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
#589 Claymore! Youth Is a Special Treasure! A Key is Discovering Ero's As a Path to Truth!
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Unlock the secrets to living a life enriched with truth, beauty, and integrity as we navigate the modern culture in our Valentine's Day edition of "Claymore Milites Christi": Soldiers for Christ.
This episode addresses the pressing issues of our time, such as the impact of Donald Trump's appointments on family and national values, and the ongoing battle against a "culture of death." We spotlight leaders like Christine Noem, Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel and Robert Kennedy, who champion God, family and Country, encouraging us to rise above the society's obsession with lust and power.
Uncover the profound power of Eros as a conduit to Truth, informed by ancient philosophies and spiritual formation. We take a critical look at political corruption, questioning the wealth accumulation of so-called Political Leaders. This is a call to reflect on the disparities and the responsibilities we hold in shaping a culture of life and integrity.
In a world that distorts love and sexuality, this episode sheds light on the invaluable treasure that is youth. Drawing from the teachings of John Paul II and the Gospels, we explore the concept of eros, urging Gen Z to channel their passions and desires through a spiritual lens. We delve into the challenges they face, from societal pressures to the search for genuine relationship.
Join Claymore and Gen Z as they set out on the path to find a life of love, selflessness, and moral courage, embracing their universal call to holiness.
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Welcome to the Become who you Are podcast. The production of the John Paul II Renewal Center. I'm Jack Riggert, your host. This is our Friday episode for Claymore Miletus Christi. Soldiers for Christ. This is Valentine's Day. I'm just getting going here getting ready to record this for you, and I'm excited. I'm excited it's not only because it's Valentine's Day. I'm excited to be with you. I'm excited for so many things. I've got a lot of presentations this weekend. Excited about that, mostly in the Chicagoland area. It's a little cold. Got the extra clothes on this morning here. I hope you're doing okay.
Speaker 1:I recorded a couple extra supplement podcasts this week for you, and I'll get to those in a minute, but first I want to talk about something that's very good for all of us, but if I was a young person today and that's what we're going to be speaking about in before I I'm going to, I got so much I want to talk about. Let's start with Trump's picks. This is what got me jazzed. To start today, trump has got some incredible people coming in. I mean, when you start, look, we're not perfect. Nobody's perfect. Pray for these guys, pray for ourselves that we can follow. If I was a young person, though, are you listening to this? Follow us on X. Follow us on X it's in the show notes and hit follow and send me a text or something or an email when you do, because I'm going to start putting more things up just for you guys, and I have already. If you look there now, I don't always say Gen Z on it, but a lot of times I'm putting Gen Z just to kind of give you an idea. Or Claymore, I'll put in there too once in a while, because they're important things to see what's going on. People are waking up and that's what you guys did when you guys came out and voted for Trump, and even if you didn't, that's okay. And actually I got the Trump hat back there. That's red for Valentine's Day. If anybody asks, I'm not being political, it's Valentine's Day, so I picked the red hat. What he's doing for young people is amazing.
Speaker 1:Just putting what Honest people in there, people that love God, watch this. This is what happens, right, it's not again that we're perfect. We're all in this battle. That's why Claymore, that's why the sword right. We are in a battle. We know this Every day. We wake up in a battle. That's why, in part of your spiritual formation, before you look at that phone, you drop to your knees and you pray, right. That's why we do that, because we know we're in a battle and right away, boom God, I'm in the battle, we're going to go. When you see the other side, you know. So here's what it is.
Speaker 1:At the end, it's the culture of life, everything that's and this is our whole model for Claymore life, liberty, freedom, and the first freedom is what Freedom from sin right, and then we become persons of love, we pursue love. So life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in our founding documents, right, but we have pursuit of happiness. You have to know what love is. So all I did is substitute that life, liberty and the pursuit of love, which you're going to find happiness if you become an authentic person of love, and so that's what we're stepping in. So all of these people I'm just setting this up to say they're not all perfect, it's not like they're not going to make mistakes, but they care about God. So this is going to be in their heart already they care about a family, marriage, family, not that they're not divorced or they haven't had problems, we know all that stuff, we're all battling that, but they have a vision, a model, and then they love the country and they want to serve the country and they have already have served the country and they're not stealing from us. This is the big deal. They're not stealing. So the other side, so we have the culture of life. John Paul II would call it the culture of life, which is again life, liberty, the pursuit of love, understanding to be a gift to people. You don't destroy babies, you don't. You know trans kids and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right, you bring life into the world and in order to do that, you have to be free, and be free Again, the first thing is from sin, and so that's what these people are doing. So Trump's picks.
Speaker 1:Let me put my glasses on here. I just woke up, I got my coffee here. I might grab a coffee if it's early for you. Of course, by the time I get this thing out, this video out, it won't be so early, but anyways, christine Noem, right, I mean amazing. Robert Kennedy just got confirmed.
Speaker 1:Robert Kennedy is going to do more to expose the things that are taking our health away from us the food we eat, even if we think we're eating healthy and we're exercising, and all these different things. There's things being put in our food. That's not. It's this death cult again. This death cult is this broad highway these people live on. It's all about, again, this death cult is this broad highway these people live on. It's all about I call it the 3S highway to nowhere, this broad highway that Jesus talked about.
Speaker 1:And it's all about lust, first of all. It's lust. It's just lust. I worry about just myself. It's all about sex and taking and taking and taking. You see the porn and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah that they got you guys hooked on and they're always trying to shove in your faces, right. And then it's all about state. It's all about the power, power control, money, sex, whatever.
Speaker 1:And even these young congressmen are coming in on the other side in this cult of death. They don't care, they just get into power after one or two years of being in power. I'll post a couple of these things on X in the next couple of days. Some of these young congressmen that I find in this death cult supporting you can always tell, because they support abortion, transgender ideologies, anything you can to destroy the human person and actually kill them and destroy them, and so these are baseline things. And, anyways, they're multimillionaires, and so these are baseline things and, anyways, they're multimillionaires.
Speaker 1:This one young I was going to say minority person she was a young black woman, but it could be white, it could be whatever. She just happens to be against Trump and Elon and saying all these things. Well, they exposed her the next day. She's making $175,000 a year. She's been a congressperson for just a couple of years at the most, and she's got $9 million in the bank. So you go from poor to have not what you know who, it somebody's being bought off. Well, this is at your expense. This is a young person, probably gen z person, older gen z or maybe a early you know later millennial, but just a little older than than probably most of you guys, right and and already just stealing from you. You could spend a lifetime of stealing, and that's what a lot of these people are doing. That's why they're pushing back on Trump so much. So just watch for this.
Speaker 1:Pete Hegseth in defense, tom Holman on the border. What we're seeing on the border is crazy Rape. I've been doing this for a long time, talking about the border crisis and again, we love immigrants, we're a country of immigrants, but when you see what they're doing to people down there. Well, I talked about that a lot so I won't do it right now. Kash Patel he's got to get in. Hopefully that confirmation comes. That's the one I got my eye on now. Everybody else there's still good ones coming up, but that's the big one right there. Sean Duffy, transportation CIA director. John Radcliffe, patel's FBI.
Speaker 1:They're going to turn these that have been weaponized against us and against other countries, taking down other countries. Disgusting stuff. Money, money, power, power. You've heard me talk about all the waste, the amount of waste. If you're listening to it, pay attention to that. $50 million for condoms to Gaza. New York City is housing all those illegals. Stick it in Trump's face and in the face of all of us. $80 million we just got back, clawed back Christine Noem did from them and they're all up in arms. Well, they used that money for housing illegal aliens, including Trendy Aragua. That's that notorious Venezuela gang. That was their base of operations in a luxury hotel that we're paying for. It was used to house Lake and Riley's killer.
Speaker 1:You can't make this stuff up. This is really a battle. That sword is really really a battle. So what's the difference here? It's really hard to get your mind around unless you see, really, this is a battle between our lord and satan. It's. It's a battle between good and evil, between truth and lies, between all that's beautiful and all the profanes and twists and distorts beauty. When you start to see the world like that, you see what the battle goes on in your heart. The you know it. Joe biden, as bad as he, corrupt as he was in his family, and all these senators, you know, mitch McConnell's of the world, and these guys are just, you can just see they're dying, they're getting old, but they're just so. They've been at this for so long. It's like they lost their soul.
Speaker 1:We have to keep them in our prayers. Our job, again, is not to hate, we have to become persons of love. That's a very freeing thing. I again is not to hate, we have to become persons of love. That's a very freeing thing. I don't have to hate any of these, I don't have to like them. I don't have to like them and we have to expose them. And that's very, very difficult not to get wrapped up in it emotionally.
Speaker 1:And Jesus says you know, you got to pray for your enemies In a way, that's what he does, doesn't he? You know he's hanging on the cross for all of us and he wants everybody to be brought into the world. Right, okay, I better move on here. I just want to point that out. These are very, very exciting times to get rid of waste and corruption. Elon Musk, I can't believe it. Keep him in your prayers. I can't believe that. He has nothing to gain here, except that he wants to do what's true, good and beautiful, and he's not a perfect person. I've talked about him many times.
Speaker 1:In fact, I recorded two supplemental videos this week. You should really watch them first. The first one is to help you go in the spiritual formation. So, first thing, you're going to get on your knees. You can read it. You know you've got the plan, huh. Print this out. It's in the show notes. Again, go to our website JP the number two. Jp for John Paul the number two, reneworg. Go to resources. You'll see the Claymore Sword in red. Bang, hit it. Download this battle plan. Everything's in the battle plan right here Claymore, miletus Christi Discipleship for Men, produced by the John Paul II Renewal Center and where John Paul says there do not stay on the surface, but go to the heart of things and, when the time is right, have the courage to decide.
Speaker 1:This is what we're talking about. Are you going to be a culture of death and the death cult would be even easier to say or the culture of life, defending life, liberty and the pursuit of authentic love? Right, and so that first video that I did, I called Claymore Supplement Video. That's helping you go deeper. Then to the next level, which is Lectio Divina, reading scripture every day, what it is, how it is, and sit in that scripture. It's beautiful.
Speaker 1:The next thing is I did one called the Gift of Self. The Gift of Self is really, when I talk to young couples, a lot unpacking the vision. So we need a model, don't we A vision? So I'm just laying the floor out here. What does that mean like? What does that look like, this model of love between a man and a woman, and how does it come? It comes right from the very beginning of the Bible. So watch that a little bit. I think that'll be good for you. And so we get to today.
Speaker 1:So today we're talking about this rocket fuel of Eros. Huh, and that's number one. Eros is a path to the truth. So when you think of Eros in the ancients talked about this Socrates, aristotle, plato, but they said this. They said Eros is the sensual desire. Right, you see a woman, you see a guy, you know this. Boom, boom, boom, right, but it's more than that. It's wider than that, because it's it's everything that moves you into the true, the good and the beautiful. It's like a rocket that just launches the human heart. You know, in this power, and if you lift it up, it meets divine grace and it brings what's true, good and beautiful into your heart and into the world. So that's why spiritual formation, to open up to this arrow and let God untwist and distort those passions and desires, not kill them, not indulge them, but open them up to make the world a better place.
Speaker 1:This is what Trump's picks. But we're there. We have to be there. This is not enough just to have a good handful of people trying to recreate a culture, and that's what they're doing. See, they're taking a culture. That's just money and corruption, and that's why everybody's complaining, because they're taking their money. These people are just filling up their bank accounts with our money. It's disgusting. It's disgusting what they're doing, but they're so used to it, they're so into it, or you got to go the other way. Can you imagine how good you have to be when you could be a multi-multi-millionaire like Nancy Pelosi and all of these people that are just sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars on a government salary. It's disgusting what they've done and nobody's been questioning it until now. Now we're asking them you're complaining about Trump and Elon and all this stuff How'd you get $9 million in the bank to this young girl that I was just describing after being in Congress for a couple of years at $175,000. It's just impossible. It doesn't add up. They're finally asking these questions and and we all knew they were there but you have to have honest people there because they all cover for each other.
Speaker 1:And you know Bernie Sanders of the world, I mean the most hypocritical guy, and again, it's not a hateful thing, it's just a true thing. Listen to this guy. Young people like them because he's a socialist. You know he sounds good. Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, blah, blah, blah. And then he was against Kennedy. And then you know what did Kennedy say to him? You know, here, let me just you know Kennedy, during his Kennedy's Republican leadership, was after vaccine skepticism because he said hey, you know, some of these vaccines probably aren't good for us. He's open to whether they're good or not. He's not an anti-vaxxer.
Speaker 1:But then you get these hearings and you get these Bernie Sanders coming after him spewing vitriol I mean, you could see it in these guys' eyes and then you know what he said. He says you know what? When I get in there, I want to implement Trump's policies, but I'm not afraid to call out corruption here. So during his hearing you had Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren right that told everybody she was an Indian and I mean, these people are crazy. And he pointed out to them in the hearing that they were given millions of dollars, not hundreds of dollars, not thousands. Millions of dollars a year, right, millions of dollars, and over a handful of years. I think. Bernie Sanders got $2 million, elizabeth Warren almost $2 million just from the pharma companies. So when they push back against somebody like Kennedy, they're getting paid to push back. They're not doing it for ourselves. And then you find out Bernie Sanders is a millionaire, he's got like three houses he lives in, you know, and et cetera, and he's getting paid by the pharma companies and you just go. You can't make this stuff up.
Speaker 1:So let's get into the story today. So we're going to talk about youth as a young people. It's a special treasure, gen Z, that you know. You hear young people are told hey, go out and sow your oats and do whatever you want to do, and then you can grow up. No, this is a base Youth. Your youth is a treasure.
Speaker 1:To say what is true, good and beautiful. What do I desire? Get in touch with my own hearts. What should I do in the world? Right? Who am I? What's the meaning and purpose of my life? Isn't that what you want to know? No, we don't want to waste it, so we're going to talk about that.
Speaker 1:This comes right from John Paul's teaching, and then I add all kinds of stories and different things, because I meditate on those words of John Paul's and he takes it from the Gospels. And it's so beautiful because the second thing is this eros, this great desire, so important when I learn this and I want to share it with you that we're not supposed to stuff our passions and desires down. When you indulge them, you're enslaving yourself, hurting other people. But there's another way, right, to open those. That's when you can get crazy, right, when you open up your passions and desires to Jesus Christ and then you do just small things. You and I do small things in the world and you know what? Let God. He can multiply that and he will. So you have this gospel story. I'll remind you again.
Speaker 1:It comes to a rich young man and John Paul says it's not just that he's rich with possessions. Even though he is in this gospel story, john Paul points out, he goes the gospels are being passed down to all of us. So what are we supposed to get out of that? And John Paul says very clear to him that, because of the questions that he's asking Jesus and the way Jesus is answering, that youth itself is that treasure. Youth is that treasure that he's talking about. So, and behold, one came up to him and he doesn't say a name in here because it's being passed down to all of us, right? One came up to him saying teacher. So this young guy is coming up to Jesus. It could be all of us, right? In fact, let's assume that it is all of us.
Speaker 1:So we're asking Jesus, jesus, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? And Jesus said to him why do you ask me about what is good? One, there is only one, there is, that's good. And what's Jesus saying? Somehow, you came to me, you could sense that I'm here and I know something. So you're asking me those questions. Why are you asking me about the good? Because only God is good. But he is standing there asking Jesus. Jesus, subtly, is pointing out, actually, if you think about it, that he is God, because this young person felt like coming. Isn't that when we turn our hearts to God, we're looking for the good? Only God is good. Jesus, give me that goodness. Huh, take my heart and give me the goodness.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, if you would enter life, jesus says keep the commandments. And he said to him which ones? And Jesus said you shall not kill. See, again, this is the culture of life versus the death cult that these Democrats, you can't believe what they're doing with abortion and these trans and these kids and destroying their lives and the food production and the vaccines, like the COVID vaccines that destroyed so many people, and so you go on, and again, they didn't care.
Speaker 1:See, it's not that we make mistakes when we're young. I know lots of people that had abortions. I work with them all the time, but at some point you have to realize, ooh, something's wrong here, and then we open our hearts up to God. So it's not like we're perfect, but anyways, jesus says you should not kill, you shouldn't commit adultery, you shouldn't steal. Mr and Mrs Politician, you should not steal. See, you can see how many. You know. They go off into this death cult. So they're for abortion, trans and kids and they're stealing. They're doing all of it because they, you know, their hearts have become hardened.
Speaker 1:You can just see how, far off the rails, you shall not bear false witness. That's what I just said about Bernie Sanders, elizabeth Warren, they're getting paid to do this. So all of these things, honor your father and mother and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Just love your neighbor. That means go when you're in Congress, do the right thing. Well, that's for all of us.
Speaker 1:Again, and this is this young guy doing, I just want to point out, when you go off the rails and you get governed by people that are off the rails, how lucky we are that Trump put those people in. Now we have to from the grassroots. We have to join this battle. It's not enough. See, god's given us a window of opportunity here, so don't waste your youth.
Speaker 1:The young man said all these. I have observed. What still do I lack? I'm trying to do these things. He's trying to be good, right. What else do I lack? Jesus said to him if you want to be perfect and that's what we should be seeking, right, we should be seeking this universal call to holiness. Are we far from it? Yeah, join the crowd. I know this feeling, but this is the battle. This is the Claymore battle.
Speaker 1:Jesus said if you'd be perfect, go sell what you possess and give to the poor. Forget about all that money, the power, the lust. That's what Jesus is saying to this young guy, because he could see ahead of time. If he cares about these possessions, if that's really his treasure, not his youth alone, not doing the right thing, he could become this next politician and by the time he's in the middle life and stuff, he's got all these millions of dollars. He screwed up his life and you could see, you know, when you let Satan and evil into your heart.
Speaker 1:These are old people again, some of them Bernie Sanders, spewing this, this vitriol of Joe Biden, elizabeth Warren you know one after another. Mitch McConnell. You know these guys, they're not far from the grave and they cannot turn their lives around. They've been just overtaken, overtaken, overtaken. You know, once you breathe out the Holy Spirit. That's that sin that can't be forgiven, because I've really turned my back and turned my back on the power that God gave me. You know Jesus on the cross, you know, is redeeming us, he's saving us, and if you don't, if you turn around, then good luck, right, this is what happens.
Speaker 1:Just, I bring all this up and I'm being a little redundant here, but I just want you to see that this is practical stuff. What we're talking about is not some pie in the sky thing, it's very practical. And he says so go, sell what you possess, give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. Come, follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away, sorrowful, for he had many great possessions. This is the problem with these politicians, right? They walk away because they had many great possessions and they're not going to give them up after a while. I'm going to grab my coffee here and then we're going to get into today's really talk from John Paul II again.
Speaker 1:This youth is a special treasure, this eros, this power. So grab a coffee, if you haven't already, if you're listening to this at night, grab a glass of wine or a beer, and this is going to build on everything that I was talking about today. So the young man goes away sorrowful, for he had many great possessions. So there is no doubt that this expression refers to the material possessions with the young man was the owner of. Perhaps this is the situation of some John Paul said this, but it's not typical. We're not all rich going to Jesus, that's for sure, and therefore the evangelist's words written, that was by Matthew, would suggest another way of putting this matter.
Speaker 1:It is a question of the fact that youth itself, independent of any material goods, is the special treasure of man, men and women. Right, that youth itself was given to us as a special treasure and most often it's lived by young us as a special treasure, and most often it's lived by young people as a special treasure. That's what we're calling them into. I say most often, john Paul said, but not always, because invariably, for in the world there is no lack of people who, for various reasons, do not experience youth as a treasure. So we think about these kids that are.
Speaker 1:Look at the surrogate kids now. You know, two men can adopt. They buy a baby from a woman who just think about that poor little child, right, gets taken from its mother right away, right away, and given to these two guys your whole life. You're wondering where's my mom? We all have to have a mom and a dad. I mean, human beings aren't born without them. And you can see just this. I better not go off there right now, you know, but watch what's happening. See, it's very easy to say, you know, two men should get married, marriage is meaningless or whatever, but nobody cares about the child. The child is like some kind of trophy right. Or these two men are trying to fulfill this plan of God for marriage and the family, but they're trying to do it without the actual model. So they take a fake model and they're trying to live this out. Look at again. My heart goes out to them.
Speaker 1:They might have been sexually abused. I had a brother that was sexually abused that you guys probably heard me tell that story and in that being sexually abused he got into a gay lifestyle. So I know all this stuff and I never stopped loving my brother, but he ultimately died from this lifestyle and stuff and he never found what he was looking for until he came back into the church. He came back into the church and he brought me back into the church. So it's amazing what can happen, but you got to walk in the truth and it's difficult in this toxic environment, so I'm going to get to that too.
Speaker 1:So there are, however, reasons and there are objective reasons for thinking of youth as a special treasure that a person experiences at a particular period of his life, which you guys are now. It's a period which is certainly distinguished from the period of childhood that you're coming out of, and yet you're still on the path right, still building, building, building. Now, some of you might be married already, some of you have important jobs already, but we're still building a base here and you'll be building that base and continue to add on it for a long time. But anyways, for the period of youth it's a time of particular intense discovery of who I am, what's the meaning and purpose of life. It's reflecting, because that inner gaze of the developing person men or women there is gradually and successively revealed, that specific and, in a sense, unique and unrepeatable potentiality of a concrete person. So you're unique, unrepeatable. Nobody liked Jack, nobody liked you. But we have to take that unique and unrepeatable thing and now we have to live it out. Remember what I talked about before, a body and a soul. Now you're filled with grace. God gives you the potential for human flourishing, the potential for human freedom. But now I have to go out, find out what that is and make it a concrete reality in my life, in other words, become a person of life. That's called self-fulfillment. When I fulfill myself, I understand who I am, what my meaning and purpose is, I connect with God with grace, and then I follow him into the rest of the story and I listen, praying, listen, and I follow this path. Right. It's an adventure, it's awesome.
Speaker 1:The question naturally deserves an explanation from many points of view, but to express it in a few words, one can say that the treasure which youth reveals itself in precisely this shape or form so it's the youth itself is that treasure your time? Is that treasure your time to discover? You know there'll be periods of time. If you get wrapped up in different things, you won't have time to discover new things. Sometimes I mean it's always a process of discovering, so maybe I worded that wrong, but you'll get caught up in all kinds of things. This is the time, right now, to take the time to sit back and say okay, who am I, what's my purpose and to follow God into this. Now, this won't stop if you got married and families and stuff. It continues. It continues. But you have these decisions to make, right, and these decisions are of considerable social importance too.
Speaker 1:The young man in the gospel was precisely in this place. We can deduce from the questions he asked in his conversation with Jesus. Therefore, also the final words about great possessions, meaning wealth, can be understood precisely in this sense. The treasure, the wealth, is his youth itself. If he would have given himself over to, to jesus, I mean his whole life would have changed a time. To find your path, of which there are found fundamentally two paths the broad highway of the world that I already brought up, or the culture of life, the narrow gate. You go through the narrow gate, you look up at jesus on a crucifix that's right through his heart. The narrow gate when, when the branch and the vine come together, you're either building the city of man, god out, we'll build this city, we'll take care of this right or you're building the city of God.
Speaker 1:And there John Paul would challenge you. He says dear young men, young women too, again, pay attention, your life is not an endless series of open doors. Listen to your heart. Do not stay on the surface, but go to the heart of things. This is Valentine's Day. Go to the heart of things, your heart, and also the heart of the message, the heart of life itself. And when the time is right and you start to understand this and you partner to put together and you'll be getting on your knees and you're reading scripture, you go into mass and your heart's opening up, decide for Jesus Christ. You don't have to know everything, you just want to search for the true, the good and the beautiful. You might as well take the person who is good, who is the truth. Truth is not a something, truth is a somebody, and his name is Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Young people are often attracted and enticed by the world, john Paul said, and its material goods and promises. Right, find themselves then, by default, living on this broad road that I just described. Yet many are anxious, unfulfilled and seeking something more. They're seeking the truth, seeking answers to timeless questions. And how often do they encounter even shepherds in the church that should be helping you guys, more educators that should be helping you in schools, even family members and church scholars who are no different than the world. Right, they go to church. They say they're this. They say they're that the Bernie Sanders of the world, the Joe Bidens that calls himself a Catholic. You know, they're just hypocrites and they go into the world and they model something for you. What do they model right? And this is the world that you came into.
Speaker 1:This is again why I'm getting excited about, so excited about Donald Trump's cabinet picks, because these people will model integrity, honesty, love of God, again, family and the country itself, and this is all connected together. Huh, we've been lucky enough to live in the United States of America. So they're seeking what? Are you seeking the truth, seeking answers to those timeless questions, and there's an injustice done to you guys, and our Lord's going to judge all of us, the generations that came before you, very harshly for not sending this message. Giving this message to you, in other words, protecting your hearts before the culture could steal your innocence, obliterate your moral imaginations and asking those big questions again 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 love that satisfies forever? Well, I have to go into infinite love and then I have to become that person of love in the world.
Speaker 1:So I led a small team from the John Paul II Renewal Center to the church next door to our Catholic high school just in time for morning mass. We were there to present an all-day retreat, and we filed in just behind the sophomore class that we were going to be meeting that day, who we'd spend the next eight hours with. We were there to share John Paul II's beautiful biblical vision of love. As I looked over the students that were all in front of me at mass here, they seemed bigger and older than 16 years old. I prayed for them and our team sensed God's presence there and I knew that he wanted us to reach their hearts. After Mass, walking downstairs to the conference room where this retreat was going to be held, one of the teachers said good luck with this class. There are going to be a handful. Many of them are not here for a Catholic education, but because the school was known to recruit the best athletes from the whole area basketball, football athletes were coming, and the college talent scouts know this and the students are heavily recruited from the school I smiled. Well, that may be true, but God is passionate too, and I know that he's out recruiting his team. That's you guys.
Speaker 1:The morning session had gone well, the first of four and I led 15 boys down the hallway to our small group breakout room. I opened up. I asked them if they had one memory in high school that stood out thus far. We continued going around the room until everyone had a chance to answer. Then, before I could turn the subject back to the material we were presenting in the morning, the boys wanted to know if I had a memory that stood out from my high school days. That's easy. I said it was my junior year, the first day of the school year, and ten minutes before the opening bell we were in the hallway and I was surrounded by my teammates on the football team. All of us were of high energy, talking, laughing, excited about the new year and our upcoming game, the season opener that we had practiced all summer for.
Speaker 1:And then it happened. I glanced up and there she was, walking down the hallway, down the corridor, in my direction, in our direction. The way she walked different somehow. Her long, black, wavy hair, a glow, an energy, something about her that made her stood out like a light between the two other girls she was walking with. It was like ooh, there was like a light beam just on her. I mean, can you imagine I could still remember this Time stood still, who was she? I could still remember this Time, stood still, who was she? I could no longer hear the guys. In a sea of bodies, I saw only one body and my heart boom, boom, boom started to pound. She was so beautiful. What is this mysterious force of attraction that's so beautiful that today, so many years later, I still have that scene not only etched vividly in my memory, but also in my heart.
Speaker 1:The Greek philosopher Plato called it eros a force that somehow imposes itself on human beings as a kind of intoxication, the overpowering of reason by divine madness, which tears man away from his finite existence and enables him, in the very presence of being overwhelmed by divine power, to experience supreme happiness. This is so important. This power, this beauty, if I understood this properly at that time, it's a divine power. Properly at that time, it's a divine power. It's the raw material for, potentially, to find love, to see another person, but just see the beauty of another person. This is the divine intoxication given to us by God, who loves us. That way we're modeling this. If you listen to Gift of Self. That earlier podcast I did this week it'll give you a little taste of this self. That earlier podcast I did this week it'll give you a little taste of this. But this is this divine power, this overwhelming divine madness. You've experienced it. I'm sure you see the girl. The girl sees the boy. Hey, ooh right, you might not even talk to them.
Speaker 1:Sharing that story with the young men opened up a discussion about eros and the burning desires of the human heart. What we talked about was not trivial desires or some superficial wants, but the atomic energy of our very souls, that universal ache and longing we feel deep within our hearts for something more. This is why this power of prayer is so important, because you get in touch with the heart. You open up that heart to divine power. He's moving you out. This is the ecstasy that the mystics talk about, that universal ache we feel deep within our hearts for something more. That's why you're here. You're here because you're looking for something more. What is that something more? We're being called into this beautiful story that we were exploded into. Where does this hunger come from then? Why do we have it? What are we supposed to do with it? Most important, is there anything to fill it?
Speaker 1:John Paul II called this powerful initial movement love as attraction. We're attracted to the love, say, the beauty, in this case of a woman. But is that authentic love? Yet no, but it could be the raw material. But I want to be in touch with this divine power within me that sees this and realizes this is a connected thing and then recognizing the good of another person, in this case this girl, seeing their outer beauty and then sensing the mystery of their inner beauty. But at this stage it's the raw material for love. It has a long way to go before it's authentic love.
Speaker 1:My heart goes out to you listening to this, all of these young people, even to myself. We came into the sexual revolution. It's just worse today. It's twisted and distorted. Right, you're growing up in a very twisted, toxic culture. You've been repeatedly lied to about the very basics concerning the meaning of marriage, the family, what authentic love is, the true meaning of sex and sexuality. And more Particularly disturbing is the sexual indoctrination, grooming and desensitizing of all our children today and many of you, you and your consciences, in public school system. It's disgusting, actually. Actually, tomorrow, I'll be in a place called Skokie, illinois, and talking about stolen innocence, talking about what they're doing to all you guys in schools.
Speaker 1:In a word, the culture coerces young people who are seeking love and relationships to in fact sabotage their chance to actually find authentic love by sexualizing that raw material for love. So love is attraction. I see the girl, I want her. Good, ooh, this mystery, this intoxication. I desire union, a relationship with her right. Even my body was created for that right. My body's not complete, calling us, showing us to visible signs of our body's love, but it's raw material for love. It's not authentic love yet. But what does the culture do? It tells you to sexualize it, that love has been reduced to a feeling, an emotion, and then to sex. I mean, they actually distort it and then you sabotage your chance to actually continue to move toward authentic love with this other person. You know. So they really just they obliterate your moral imaginations and twist it right by sexualizing again that raw material for love. Love is attraction, love is desire before it is matured.
Speaker 1:Many young people are being robbed not only of their intellect but of their hearts again, right about your heart again, and strikingly damaging the ability of young people to experience or intellectually understand what eros is, what that erotic love is, erotic love that takes place between a man and a woman in the sacrament of marriage. That is the bond that creates and holds societies together, nations together. When you see a country like this coming down, it's because we no longer care about the baby in the womb. We no longer because. Why? Because our sexuality has got twisted and distorted. It's no longer saying I'm giving myself totally to another person. We're using them, right? This is the difference between the death cult and the culture of life. We're using them, right. This is the difference between the death cult and the culture of life. When I see into a woman's eyes, I see into her heart, and we give each other this gift, this spousal love in marriage, right? So this is what holds societies together, nations together. You know, satan knows this Destroy. Marriage and the family and the culture will ultimately come down, and that's what you're seeing today. This is why it's very exciting.
Speaker 1:If Trump didn't get in and we had Kamala Harris and that crazy Tim Walz, they would have took the rest of this thing and twisted it and distorted it and it would have been gone. I'm very excited for you guys that you were the generation that came out to vote for Trump. Somehow you sensed this. I think it's a movement of grace and we have to continue it now, otherwise it'll be taken away from all of us, iskewing the beauty of love. Then, right, what do they do? You're told to settle for lust and utilitarianism and never find the banquet that God has prepared for you.
Speaker 1:You're growing up in a culture that has reduced the beauty of authentic love and arrows to a feeling like I said, and further to sex, to the point that your immoral imagination I'm repeating it, I know, but it's important has been obliterated by pornography and these gender ideologies. It's not your fault, it's happened, but it's not your fault. But you can't stay there. Don't normalize the flaw. See, as confused as I was by the sexual revelation, your generation's confusion is multiples worse. A George Barna research study found that 30% of millennials born from 1984 to 2002 identify as LBGTQ, as do 39% of your generation, gen Z. The study was ages 18 to 24 is when they did that study Almost 40%. Well, they're not LBGTQ+. You know SS+, you know blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're just confused and nobody's told them the truth. So in this confusion, you say, yeah, well, whatever, give me an alphabet and I'll, and the danger with that.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we live out of those labels we slap on ourselves. We accept we always can refuse those things, but we don't know. We don't know the truth. But in the midst, then, of this darkness and confusion caused by this vacuum of moral relativism that you see around you, comes a voice with some very good news. There will always be those who will not settle and will not give up and will not get rid of the hope, right, that's within them. This is, you've heard, the three theological virtues right faith, hope and love. This is our hope, right? Ooh, we feel something. I'm not going to give up that hope. There's got to be something more. And then it's that where faith comes from. Right, that's the assurance of of, you know, the, the insurance of things that we hope for. Right, there's got to be an answer, a true, good, beautiful, and the conviction of things unseen. I feel it in my heart. Now, what is it? And so we keep moving on right. So this is some very good news that you guys felt this and you came into the story.
Speaker 1:See, the more the world deprives young people of what's true, good and beautiful, the more earnestly they will yearn for it. The vacuum of this modern secularism, everything's moral relativism. There is no truth. Oh no, that's an empty thing. It actually becomes, john Paul said, a fragrant invitation. It's like you're smelling, young people. I want to rediscover the sacred. And that's what's happening. We're just going to keep moving toward that direction, because that's what you're getting called into. Don't stop here, don't stop in the middle, because you'll just get blown around because Satan is very, very. Look, I got the sword back there. We're going to cut out the weaknesses, the sin, and we're going to open those things up to Christ.
Speaker 1:It's the battlefield of the heart between love and grasping and taking and being unselfish, being a person of love. Young people yearn for meaning, beauty and freedom In their bodies. They feel love stirring and they seek it. They want to break away and use their freedom to love. Yet how often are they lied to and led to a counterfeit. And it's sad how often their freedom leads them then away from love and so away from God himself, god who is love. And they get themselves into no small amount of trouble, right, stumbling around attempting to unravel these mysteries of life and love. As they stumble to find those answers, they grow weary of a culture that views them as a disappointment. Just using them like pawns, and along comes John Paul II declaring young people of every continent all over we got a band together, huh, do not be afraid to go out. Love exists, true love exists.
Speaker 1:Do not be dispirited by those who are disillusioned with life and have grown deaf to the deepest and most authentic desires of your hearts. You are right to be disappointed with hollow entertainment, meaningless fads, passing fads right and aiming at too little in life. Lower the bar that's what the culture tells you. That's the world's job, not our job. John Paul said this you can use your freedom to seek the easy life, but you will find it to be an illusion and, insulated by your own value system of subjective moral values and opinions, you cannot find the beauty you seek. You can't find that beauty if you're a moral relativist, if you're not searching for the truth. Search for the truth, you know. Just seek, ask, knock. Jesus is waiting for you to do that. He doesn't want to leave you in this, but we're free.
Speaker 1:I'm reminded of John Paul II when he asked why he talks so much about sexuality, and he replied this because the abuse and misunderstanding of human sexuality is the main obstacle to spirituality. If you're addicted to porn, it's very hard to get on your knees and really open yourself up to prayer right Now. If you just started this battle, you know what the sword is like. But if you stayed in porn and you didn't try, what would happen to you? You wouldn't become a spiritual person. You wouldn't smell that fragrance of the sacred. So we reminded young people that sexual drive is a gift from God.
Speaker 1:However, he maintained the sexual urge must never be separated from authentic love, the desire to do what's best for the other. That's what authentic love is right To see the good and the beauty in another person and to want what's good for them, to sacrifice, to flip the selfie and start to worry about them more than myself right. He noted that all too often the concept of love is reduced to emotions and attractions. Such sentimental love, he calls that, often results in disillusionment, whereby the woman eventually discovers that the young man's emotions, his sentiment, is merely a screen for his desire to use her. How many times have we seen that happen? Or, conversely, the man discovers that he was simply a means to an end. When relationships are built on such a foundation, the truth eventually emerges that it was never true love at all. How sad is this? Right? This is why so many people get divorced. They never actually walked into the love story. Listen to that gift of self again that I recorded earlier this week.
Speaker 1:Closely connected and I'm finishing up here closely connected with the formation of conscience is the work of education, which helps individuals to be ever more human, leads them to ever more fully to the truth, instills in them growing respect for life and trains them in the right interpersonal relationships. That's what Claymore number two is right. Number one your spiritual formation connecting with God. At the same time, we're unpacking this education of what the big story is, and this should be going down all the way to young kids in schools to start to unpack what's true, good and beautiful instead of distorting them, right? But this is the education. So this is what these videos are about tying the story together, right? So I'm glad you're here.
Speaker 1:In particular, there's a need of education about the value of life from its very origins. It is an illusion, he said, to think that we can build this true culture of human life that I've been talking about here today if we do not help the young people Gen Z to accept and experience sexuality and love in the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection. Sexuality, which enriches the whole person, manifests its inmost meaning in leading the person to the gift of self and love. The trivialization, to trivialize our sexuality is among the principal factors which have led to contempt for new life. Think about that. Why are all the abortions? Because we trivialize sex. It has no meaning. We haven't given our lives to one another, so we don't want to form a family. So if a woman gets pregnant, we kill the baby. I mean, can you see We'll kill a child. This is a child of God, this is your child, say, or my child. Look, we've all made mistakes, we've all seen this stuff, but now we know right. Only true love is able to protect life.
Speaker 1:There can be no avoiding the duty to offer, especially to Gen Z, an authentic education in sexuality and love, an education which involves training in chastity as a virtue which fosters personal maturity and makes one capable of respecting the spousal meaning of the body. I just gave a talk and I'm not going to get into it now because I'm winding down right now. But chastity is that virtue that's given to us, so it allows that first steps that I said. Love is attraction, when I saw that girl come, this desire to be in union and communion with her. But it's not authentic love yet. See, chastity, which, when I'm not married, we're all called to be chaste. Right, that means to live out your vocation. If I'm married, that means faithful to my wife. If I'm a Catholic priest, that means faithful to the church. But if I'm single, that means abstinence. Right, and why? Because we don't want to sabotage that chance to get to know one another better. Right Not to use them, so it protects us from use and then we become persons of love and it's a sacrifice. That's why we got the sword.
Speaker 1:So how does one find the banquet and the beauty of love? Jesus, the eternal bridegroom, asks, he says this, he knows. And what does he do? He comes into the story and what does he say to you? Ask, seek, knock. He says come and see, follow me into the rest of the story, into the rest of the story. That's what he's saying to you today. Ask, seek, knock, come and see. I know you because I know your heart. Follow me into the story. Hey, god bless you. Great to be with you. Talk to you again soon If you have any other questions, and those supplemental videos that I'll do are going to be coming out of the questions you ask. So email, you can text us in the show notes too, if you're listening to the audio. Hey, talk to you again soon. Everybody, keep me in your prayers. I'll keep you in mine. God bless you. Happy Valentine's Day. Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye.