. Just don't eat from that one tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What is that tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Let's stop there for a second. That's saying, hey, everything was created for a meaning, for purpose. It's all yours, but I created it. You didn't create it. You're not the creator. Sometimes we need to pause and think did I create the universe? No, you came into a story and in a sense we all stand before that tree.

Speaker 1 9:48

And when there's the tree again, it's the knowledge of good and evil. He says you can take all of this, it's all yours, but you can't call evil good and good evil. You can't call a truth a lie and a lie the truth. You can't profane beauty and still call it beauty. Beauty is beauty, it's made in a certain way.

Speaker 1 10:12

Well, the tempter comes and said did God say you can't eat from the trees of the garden? And Eve says what? Again, I'm just going off the top of my mind, right, but Genesis 3. And Eve says no. God said we can eat from the tree. It's only from this one tree, the knowledge of good and evil, that we can't eat, lest you eat of it you shall die. And what did Satan say? No, you won't die, come, you can eat of it. God's hiding something from you. Ah, you can be like gods and you can call evil good and good evil. And so she's twisted right.

Speaker 1 10:48

Why did he do that? Who's standing before that tree? Eve. And then Adam is right there. Adam was there. He should have been protecting Eve. Eve, you know, stand back, come back with me. It's the tempter.

Speaker 1 11:00

But he didn't. He went along with this, didn't he? It's Adam and Eve. Why are Adam and Eve standing there? Because they were just created in the Imago Dei and the image and likeness of God. Think about this Genesis 1. So we're going to go before this tree. Adam and Eve are standing there, the Imago Dei, the image and likeness of God. Think about this If Satan wants to take out humanity, what's he going to do?

Speaker 1 11:26

He's going to attack, in the created world, the image of God in the created world. He wants to take them out. Why does he want to take them out, because they're a reflection of God in the world. That's the whole reason that God created us to be a reflection, a sacramental sign of his love in the world, to bring love into the world. Love only gets in the world through us, through our bodies, our body and the soul. And we hear that from Genesis, chapter one.

Speaker 1 11:54

God's got everything ready. Five days of creation. Right On the fifth day he draws back into himself. He's got the garden ready, it's all yours. And what does he say? Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Ooh, that's a community already. Huh, our image, our likeness. Let him have dominion over all this, the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, over all the wild animals to crawl on the ground.

Speaker 1 12:22

And God created man in his image, in the divine image. He created them, how male and female. He created them. God blessed them, saying to them be fertile, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. God is a trinity Father, son and Holy Spirit. Think about this. The Father pours his love out to the Son. The Son receives that love. It's so beautiful, profound. It comes out in the form of a person. We call that person the Holy Spirit. God draws back and he says okay, I want to bring this love story into the created world. How am I going to do it? I create it, male and female. A man, a father, offers his love to his wife. His wife receives that love, and it's so beautiful and profound. She, his wife, his wife, receives that love, and it's so beautiful and profound she becomes a mother right. What proceeds from the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. What proceeds from Adam and Eve, a man and a woman, is a child right. A sign of the unity between that man and a woman is a child, an eternal being that comes through a tiny little reflection of God's love in the world.

Speaker 1 13:27

So if Satan hates God, what's he going to try to do? He's going to try to twist and distort the imago Dei, the image and likeness of God in the world. We became like cut flowers, disconnected from the source. You can be like gods, but we walked away from God. We were already created in the image of God. This is the paradox, if we think about it. We were created in the image of God, the Imago Dei, given everything united with God, catherine of Siena would say become who you are and you'll light the world on fire. St Athanasius, an early church father, doctor of the church, said the son of God became man so that man can become like God, like we were supposed to be in the very beginning. But we became cut flowers. You know what a cut flower is? They look good for a little, while. You put them on the vase and they start to wilt.

Speaker 1 14:20

This is what happens to our humanity we're disconnected from the source of life and love. And so what happens? What happened in the very beginning? What did they put on Adam and Eve after they sinned? After they fell? They put on something. They put on loincloths, right. What did they put them on their eyes and their ears? No, they put them on their what? On their sexual body parts. Why? Why? What's wrong with that? Weren't they created good in the very beginning? Yes, they were. They still were created good. In fact, they put loincloths on because of the way we look at one another. We no longer see each other in that purity and light. So we put the loincloths on to protect us from the eyes of lust and selfishness that has entered the world, because when you're disconnected from the source of life and love, it got twisted and distorted. We see that in our sexuality. This is what Satan's attacking our sexuality.

Speaker 1 15:17

What happened right after that? They hid in the garden and it wasn't long and God says Adam, where are you? Adam, the father of all of us comes looking for us. He comes looking for Sean and Jack and everybody listening here today. Where are you? Guys? Come back out. But what did they do? They hid. They hid.

Speaker 1 15:36

You see, the brokenness, that disconnection between God, like a cut flower, and it's a disconnection between man and woman. Our very sexuality that was supposed to be an expression of infinite love is twisted and distorted. We see this in all these isms and all these labels in the alphabet L, b, g, t, q, blah, blah, blah, blah, right. It's all a twisting and distorting of the Imago Dei and it's not everybody's fault. We came into a broken world. We came into a broken world. We came into a broken and we had a stain of original sin on us, right, and even if we've been baptized and brought back into this community, we have to be efficacious, we have to live it and right, many of us don't even know what that is. But God comes after all of us Come out. But what did they do? They started the blame game already. Think about this If you think about the CRT and the schools and all these isms, right, they want to separate us, right?

Speaker 1 16:30

Critical race theory, gender theory, all of these theories, it's all based on Marxism and it's all lies. It's oppressor, oppressor. Well, here's the oppressor, oppressor right away. The oppressor is Satan, who's doing what? God is the oppressor, he says, but yet God, the Father, is coming after them again. You know, come back into the story with me. No, it's a lie, he's an oppressor. He's trying to take away your freedom, which is the opposite. He wanted to liberate your freedom of liberation. The number one liberation is liberation from sin, not from the color of somebody's skin. We're called to love people. Oh, it's the diabolical that wants to separate us all, right, and so what happens? Right is that Jesus comes into the story.

Speaker 1 17:20

God himself comes into the story, takes on a body, and what does he do with that body? He's a man born of a woman, comes in and comes right into a family and comes in and takes on a body. What does he do? In a sense, he takes on all of our humanity, reunites it with his divinity in his one body right Body, blood, soul and divinity. He then takes that all, goes up on a cross and pours that out to a sacrifice for us so that we can receive it, to receive it into us. To do what? So that we become whole once again. He breaks the hold of Satan's lies, liberates us from sin, our bondage to sin and death. He rises again and says if you die with me, you will rise with me again. This is what he says in Matthew 19.

Speaker 1 18:14

In Matthew 19, he comes back into the story and he does what. He says this the Pharisees came up to him and tested him Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? Here's this brokenness between Adam and Eve again. And he answered them. Have you not read that? He who made them from the beginning, made them male and female. And he points us back to the beginning, to Genesis. What I just said. This is the model. He said I know your brokenness. Look at the model. The model is a love story. Now, how does that relate to you, sean, or anybody here that's listening to this? Well, we see on the Sermon, on the Mount.

Speaker 1 18:53

Jesus comes in very clearly in Matthew 5, 27, 28,. And he says this you have heard it said that you should not commit adultery, you shouldn't cheat on your wife, right, your spouse. But I say to you, anyone who even looks at a woman lustfully this goes back to those loincloths again has already committed adultery with her in his heart. See, they're looking at one to use instead of somebody to love. Well, what does that got to do with same? It's all the same thing. We have to learn not to be people of lust but to be people of selflessness, to see others, no matter who they are male, female, whatever color, skin they have as people of love. This goes beyond marriage. This is called the spousal analogy. What is the spousal analogy? That I have to be a gift to everybody. But we know, even from Mother Teresa, from our priests and our religious, that never get married here. What do they do? They have spiritual children. They go out and they're filled. It's the two great commandments. It's not brain surgery, you heard it to be filled with divine life and love and then to walk into the story and to become persons of love. Sean. That's where we all have to start you story and to become persons of love, sean. That's where we all have to start.

Speaker 1 20:05

You asked me earlier whether you're welcome in the church? Yes, of course you're welcome in the church. Here's the short answer. Of course you are. You belong in the church.

Speaker 1 20:12

In fact, regardless of who you are or where you've been, or what you've experienced, or what attractions you have today, you're a beloved child of God. That's your identity. That's your number one identity, created in the image and likeness of God. We're all created in the image of God. To express this, in the likeness of God, you have to do what he does, which is become a person or be of course with him. He is a person of love. We have to become selfless people of love. That's your deepest identity.

Speaker 1 20:44

As a beloved child of God, you're invited into an intimate union and communion with God through Jesus Christ, his son. This is what we're called into. It's Jesus that will lead you to life and abundance. Go to Jesus, sean, in prayer. He knows that you're seeking answers to life's questions, aren't we all? Jesus is the only one that's going to lead you to the truth. First, to the truth of who he is, and from there to the truth of who you are, who I am. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well, you're invited into the story. It's an eternal love story and we're going someplace.

Speaker 1 21:23

Sean, I repeat what I said in my presentation Do not allow this treasure to be taken from you. Do not inscribe in your plan a life that's deformed, impoverished, falsified. Love rejoices in the truth. Seek out this truth where it can really be found. If necessary, be resolved to go against the current, the popular opinion, the propaganda slogans. They're all made to be the real oppressor. Who is Satan? Who is sin? Who is death? This is what really oppresses us. Be free, do not be afraid of the love that places clear demands on people. These demands, as you find them in the constant teaching of the church, are precisely capable of making your love a true love. I'll tell you this, Sean and anybody else listening.

Speaker 1 22:16

When I came back into the church I won't tell you the whole story because of time here but I got off my knees because we were having my wife and I were having some major problems. I had three small children. We had three small children and I got in my knees for the first time in 20 years and I said God, do you have a plan? Mine's not working out very well. And I think God smiled at me, just like he smiles at everybody, just like he did to Adam Adam. Where are you? Just like he smiles at everybody, just like he did to Adam Adam, where are you? So, god, think about the humility of God. We forget about that. We hear pride, we have pride, month Pride, this Pride that I'm so sick of pride. Pride is the number one deadly sin and Satan just tells everybody no, take this on you, be proud. Right, look at the humility of God who, after 20 years of not listening to him, I get on my knees and say God, do you have a plan? He had to smile at me and say yeah, jack, I have a plan. You haven't been listening to it very well.

Speaker 1 23:13

But I got off my knees and almost immediately I get a call from my mom from Orlando, florida, my brother Danny. I had been very, very sick. He's dying of AIDS and we had been back and forth to Florida a number of times. Almost immediately I get a phone call getting up off my knees and my mom says the hospice people said that this is Danny's last day. They're just letting him go. He's been gone for a while. He hasn't drank anything for days, he hasn't eaten anything for weeks and he's in a dying process. I know you guys were just here not too long ago, but I'm just letting you know.

Speaker 1 23:49

Well, my brothers and I I'm the oldest of five boys, the four of us got on a plane from Chicago. We got to his place in Orlando, florida, and we walked in the door and the hospice people were on my right, in his kitchen, and I heard one say oh, thank God, his brothers are here, he's still alive. And then they told us. They said don't expect anything from your brother, danny. He's basically in a coma and he's slipping pretty fast and it's going to be a little tough. His breathing's a little erratic, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 1 24:21

So we go into his room and again, I have to give you the cliff notes on this. You know, as we're speaking kind of quietly in the room, I see the tendons on my brother Danny's neck start to come up to the top and I touched his hand and I said Danny, you can hear us, can't you? His breathing stopped from this erratic breathing to a different type of, a more kind of rhythmic breathing, almost like normal. And when I touched his hand and I said that, one eye moved just a little bit and I started to speak to him and as I did, the other eye opened and he opened up and kind of freaked us all out and he tried to get up.

Speaker 1 25:01

I saw him rise to the surface from death and actually come back to the surface to meet his brothers and we helped him up just a little bit and he said let's pray. And his mouth was really dry and I said, danny, did you say let's pray? And he said pray to God. Let me just tell you this my brother is the only one of the five of us at that point. He had been sexually abused in the church. He got into drugs, drug rehab. After that, in drug rehab, he got into a homosexual lifestyle and he's dying of AIDS. At the age of 29 years old he had come back into the church. He had been receiving the sacraments. It's amazing. Let's pray. Let's pray to God.

Speaker 1 25:45

As I got onto my knees, they're all looking at me to pray and I hadn't prayed for a long time and again I got to go through the cliff notes of this because of time. In that prayer I felt the presence of God, a deep, abiding presence of God. At his memorial mass a couple days later I was up to receive the Eucharist. This is Jesus on the altar who pours himself out to us right Body, blood, soul and divinity took on my humanity, our humanity, united it in his body with God himself, puts this into his body and then he pours this out to us. This is what happens at every Catholic mass. Well, you're supposed to receive God, perfect person, with a soul, a body and a soul that's been washed up and clean, ready for the nuptial bath. It's called confession.

Speaker 1 26:39

Well, I hadn't been to confession, and as I went up to receive it though I should have never went up to receive the Eucharist, 20 years since my last confession but I went up to receive it and right as I got close to the altar, I felt that presence in the priest's hands of that Eucharist, and I knew that Christ was present. It was the same feeling, the same sensation, only even stronger, came over me than it did in my brother's room, when I felt his presence of God in my brother's room and I knew he was in the Eucharist. Now, I've told that story before, so I got to pass it up here, but I came back into the church and everything changes on that. So I tell these young people that story and I told them the full story. And then I said to them and I'm going to speak back to Sean again, sean, I propose that you meditate on this Christ had pointed back to the beginning.

Speaker 1 27:29

We just had that right, matthew. And then he pointed back to Genesis, which I just unpacked, and then he appeals to historical man, fallen man in the Sermon on the Mount, and especially what I just read from Matthew 5, 27, 28. You know, it's about lust, it's about selfishness. We've turned, we've disconnected from God and now we're just selfish human beings. He says hey, no, no, selfishness. Your heart to see, this is a battlefield of the heart between love and lust. The opposite of love is not hate, the opposite of love is using somebody. The opposite of love is lust, selfishness. This is what the whole world's on, this pride of life, right, and I'm going to decide no, no, no.

Speaker 1 28:16

We came into a story, it's a love story, it's an infinite love story, and John Paul II then would analyze this first word and the second word that's fallen and we're pulled into the story and then, finally, the third word, and that third word is essential. Third word, and that third word is essential, and I want you to open up your mind and heart to the awe and wonder what it really means to be a child of God. Because the sign of marriage and the man and the woman, it's only a sign for here, pointing to the infinite love that we're called into, to become part of God's body through Christ, into eternal union with the Trinity, the eternal exchange of love that God is. We're called into that union and communion. That's where we're all going. This marriage and this love story that we're feeling today is just a reflection of that. It's efficacious, it's real. But at the end of the day, marriage the sign once we get to heaven, the sign of heaven will fall away In marriage. Or I should say, in heaven there is no marriage and we're not married or given in marriage. That doesn't mean that it's the delete button on marriage, it's the complete button. Marriage, it's the complete button. It was always to be a sign. This is so important for young people to understand. So we got to open our mind to the awe and wonder of what it means to be a child of God. Your identity is a child of God, to be called into that story.

Speaker 1 29:49

John Paul II says this about this passage the third word. Now, in this dialogue, jesus appeals to the resurrection. Right, he dies and we die with him to rise again. And so he rises, and so he appeals to the resurrection, thereby revealing a completely new dimension to the mystery of man. The revelation of this dimension of the body, stupendous in its context and yet connected with the gospel, re-read as a whole and in depth, emerges in the dialogue of Jesus with the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection. So the Sadducees are a Jewish religious sect in those days that only believed in the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch or the Torah, and they say and because there's no resurrection of the body in there, they say there is no resurrection, right? So they come up to Jesus and they want to propose this to him. They're always trying to trick Jesus, right. And so here's Jesus, right, who takes on their humanity. He was there to rescue them. You know God, who says you know, come out of hiding. What are you hiding for? Come back into the light. This is what they do, this is what we all do. The same day, the Sadducees came up to Jesus and they say there's no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying this Teacher Moses said if a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.

Speaker 1 31:19

Now, this is actual law in in moses time, that if your brother dies, he's married, he dies, he has no children. Then it's your responsibility as a brother, if you're not married, to marry her and to raise up children for his brother. Now, there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died and having no children for his brother. Now, there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died and, having no children, left his wife to his brother, so to the second and the third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died, so she was married to every brother. They all died, and after that, the woman dies In the resurrection.

Speaker 1 31:50

Therefore, if there's a resurrection, they're trying to trick Jesus. Okay, then, which of the seven will be the wife then? For they all had her, but Jesus answered them oh, you're wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. You don't know the scriptures, the power of God, all you people that think you're so smart. Right, for in the resurrection they neither marry or are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. Like the angels in heaven. See the angels in heaven. Not that the angels see. The angels don't have a body, they're pure spirit. We're not. We're a body and a spirit. But what he meant by that is the angels don't marry the angels. In fact, it's one of the reasons they say that Satan was so jealous of us, because, as created beings, we're actually creating infinite beings for God. We're bringing new life, our children and our grandchildren into the world that are going to be with us forever. But angels are just. They don't get married or marry. So how many angels God created? That's how many angels there are, unlike mankind, who can go out in the Imago Dei and bring new life into the world? We have the power to do that, and so that's what he means In the resurrection they don't marry or give in a marriage, but they're like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God? I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He's not the God of the dead, but a God of the living. And when the crowd heard it that were listening, they were astounded at his teaching Matthew 22, verses 23 to 33.

Speaker 1 33:36

Sean, this gospel is jam-packed. Let's begin by reflecting on two points. First, jesus is teaching that marriage will be brought to its ultimate fulfillment in the marriage of the Lamb. Go read Revelation, chapter 19. It's amazing From the beginning, the great mystery of spousal union was given to us to anticipate and prepare for the great mystery of eternal union with Christ. When all the smoke and fog clears, our desire to marry and be in relationship points directly to the Eucharist and God's desire to become one flesh with us. Most of the sexual confusion and the addiction in the world are the result of aiming our desires for infinite union at finite things. We live like cut flowers, disconnected from the source. I propose, then, that you begin by aiming your infinite desires for heaven at heaven. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be yours as well. Second, have faith in the power of God.

Speaker 1 34:41

Jesus didn't come to manage our sins. We're all sinners. He came with power not only to forgive sins, but to transform hearts and provide the necessary grace to transcend fallen nature. This is what I learned when I came off my knees that day. After being absent for 20 years, he brought me back into the story. That's when the battle really began, the battlefield of the heart between love and lust, that period afterwards. I've talked about this before and I'm not going to talk about it right now because I want to finish up here for you. But that's when the battle really starts. When you come back into the story you're going to be tempted, but now I have the grace of Christ right.

Speaker 1 35:22

So be weary of modern-day Sadducees in the church too, who will lie to you, who lack both an understanding of Scripture and faith in the power of God. How many parishes, how many some Catholic too, but certainly many of the mainstream Protestant churches have been welcoming all these ideologies into the church? They've fallen for the lie. They are more than happy, these pastors, to invite people into their church, only to lead them in their brokenness. But Jesus answered them. You are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. Jesus, think about Jesus. Every time he healed somebody, what did he say? I'm going to heal you Now, go and sin no more. So this was an outward healing, but really what we're getting at is the soul. He's healing the soul, but then he says now that I've healed, you, go and sin no more. What do these Sadducees and these present-day apostates in the church, some of these pastors again, some Catholic, some not Catholic what do they do? They invite you into the church and they come in and they lie to you and they leave you in your brokenness. God would never do that. He wants to bring you into eternal union with him. When we open our infinite desires to the infinite one, we'll find what we're looking for.

Speaker 1 36:49

Of fundamental importance, here are the words of the letter to Ephesians Husbands love your—this is Ephesians, chapter 5. Husbands love your wives. How, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. For this reason, he said a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This is a mystery and it's a profound one, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. It's Jesus Christ who left his heavenly Father and his earthly mother to become one flesh with us. Jesus Christ entered history, remains in it as the bridegroom who has given himself To give means to become a sincere gift of self in the most radical way. Greater love has no man than this. Jesus said, to give up his life for his friends. We're his friends. He gave up his life for me, for you, not to manage our sins, but real power. This is the power of a love story.

Speaker 1 37:52

According to this conception, all human beings, both men and women, are called through the church to be the bride of Christ, the redeemer of the world. In this way, being the bride, and thus the feminine element, becomes a symbol of all that is human. According to the words of St Paul, there is neither male nor female, he says, for you are all one in Jesus Christ. He said that in Galatians. In other words, of course we're created male and female, but in God's eyes we're all his beloved sons and daughters. There's no distinction between us. We're all equal. Yes, we have different roles. St Paul would say that the body needs eyes, it needs arms. Blah, blah, blah. A man and a woman are complementary right. Let's say that the body needs eyes, it needs arms. Blah, blah, blah. A man and a woman are complementary right.

Speaker 1 38:43

We are created to do this beautiful dance in the image and likeness of God, where the two become one, become three, open right, a reflection of Trinitarian love. But at the end of the day, he's saying what he says to become a sincere gift of self to everybody. It's the two great commandments. Again, it's not brain surgery. Be filled with Christ's love, be brought into that eternal love story today. See, eternity doesn't mean tomorrow. Eternity means forever. We're all eternal beings already. Sean, me, you, everybody. We're all called to be in union and communion with God.

Speaker 1 39:17

The feminine means this Jesus is on the cross, the bridegroom who pours himself out to the bride. Well, the bride is the church. That's the symbol of the church. We are all feminine in that way, in that feminine posture of openness, right To be impregnated with God. We're all kneeling with our blessed mother at the foot of the cross. As Jesus is dying, he looks down and he says what I thirst, I thirst, and then, up at heaven, I thirst for them, I thirst for all of you. Right, this is my thirst to bring you into this eternal story. And then he looks up to the Father and he says it's finished, it's consummated. What did he do? Christ is the bridegroom who loved us first.

Speaker 1 40:02

St John opens his gospel this way in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. That was which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands. This is the story that we're being called into Jesus, the eternal bridegroom who pours out his love for his bride, Sean. Go to him. Go to the foot of the cross. Easy three-part solution right Before you look at that phone in the morning, get down on your knees and be here with our blessed mother. Phone in the morning. Get down on your knees and be here with our blessed mother who, in the annunciation, said what Be it done to me according to your word. And this is what you do. Before you look at that phone in the morning, go to the knees. Let it be done to me according to your word. Come into the story, open up your heart to the one that will give you the power and it's the power of love to change your heart.

Speaker 1 40:57

Number two you'll know temptations are going to come. So this time you're standing at that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan is tempting you. This time we're going to use those temptations as an invitation to prayer. That means every time you're tempted, you're going to open up your temptation as an invitation to prayer. That means every time you're tempted, you're going to open up your temptation. It is an invitation to prayer. You can be tempted a hundred times, a thousand times a day, which means you're going to be praying all day long, my friend, and opening that up. And every time you say let it be done to me, my heart is an open book to you, lord, let it be done according to your word, right? No more lust, no more selfishness. But you've got to help me, lord. This is going to be a battle. It's going to take time. It might even take a lifetime.

Speaker 1 41:41

Number three turn and become a person of love. Love the next person. You see. You do those three things. It's going to change your life, right?

Speaker 1 41:51

And before you go to the Eucharist, before you go to a mass, a Catholic mass, make sure you've gone to confession, make sure you've taken the nuptial bath. Because what happens, I'll leave you with this when Christ got hit with that lance in his heart as he's hanging on the cross, what came out? Blood and water. It's this picture back here. It's the picture of the divine mercy from Sister Faustina had that painted. This is the rays coming out is the water and the blood. Well, the water is what. It's a nuptial bath, it's our baptism and then confession after that right. It's the same thing, it's the washing right Baptism you only do once you come back into the story. It washes away original sin. But as we sin, as we come back in, we have that threefold concupiscence. We have confession, so we take the nuptial bath, we get washed and then the red is what? The Eucharist, it's Christ's blood, it's his body and blood being poured out to us on that altar at the mass, before you receive that which we're invited to do, to become one flesh with God.

Speaker 1 42:56

When all the smoke and fog clears, your intense, burning, yearning desire to love and be loved in sexual union with a person points directly at the Eucharist as a sign. Right, god is not a sexual being. He created our sexuality in this beautiful sacramental sign to be a reflection of Trinitarian love. That's what Adam and Eve were there in the very beginning. As that sign that Satan twisted and distorted and that brokenness has been coming down to us all the time. Instead of hiding, we're now exposing ourselves and then we take the nuptial bath and receive God into ourselves. And then we take the nuptial bath and we receive God into ourselves, christ who took our body and his divinity, and he pours that out to us, we receive, that we become united again. That cut flower is no more cut flower. The branch is back on the vine.