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
#590 Gen Z! Don't Lower the Bar on Love!! But Embrace the True Meaning of Your Sexual Desires!
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Don't miss this episode! This is a Claymore "milites Christi" interim update!!
Linda and I embark on a journey to unravel the intricacies of authentic love and truth. Inspired by the teachings of John Paul II, we delve into the profound connection between love and the language of the body. Our conversation turns critical as we examine how modern ideologies impact identity through educational standards and social media narratives. We also touch on a fascinating shift at Google, highlighting a possible change in cultural trends and ongoing discussions about societal values.
We explore the essence of authentic love within relationships, with a particular focus on marriage. Drawing from the rich imagery of the Song of Songs, we reflect on the awe and wonder inherent in the marital bond. Through personal stories, we illustrate the clear distinction between genuine love and superficial desires, encouraging a deeper appreciation for the mystery and beauty of one's partner. The narrative is brought to life with anecdotes from high school and college experiences that demonstrate the lasting impact of true, awe-inspired love.
Join Claymore and Gen Z as we 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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I'm back with Linda. She is actually in Illinois. We haven't got a chance to get together. She's a little bit north of me. Linda, you're here enjoying the weather.
Speaker 2:I'm enjoying the weather. Yes, we have some fantastic weather on the way, don't we Jack?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've got some snow and things coming. That's par for the course, you know. But we're actually getting there, you know. I mean this is, you know, we're starting to get close to the mid of February now, so I can see the end of this thing now. I like knowing that. You know, probably three weeks or so, you know you're starting to we'll start to get into a little bit more milder stuff. So that's good stuff.
Speaker 1:Today's very exciting again, john Paul is talking about the truth of love, which is proclaimed in the songs. It cannot be separated from the language of the body. So the truth of authentic love a man for a woman, a woman for a man, love itself cannot be separated from the language of the body. What does the language of the body say to us? You know, when you see the awe and wonder, the beauty of another person, that can't be separated from who the person is inside. What does that mean? What is the meaning of a body? Right, a body is actually created to express love, authentic love, to manifest the sacrament, this beauty of love into the world. But it's been twisted and distorted, and you see this all over the place, these woke ideologies, linda, what they're doing to our kids in schools with the national sex ed standards. Google and I'm going to get into that in just a little while and all of these woke social media companies. They all are pushing gender, race divisions, gender divisions, climate hoaxes, all these different things. Why do they do all that? And they all want to separate the truth of the body, of who we actually are.
Speaker 1:Now, we're not just a person, right, unique and unrepeatable child of God. No, you're a black person, you're an Indian person, you're this, and we have to celebrate all of these different things. Well, that're a black person, you're an Indian person, you're this, and we have to celebrate all of these different things. Well, that sounds good, right, but the United States is the most homogenous country in the world, meaning every single nation is represented here. Every single nation in the world has people here as citizens of the United States. Every single nation in the world has people here as citizens of the United States. And why did it work? It worked, and not without sins and imperfections, because people are sinners. We're all fallen.
Speaker 1:But the concept, the founding fathers, the concept and the ideal that most of us were trying to find was a way to see a black person or an Indian person or a white person, not as a color of skin, but as a unique, unrepeatable human being. And the same thing with gender. You see these trans things, right? Well, trans is impossible. When I see a trans man, what is a trans man or a trans woman? A trans woman is a man dressing up as a woman. It's impossible. It's impossible to to change your genders.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day, what, what? What do we have with those confused people? We have a man dressing as, as, as a woman, but we're all unique and unrepeatable. There's no such thing as a trans person. You're a boy or a girl in a variety of different ways, right? I mean, we're unique and unrepeatable.
Speaker 1:As a man, linda's unique and unrepeatable. As a woman, not like the woman next door, the woman behind you. You have your own uniqueness. What we do is we take that uniqueness and unrepeatability and we distort it and twist it. We say, nope, you're a little uncomfortable because you're not just like the person next to you. Maybe there's something wrong with your body, maybe this, maybe that it's, it's, it's nefarious at the end. But let me, let me just say, linda, before I hand it over to you, some good news here I'm just reading covid and coffee is. This is this morning note from jeff childers, his name, he's an attorney, he's brilliant and it started with covid. So he said covid and coffee, kind of breaking through the lies right of covid the lies of these vaccines and all these other things.
Speaker 1:Well, he writes today and I don't know if you heard this yet, but but he's talking about all the different changes that went on when you know Trump with all his different executive orders. But he said yesterday's news delivered another delicious moment of corporate de-woking. Google giveth and Google taketh away. The search giant's unavoidable pre-programmed calendar of events has been pared back to the minimum, now reduced to some default list which is now supplied by a Norwegian holiday tracking contractor. And he says I did not make that up. I mean, you can't make it, it's nuts, right? For example, google has now deleted Indigenous Peoples Month, just like the Buffalo, but fortunately soothing widespread progressive worries. The Indians were not literally erased. The casinos are all still there. Google also clicked a little minus button next to June's LBGTQ Plus Pride Month. Hopefully that one will erase all the gender parades all over the place. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah right. Black History Month and Women's History Month have both passed into history.
Speaker 1:Like the civil rights era, wokeness sought to change the times, the seasons, to suit its insatiable demand for universal virtue, signaling compliance. Good morning, it's Polynesian Nigerigerian remembrance week. The irony is and he talks about the, you know, the gulf of mexico has been changed to the gulf of america now. But anyways, he says google's concession might be the smallest win in the culture wars, but it symbolizes a larger restoration of sanity. Well, what, what? What does all this come down to, linda? It's just reality and truth.
Speaker 1:You know they're trying. It's an atheistic wokeness is atheistic. It tries to separate people into all these things. Should black people celebrate themselves? Of course, but not to the point where they're pushing down anybody, and this is the whole thing. You know it's subtle at first if you don't point where they're pushing down anybody. And this is the whole thing. It's subtle at first if you don't understand what they're trying to do. But it's not about empathy and compassion for the Indians or the blacks or the whites or whatever. It's always about division. It's always about, and finally, the oppressor of the oppressed. Find a label for yourself, wear the label and then find out who's oppressing you and go after them and take them down and once you take them down, then we'll find utopia, right well, yeah, found utopia with the founding fathers right, right, yeah, so jack the.
Speaker 2:the division part of it is let's divide us every way we can possibly think of, you know, as you, as you mentioned in that. And yet what it's trying to do is go right to the core of our human dignity, because we are all the same and we are all equal in our human dignity, and this is kind of a way to say, no, let's take this group, that group's better than this group. You know, they can do this or they can't do that, and so it becomes this chaotic division of you know, putting us against each other, which is again just the opposite of love God and love your neighbor. So you know, if you drill really to the bottom line of all of that, the evil one is the divider right and so that's a great way that he's found to work his way into our cultures.
Speaker 1:Well, one of the things and I think you're going to address it now is really what they've done to people in marriages and families. You know, the number one goal of Satan is marriage and the family. Right, sister Lucia said this very clearly the main visionary in the last one living, who was there when Our Lady of Fatima was the main visionary of Our Lady of Fatima, and she said the last great battle between our Lord and Satan is going to be over marriage and the family. And this gets down to what you said.
Speaker 1:We twist and distort human dignity. We separate the body and the soul and then we separate what the body is as an expression. We are embodied souls and that soul is expressed through the body. When you are connected to God, like a branch on the vine, you're drawing from a source of love, truth, goodness and beauty and you fill yourself to your point these two great commandments. And now I become that in the world. I express that when you separate the truth of the body.
Speaker 1:Right, am I a trans man? No, you're not a trans man. You are a man or a woman, unique and unrepeatable in all these different ways. But to your point, we're all the same in human dignity in the eyes of God, in the eyes of brothers and sisters around us, and that includes the disabled, that includes the kids with Down syndrome, that includes all of us, that includes whoever we are, that includes the old people, that includes the young people, even the unborn. So all of us in God's eyes. And so all of these things, linda, are a death cult. All of these are there to destroy what you just said human dignity at its core. If you get away from that, if you don't understand that, you won't understand what's going on around you. As we get away from the city of God, we try to build the city of man, and that's what building the city of man without God?
Speaker 2:And it's so true as the body expresses the soul. You know, the soul is the animating factor of the body, and you can go all the way back to John Paul's thesis entirely for theology of the body. So all the way back to John Paul's thesis, entirely for theology of the body. And it's the body that expresses the divine, the invisible and the divine, and that's our soul. So that's how we bring love into the world. God is love. If we don't do it, it isn't going to happen.
Speaker 2:And so the evil one, all the forces of wokeness and everything have been trying to destroy all of that. And it's quite a paradox to me too, when we think about we're unique and unrepeatable. Every single one of us has that core of who we are when God thought of us in his mind and created us with our unrepeatable everything about us, down to the DNA and so forth. And yet the paradox is within that uniqueness. We all have the sameness of that human dignity made in this image. So we have to hold both of those ideas in mind at the same time. And when we try to divide in culture every way imaginable, I think, as you opened with our country. You know, part of the strength of our country, as we go beyond the individual into groups, is that each group has its own kind of unique strengths and weaknesses. And boy does it play out with food. It's like we take every nationality, every kind of food, and we do delight in all the different flavors and recipes that all the countries have, you know. So, italian food, mexican, indian food, you know, you name it.
Speaker 2:And so if we would just spend a little bit of time, you know, thinking through these ideas, we would see that, you know, it does come down to that core and, as Sister Lucia said, with the attack being on marriage and the family, when we understand that the family is the basic core, the basic cell of society, it is so important to look at how our families have been broken and divided. Didn't the woke culture just divide families horribly? You know, parents and children and siblings on all these issues? Just total division. And so we've got to come back and say what is at the core of all of this, and it is that authentic love and, of course, the Song of Songs.
Speaker 2:We're on number 111. In all the metaphors and the beauty of the language that modern person, you know, finds a little bit maybe strange or difficult to understand, it still is looking at the core of a family, which is husband and wife, and the supreme beauty of that marital bond in their marriage love. And, you know, valentine's Day while we're recording this, valentine's Day is coming up, but I think what a good time to talk about again what does that authentic love in marriage between husband and wife, male and female, look like? And that's part of what John Paul is trying to bring out to us in this exposure of what the Song of Songs is about.
Speaker 1:You have a lot of things in the Song of Songs that bring out the awe and wonder that you saw in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, here's the objective sign that we're created in the image and likeness of God, as male and female, to express love. But Song of Songs brings in this awe and wonder, the awe and wonder and the mystery. This is erotic love, poetry and erotic. You need this because all good philosophy and good theology it starts with awe and wonder. When I remember I had a high school, I was doing a high school retreat and I had this small group and we went down the hall and we're talking I'm talking with my 12 or 15 young guys, right, that I just met a little while before and you're just trying to, you know, shoot the breeze with them a little bit so I get them into this little, this room, right? So we have this whole class but everybody's breaking up into small group now. So I've got this group of guys and I don't know them that well. So I say, okay, guys, let me ask you a question. If school stopped right now? Now they're only sophomores. I said if school stopped right now, you were done with high school. Give me one thought that would say, hey, this defined my school so far. This is the one thing that happened to me that I'll always remember the rest of my life, and they all go through it, and it was an icebreaker really. We had a great conversation and I'm ready to turn back to the subject and somebody, a young guy, said how about you, mr Riggert? And I said how about me? What, how about you? What do you remember from high school? And I said well, that's easy. I said it was my junior year. I was a little older than you, guys, but I said I was standing outside a locker. I said this is before. Fall is now, guys, and and and I'm talking to my football team and we just had started school. It was the beginning of junior year. We were talking about the upcoming game that would have been the opening game for the season we had been practicing all summer and and so we're all just jabbing, you know, just talking.
Speaker 1:And I look over. I looked down the hall and I said there she was. I said this girl was walking down the hallway toward me that I'd never seen before with two other girls, and I said time stopped. Time stopped my conversation, whatever those guys were talking about. Now it just went into the background. I said there was only one light now, and it was a light was on, that girl walking down toward me.
Speaker 1:I said everybody else was in the background now it was amazing power of that. It just took my heart away and I said I wanted to go up. In my mind I pictured as she got closer to me I would just go up and just introduce myself and as I stepped forward, nothing would come out of my mouth. It was the awe and wonder of that, right. And I said I'll never forget that, guys. So this is the awe and wonder. What is the mystery? Right, I knew right away, linda, that girl was not body parts to me. That girl's body was I saw bodies all around me. It wasn't about bodies, was was I saw bodies all around me. It wasn't about bodies, it wasn't about body part, it was the awe and wonder of the mystery of that. And so when john paul talks about, you've ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, you've ravished my heart with one glance of your eyes, my sister, my bride, that was the awe and wonder. You know not to use her there. There was no lust. I remember this very clearly.
Speaker 1:It was like oh I just want to get into that Malou. I want to be close to her, I want to know who she is, I want to know where she came from. Did she come from another school? Why hadn't I ever seen her? You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right, all the questions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And authentic love builds from that. That's you know the raw materials that the Pope speaks of. You know it's got to start that way because what it does, it kind of brings you into the mystery of the person. You know, with no thoughts of violating that person, which we've talked many times, that's what lust is. Is, you know, a violation of the person looking at body parts or whatever? So that authentic love brings us into that mystery.
Speaker 2:I didn't have an experience like that in high school, but I think college maybe is when it happened. When I met my now husband. It wasn't a sense of love at first sight, as he claims, but for me there was something about this person. And I remember going home for the summer break and I had met Mike like three months prior and I told my sister we were talking about it and I said I don't know, he's a great guy, I don't love him, you know. She asked me do you love? I said no, but I said I think I might marry him and she goes well, I don't know.
Speaker 2:And so I think it must have been, as I look back, that awe and wonder of him, who he was. You know, I wanted to. I felt some attraction and you know it worked out for us. It's not always going to in that circumstance. But that understanding of the mystery of songs and looking at that marital love and the declaration of love he says, it kind of comes to a peak when we think of the truth of the body. And since this is the song you know it's the final chords of the song with the garden closed and the fountain sealed, which is another way of saying well for those for people that that haven't heard this before.
Speaker 1:Don't go too fast with that, you know, you know, quote that. You know, maybe if you have that verse, you know again, you know, my sister, my bride, it's a, it's. You know, garden closed, the fountain sealed. You know, don't go too fast, linda, with that, because there are people maybe joining us that haven't read the Song of Songs or don't know this is erotic love poetry. That's expressing everything we're talking about here. It's the awe and wonder and it's clearly expressed.
Speaker 1:Look it, these are using ancient words from 4,000 years ago, so there's metaphors there that you're not going to understand. But you can still read through that and you can see the awe and mystery. And in there, my sister, my bride, calling her a sister before a lover, right To see her as this person, again, fully. There's a line in there that says this is my lover, the bride says, and she describes him in all this detail for paragraphs in this poem and then she says my lover, my friend, and you can't miss that stuff, right? How many people in these hookup cultures and this porn thing, they never see the person as a sister first, as a lover and a friend, someone very close to them. I mean, you know so, this erotic love poetry, this mystery of the person, this is really what the heart aches for love poetry, this mystery of the person, this is really what the heart aches for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Jack, we might want to clarify too that in our modern culture, erotic has taken on a totally different meaning than what is intended in this context, you know. So I think we put erotic more with the pornographic mindset of things that just are going to stimulate, and it's we've talked. You know, the power of eros is so important that we understand its true power. I think Song of Songs describes it when it is within that context of the mystery of the person that the power of love actually comes forth to us. And so there's many words, that's a good point.
Speaker 1:Let me just break that open a little bit so erotic could point people right to using someone sexually.
Speaker 1:But erotic means more than that, but it's very sensual, it's? You know, this song of songs is dripping with sensuality, but it's dripping with the meaning and purpose behind it, which is authentic love. And that the language of the body, what you see, what you taste, he describing to each other's lips and the taste of of each other. Right, you know, when you're kissing for the, especially when you're kissing for the, especially when you're falling passionately in love, and so you can taste the other person and you can smell the, and all these things are coming through, but they're leading you deeper and deeper into the person.
Speaker 1:So there is an erotic, but the erotic is beautiful, right, plato would say what is eros? You brought up eros. Right, it's sensual, but it's also more than that. It's everything that's. This is the desire of the human heart for everything that's true, everything that's good, everything that's beautiful, especially the beauty of authentic love. So it is sensual, but it's not only sensual. It lifts you up, right, and this is what we're doing here. We're lifting you up and even to the point of being able to have this closeness, this dance, with another person that God creates in his image in his likeness. God's not a sexual being, but he creates our sexuality to experience Trinitarian love, which is why it's open to children, open to life.
Speaker 2:Right. Everything that God created is good. He created our senses for us to inspire love, so it's all good. You know, when we take away the distortions that over the years has happened, and that marital intimacy is not just physical, it is so far beyond physical, far beyond physical. You know, when I learned that in theology the body really in a new way, the importance of it being spiritual, emotional, psychological, sensual. You know, physical it's all that together because we are body and soul. And so when we have reduced it down to nothing but the physical, we have just cheapened it to a point that it's distorted beyond where it should be. And that's why we find such dissatisfaction and depression, because people have lost the total sense of what true erotic love that the Song of Songs describes for us really is.
Speaker 2:And when we get back to it it just excites me to think about. You know that, especially in our marriages, that we have that poetic description too of the reciprocity of gift I am gift to you and you are a gift to me. Towards the end, here in 111, the bride is speaking I am my beloved's and his desire is for me. And clearly the me doesn't mean my body, my physical parts, me, who I am and if I got nothing else out of the Song of Songs. If I'm somebody trying to read this and struggling with all the metaphors, I would say look at some of those key parts. My sister, my bride, I am my beloved and his desire is for me. Again, that idea of she's the master of her own body, her own femininity, and it's not for to be violated. So that authentic love of belonging to each other and that giving, that's how we establish that communion of persons, between husband and wife, and then it goes forth to the family and then out to the culture from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and let's not skip over the marital sexual union, because when it is expressed, all the things that you're saying there make that even more beautiful. You know, when you in Genesis think about it, they were naked when they came together and there was no shame, but shame came in later on. If you go to Christ and you let him untwist and undistort, these desires make them. You know it's very difficult in today's pornographic culture to see your spouse even as someone to pour your love out to. But John Paul would say so beautifully to young married men before you make love to your wife, take your shoes off. You're entering unto holy ground. If you can get into a, this is like a rapture right, this is like an outure right, this is like an out-of-body experience. Now you know you're making love connected to God's grace itself. You know there's nothing more powerful than this to be able to make love to this woman who is more than just a body, is a friend, is a sister, meaning. You know we have a common heritage, we come from the same father, you know. So this deep respect and still making mad, you know this passionate love. I mean it wouldn't get any better than this. And many people, many people in our culture have never experienced this. They've never experienced this, you know, they've never experienced this ecstatic, you know, this ecstasy, almost between two people because they're using one another.
Speaker 1:It's utilitarianism Very difficult again. This is not easy to get over. It's a work, it's on the battle. That's why the sword is there. It's a battlefield of the human heart between love and lust, you know. But this is what we aspire to and this is what we were created for, and this is what Christ came in to redeem our bodies. And what does that mean? Right, to put them back in, you know, together Again, the branch and the vine to be filled with divine life and love to be redeemed, to untwist those desires, those eros that are totally agape.
Speaker 1:Pope Benedict XVI said when you look at Jesus on the cross, his eros is for us, and this is another thing we can't forget, linda. All of those things are calling us into an intimacy with God, who is not a sexual being again, but this deep intimacy that we're expressing here, this is what is behind Trinitarian love. This is where we're going. But eternity doesn't mean tomorrow, it means forever. We're to start this now, today, to love people like this. That's why these woke ideologies are so harmful because they want to separate all of that. They want to turn what we're describing into pornography. They want to turn it into. You know anything and you know love is meaningless, marriage is meaningless, babies are meaningless. It's all a lie, linda. It's all a lie and you'll never find what you're looking for.
Speaker 2:Yes and so many, you know, just don't understand it, as you said, not having experienced that ecstasy. As you said, not having experienced that ecstasy, and as I reflect on that, I think it only can happen when the other person is someone I've become totally committed to and totally have vowed. You know, when we take the marital vows that you know, fidelity, free, total, faithful and fruitful we use that, but I don't just say those words, I have really, really committed in my heart and in the Song of Songs. It talks about love is as strong as death. So right there we have that understanding that with the marriage bond, that marriage is rendered absolutely indissoluble until death. Try that on our modern way of thinking. You know, and the church clearly understands, everyone understands, circumstances where living with the spouse is impossible because of a whole host of issues.
Speaker 1:But it's sin that brings us down, and that know, and and that's the point, you know. So, yeah, the church understands because we're fallen, right, we live in a fallen world, but the reason that jesus said that is because this is an expression of god's covenant with us. God will not leave us, god will not be unfaithful to us, god will not walk away from us. So that's why Jesus says marriage is indissoluble, because it's a reflection of the love that God has for us. Now he understands we're in a fallen world, right, and he says in there.
Speaker 1:It's because of the hardness of your hearts that you get divorced, but from the beginning, the way it's supposed to be, it was not so. So, yeah, it's a good point, right, we are all fallen, we're all sinful, and this is a battle. What we're talking about here, we know this. Everybody that's listening has to know ooh, this is not easy to do, but it's worth it. It's worth the battle, it's worth the fight.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the idea too, Jack, when we say that when we get down to the core and of course the attacks have been against marriage and the family we do have to get down to what is marriage supposed to be? What does marriage really look like? Or what is it supposed to look like in God's eyes? And absolutely some of the theologians who have studied Song of Songs, you know, will look at the other level of God's love for Israel and Christ's love for the church. And you know we can see that at those levels.
Speaker 2:Certainly, but not to forget too, I think Christopher West says don't disembody the faith, you know, because the body, the marital intimacy, is another level that we need to consider. So it's so important to not discard this as just on the one level, but consider all the levels and still marriages, you know we can't say enough, I think, of the importance of understanding what marriage is supposed to be and how we get there. And you're right, it's sin that destroys all of it, you know. So each of us have to, in our own unique personalities, look at that and really make changes there.
Speaker 1:The only. We start to wind down here, linda, and you remind me of a couple of things. But one thing I think next time we get together for next week, we should really talk about the sacraments. I was going to get into those a little bit today, but I don't want this to go along too long.
Speaker 1:But let's talk about the sacrament. What is the sacrament and what is the sacrament of marriage? People need to hear that. I just gave a talk to engaged couples for our diocese and unpacking marriage was very cool and a sign of it right, so I want to make sure that we go on there. Any kind of closing comments. I got a couple of little thoughts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the little teasers to lead into that. In the Magnificat for today, the meditation is by Mary Healy and at the very end of it she says she's addressing how we don't pay attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And to see, you know, do I need to make that phone call? Or, you know, go talk to that person. But she also says repent of that sin that is blocking the Lord's work in your life. You know, I would say maybe the challenge for next week, as we get into it, is spend some time analyzing in your own mind and heart what is blocking me. You know, what is the sin or sins that are blocking me from receiving the Lord into my life the way I need to? And of course, the sacrament of confession is key to that, you know, to help, and that's how the church helps. So just a little teaser there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you for that. Anybody that thinks you can do what we're describing without Jesus Christ, good luck, good luck, you know. So what happens when I'm trying to stay faithful? Everybody's going to go through this. Every single person that's married or even not married is going to go through this. Every single person that's married or even not married is going to go through this in life, trying to be faithful, trying to understand the truth.
Speaker 1:So the harder it is in your marriage, and just the little things, the everyday little things, the closer you'll get to Christ in prayer, the better lover you're going to be. When I look up at a cross, you know he loved me even when I didn't love him back. He gives me that. And now I have to love everybody else, even if they don't love me back. And so how do I do that? I get closer and closer to Christ. Well, the beauty of that is it's a win-win situation. I'm actually setting myself up for eternal love and life with Christ, getting closer and closer to him. I mean, that's really what our goal should be here on earth and to get our spouse to heaven. And you hear that I'm supposed to get my spouse and my kids to heaven. Yes, and if you don't try to do that, the rest of it won't work either, right, yeah, and so we'll unpack marriage, linda, as we go forward here, and I think we, we move through.
Speaker 2:we're going to hit the idea of eros and agape and you just hit on that. I mean that's the combination, the agape, the self-sacrificing love. You can't have the marriage without the agape, love as a big piece of it. So it's so important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and a paradox of that, you won't find happiness without that. John paul again would say to young people unmarried right. World youth day. Young people, you know that your life has meaning to the extent that it's given away as a gift to others. My life has meaning to the extent that it's given a well.
Speaker 1:That's a sacrifice right there to move beyond my own selfishness and to be able to go out and do things for other people. If we don't do that, we will never find our own happiness. We will never be filled with authentic love. The grace that we receive from the sacraments and prayer becomes effective in us as we go out and actually do it. You know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Two other words for love mercy and sacrifice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would suggest to anybody listening, especially young men, go to our website jp2reneworg. It's in the show notes. Go to Claymore under resources. Go to claymore, click on claymore. You're going to read the battle plan there how to go deeper into spiritual formation, how to, how to start to develop this. And then every friday we have a new video on for for young people, called claymore. It's that claymore sword behind me. It's how to do battle here in this crazy culture, and it's. It's good stuff, linda. So hey.
Speaker 1:Linda, thank you so much. Thanks for being with me. Be careful driving back. You're driving back soon and we got a snowstorm coming, so stay safe. Right, we need you, thank you.