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
#618 The Great Sacrament of Marriage: A "Divine Story" and a "Human Story"
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Marriage as a divine sacrament is radically misunderstood in our secular age. While many see it merely as a social contract or romantic bond, its true nature runs infinitely deeper – it's a visible sign that reveals God's invisible mystery of Trinitarian love.
Young people today are increasingly abandoning marriage altogether, finding it easier to "just forget it" than attempt to understand its profound meaning. This tragic reality stems from our culture's impoverished view of love and relationships, which has left hearts confused and yearning for something they can't quite name.
The John Paul II Renewal Center was formed precisely to address this modern crisis of meaning. At its core is a revolutionary truth – our bodies were designed to "make visible what is invisible, the spiritual and the divine."
Whether married or single, discover how your heart was made for this eternal love story and how embracing this truth transforms relationships, identity, and purpose.
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I'm excited to bring on someone new for the men of Claymore and the women that are following them, to our show, our Friday update. This is Linda Piper. She's been working with me and part of the John Paul II Renewal Center since the very, very beginning, since we instituted this, and we saw this confusion really about marriage, about love, about identity, meaning and purpose of life. We saw this right from the beginning and we started to talk about it and we said it's so beautiful that we formed the John Paul II Renewal Center bottom. We said it's so beautiful that we formed the John Paul II Renewal Center.
Speaker 1:And today, so many questions about love, so many questions about the great sacrament of marriage, and so we call this episode the Great Sacrament of Marriage, a divine love story. Marriage is so misunderstood in our secular age as merely a human institution. Some see it as a social contract, a romantic bond, but for Catholics and Christians at large, it's a divinely instituted sacrament that transfers into the visible reality of our world the invisible mystery of God's Trinitarian love, a love that we're created for and a love that we're destined to share. So let's dive into what that means, linda, and how understanding this deeper reality can transform the way we approach love, relationships, life itself. Huh Welcome Linda.
Speaker 2:Sounds good, Jack. Thank you, so nice to be with you on this particular topic. Just the other day I saw a news article stating that pretty much young people are giving up on marriage.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So not only is it so misunderstood, they're not even attempting to really understand it, it's just easier to just forget it. And so that's a very, very serious and sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in.
Speaker 1:It's sad, because the authentic love that marriage expresses is something that our hearts yearn for, and whether you actually get married, or you are even skip marriage in this life and become a religious person, or you're looking for love and you don't find it, it's still. It's still, as frustrating as that could be, you're still called into a further love story. So let's think, linda, you know, I talked to a lot of young people that have missed this opportunity to get married. They waited too long, they think, and, like you said, you know, marriage became something that just looked broken to them and it looked very difficult. And it is difficult, and especially difficult, if we don't understand the basic meaning of it and the grace it takes to actually live this out. But when you find it, ooh, that's a nugget of truth, isn't it, linda? That's something very, very special and that's what we want to talk about today.
Speaker 2:Right. And the reality is, Jack, that most of us, all of us feel that pull, that feeling in our heart, deep in our heart, that there's something more than just what day-to-day life presents. You see, and for most of us, what we're experiencing is that call to a vocation Marriage for most of us, religious life for others, who are not called to marriage, earthly marriage, I will say. And yet, at the root of all of that, Jack, we're called to that heavenly marriage right, marriage right. So there's so many layers here that we need to look at and it takes us into the really deep recesses of our heart, which we've talked with Theology of the Body. I'm so impressed with the depth that Pope John Paul II was able to go and take us, because that's really where we had to go. We had to go deep into our hearts and listen to that call that we're all hearing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the reason we want to do this for these young men of Claymore is that they've woken up to something more. They realize that they look at this world and they say something's wrong. Something's wrong with this. You know this toxic culture that we were growing up, but what is it? We know that something's wrong. We know that the government and the state is overreaching their power. They're corrupt, there's a lot of waste going on and, of course, I don't want to throw everybody under the bus and say the government or even in our culture, but there are many, many people that get greedy, and maybe this wasn't the way they started out, but they certainly get caught up in this environment of using other people and seeing other people as objects, and marriage and love is the opposite of that. Instead of seeing someone as an object to use, we see them as a person to love. Same thing with the pornographic culture that so many of these young men are struggling with. Linda, again, seeing that person as an object instead of seeing them as a person to love is a sign of authentic love, and so when they feel this in their hearts, they're bubbling up and saying, hey, something's wrong.
Speaker 1:And so what we want to do today is talk about that idea of here's what your heart is looking for. It's looking for authentic love. It's looking for God. Actually, who is love, whether you realize it or not? This is the connection, you know, and we'll try to make that today and, like you said, it can go really deep. We just have to remember that a lot of these young people that are joining us today have not been exposed to this before. So we can only scratch the surface on this, but at least scratch the surface enough that they understand the connection between their deep desire for something more, their deep desire for love, for identity, meaning and purpose. All of these things come up and hopefully we can at least touch on those and show them that there is a plan and that God has a plan for everything that they're feeling in their heart, even their confusions and stuff. Just for the fact that they've opened their hearts to something more is a great start.
Speaker 2:Right, and there is most certainly a plan. I was reading recently St Therese of Lisieux had made a statement that this plan it's really the compass that the Lord gives us to find eternal life and love. You see, we never want to forget either that piece, that we're all on a journey here and we're all headed somewhere. And so the depth and the scope of what we're talking about here with love is far beyond just romantic love as we might typically, you know, narrow it down to. It's much, much greater than that and really does take us to the meaning and purpose of life. And what is it all about, alfie?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we forget that we came into a story and this might be a good way to frame it here is that you know the day we were exploded onto this stage called life, the day that you were conceived in your mother's womb and, of course, when you were incarnated per se as a living human being in this world, you came into a story. That story was already going on. It's amazing to me how people are so full of pride right, we have Pride Month coming up in the summer and blah, blah, blah, blah. They're so full of pride that they just are going to look at the world and just try to create the world in their own image and likeness, which is preposterous. If you think about it here, jack and Linda and everybody listening is born into this world. Can you imagine we're a little dot on this universal planet and we think we're going to make this all up. But the reality is you came into a story and that story is a love story and you're created. You're created and brought into this world in love, by love and for love, and what we're talking about here is an expression to our bodies as a sign of this eternal love. That's who we are. Not only are we children of God. That's our identity. Not only do we find meaning and purpose in this love story and giving yourself away as a gift to others and receiving and reciprocal love love of a spouse, love of a neighbor, you know, love of the poor and the sick All of that story is part of this love story and it's a win-win situation, linda, because when we pass from this life, it's just taking the veil down into our destiny, which is to enter into this eternal love story that God created us for and we're being a sign of.
Speaker 1:So we're linked. You know, eternity doesn't mean tomorrow, eternity and eternal love means forever. We were born for eternal love. We were to make it visible in this created world, in this temporal space, just for a little while, and then we go off and running for eternal love and no matter what you think about what I just said, when you do it, when you walk in and you become a person of love, you find meaning and purpose, you find happiness, you find love that you didn't think existed. So, whether you get married or not, if you really want to get married, the people that are listening I hope you find. We pray that you find the person that God has destined you for. But regardless, you have to step into God first.
Speaker 1:I cannot give what I don't have, linda. I have to be filled with divine life and love and then I can give that to a person. And I'll end with this Everybody's out there trying to find the right person. The problem is we never become the right person. So when that right person comes along, it doesn't work. Because she say, in the case where I'm a man and I'm looking for a woman, she is also looking for the right person. And unless I come into this story and I'm filled with divine life and love, she won't find that right person in me. And it's so important to understand what we're doing. You said that you were reading something of John Paul and it's really part of the Claymore battle plan that John Paul put together. And without referencing any more than that, linda, because not everybody will understand the references and stuff, you know, read that part that you were going to. That kind of brings us into the mystery of this.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So he's writing to young people and here's a short paragraph that he expresses. He says Dear young friends, do not allow this treasure to be taken away from you. Do not inscribe the plan of your life a deformed. Do not inscribe the plan of your life a deformed, impoverished and falsified content. Love rejoices in the truth. Seek out this truth where it is really to be found. If necessary, be resolved to go against the current of popular opinion and propaganda slogans. 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.
Speaker 2:And, jack, it kind of just jumped out at me when I was reading all of this. You know I've read a lot of John Paul II stuff and I never cease to be amazed at how he nails what it is we're really experiencing and what we're really feeling. And just a couple of comments. He says don't inscribe in the plan of your life. So there's an implication right there. You've got to have a plan of life.
Speaker 2:You've got to identify that right. You alluded to it already. When we say that I have to become that right person, that's got to be my plan. And he says don't let it become deformed, impoverished or falsified. And that's exactly what our culture has been doing for how many years now? I mean just longer than us, I think and so we need to unpack what does that mean? Because we do really have impoverished views of love and life and marriage, and that's why we're seeing, all you know, the great confusion in the culture today. So, with that thought in mind, it's like let's unpack what he's saying that we are capable of finding love, making our love a true love, authentic love.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we want to talk about this plan that we came into and this is going to take us a little deep. So if you're a young guy and or girl listening to this for the first time, this is going to take it. You need to take a deep breath here and, entering into this love story and allow your heart just to open. You know I would. If I'm listening to this for the first time. I'm going to just open my heart the best I can and allow this story to start to come into your, into your heart, into your mind, into your very being, and so this will be a great time. It's the awe and mystery of divine love itself. I'm going to put my reading glasses on Linda and talk about love from the very start.
Speaker 1:From the very first pages of the Bible, we see that love and relationship are at the heart of all of creation. In the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, god creates human beings in his image. And how does he create them? In his image, male and female, he created them. This is from the very first chapter. It's the most important thing that God wants to tell us in the Bible. He says I'm going to tell you this first. This is so important.
Speaker 1:It's important to note that this isn't just random coincidence. There's a reason why God created us as male and female. It's not just about biological differences, and this is what the world is so confused about today, linda. It's about complementarity, the way a man and a woman are designed to fit together and to reflect something bigger. Think about the confusion with the LBGTQIASS, right Plus. There's only one way a man and a woman are created to be complementary and to fit together so that the two become one right. There's a lot of other. You know the alphabet soup out there that confuses people. And there's only one way that they fit together and reflect something bigger when the two become one, open to life, and become three. This tiny little reflection of Trinitarian love in the world. It's so profound that you have to almost just like ooh, I got to sit on that for a second.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And part of that, Jack, is as we reflect that Trinitarian love I'd like to say. Let's always think it is life-giving love. And so, as we reflect that, part of what we were called to do is to reflect, create, co-create with God life. And that's where you say, you know, the two become one, become three, and the awesomeness of that is beyond words really. I mean, in the catechism, you know, it says our words will fall short of the mystery of God all the time, you see. So I say too, I repeat, let that just come into your heart and maybe don't worry about the intellectual side of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, John Paul would go on, and he says this in the beauty of this union between man and woman, we catch a glimpse of the love that exists within the very nature of God. This is what you know. When these young people I'm speaking with Linda say there's got to be something more, I feel something. It's got to be something more. This is their heart. This is their heart. You know, your heart was designed for this love story. And until we get that, we're always going to be frustrated. We're always going to be searching for an identity, we're always going to be searching for meaning and purpose in life.
Speaker 1:So John Paul goes on and says the relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is a perfect, eternal exchange of love. The Father who pours his love out to the Son, the Son receives it and so beautiful and profound it comes out in the form of a person. We call that person the Holy Spirit, the love between the Father and the Son. So now we think that's the eternal love story. So God created us, male and female, to enter into that.
Speaker 1:Not only did he do that, he reflected it right in our body to be complimentary, where a man can offer his love to his wife, his wife can receive that love, and it's so beautiful and profound that sometimes it comes out in the form of a person. We call that person a baby. And it's so profound. If you think about this, Linda, you know there was a moment in time for each one of our children where the two right husband and wife come together and in a moment of time there's a love bomb explosion that goes off between them, called a baby. And this is profound, that there's a moment in time where the three persons are one. The two become one, become three, and that explosion of love is a tiny, created reflection of the Trinity itself. It's amazing, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yes, and the Pope reminds us. You know, traditionally when we think of being made in the image of God, we understand that we have intellect and we have will and we're rational beings. But the Pope brings out here we are even more the image of God in the communion of persons and that you know, the Trinity, just the idea of this, isn't just you know one. We're talking about that Trinitarian unity, because that's the only way we can have the exchange of love. So we image as a communion of persons. And just a little disclaimer we are focusing on marriage, but that communion of persons exists then further beyond, with that first baby and with that nuclear family that is created, and then beyond even that, to extended families. So again, we focus narrowly but it does explode into the bigger picture of our lives.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And if you're sitting listening to this or watching this and you're frustrated because you haven't found that other person, we know this this can be a very devastating thing for people, when I feel lonely, like I need that special person in my life and I haven't found them. But don't stop there. Maybe that person's right around the corner, maybe not right, but God has a plan for your life. This story that we're telling that you feel in your body, this reciprocal love, is also love of neighbor. So God's two great commandments love God, to be filled with divine life and love. Remember you can't give what you don't have.
Speaker 1:St Catherine of Siena, he said you know, I love you. St Catherine, he said and she was a mystic, so she could really get into this right, she would go into an ecstasy. But God told her one time he says you can never love me like I love you. And she goes. Why? And he goes? Because I've already outpoured my love to you. I created you in love. So you can never reciprocate that type of totally unselfish, totally giving love, because the love that you give back to me is love. I already gave you right that you're already feeling in your body, but, but, but. I created your neighbor so that you can participate in that love story. In other words, I can go to my neighbor and love them, even when they don't love me back. This is a new kind of love that we can instill on our neighbor, our friends, the people that come into our lives. So don't wait for just that one special person. You can have it in the back of your mind, say, oh, I hope someday, dear God, you give me this special person I'm looking for. But don't stop, because you have to learn to become a person of love by giving yourself away today.
Speaker 1:So I always say to these young men part of Claymore we fall on our knees first, linda, we open up our hearts. We say let it be done to me according to your word, with our blessed mother. Then we say temptations are not a sin. Every temptation that floods me is an invitation to prayer. And the third thing is just get up off your knees then and become a person of love. And that could be your spouse, that could be your children, but also, you know, it could be the guy that you meet that's working behind the cashier station in a store, or whatever. It could be your neighbor that's sick down the street. So we're have an opportunity every day, no matter who we are or where we're at. And if I'm married, I still have to take care of my neighbor, right, it goes out after that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Jack, to put it maybe more concretely, if one would think in terms of the virtues, and even you know St Paul's well-known passage in Corinthians love is patient, love is kind, love is not self-seeking. So if you're listening to this and saying, yeah, that sounds good, but really, what do I do? Where do I start?
Speaker 1:Maybe and you know what that's one? Yeah, let me just mention it to people. I'll try to remember to put this in the show notes that that's 1 Corinthians 13, Linda, and they should read that because of what you just said. If you read that, you'll have a pretty good understanding of the demands of love that we're talking about.
Speaker 2:And isn't it a little bit ironic, jack, that it's so popular for weddings? It's like deep down inside we know this is kind of the formula for being that person of love. And again, how are we defining love? It's willing the good of the other as other. So we're not defining it in any romantic sense really at all. It's that willing the good of the other. Looking at developing any one of those virtues as a starting point, maybe patience is a good one. We certainly need that in every that, in every relationship.
Speaker 1:The one that you're weak on right. We're all created unique and unrepeatable and some of us have to work on patience. Some of us have to work on kindness, but you'll read it all there. Like Linda said, just pick out one of those virtues and practice it and ask for the grace to do that.
Speaker 1:I know that my patience sometimes is not the best and I always work on that. I know that my patience sometimes is not the best and I always work on that. If I'm speaking to somebody and I'm feeling like, well, I'm almost bundled up because the way they're speaking or talking to me or not responding the way I want, and I pray as I'm sitting there listening to them, give me just the patience to get through another minute of this or whatever, and then you start to almost see the joy on the other person's face because somebody's listening to them and you realize, wow, I'm not supposed to respond right now. I'm not supposed to talk them into anything or give them my views. I'm supposed to just allow them to listen to me and sometimes those are the best things that we can do for that day.
Speaker 2:And, jack, we do it through our bodies, things that we can do for that day, and, jack, we do it through our bodies, you know, getting back to the real thesis here of how we are to bring that divine love into the world, and we do it through our bodies. So our words and our actions are incredibly important and very theological and very scriptural, that you know this, sometimes theoretical, but it is so very practical because if, as Mother Teresa said, if I don't find love there, I put love and I will find love. So, yeah, it all ties in.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so we're going to get into that right now, how our bodies reflect love. Let me just set this up because, the way John Paul said, he goes in your youth, this revelation becomes personal as young men and women begin to explore their identity as children of God, the meaning and purpose of living as self-gift, that's again, this is Trinitarian love. God is an eternal exchange of self-gift, and so we have to accept that into our own hearts of self-gift, and so we have to accept that into our own hearts, and then that's our whole meaning and purpose of life to be filled again and be those persons. And then in your youth you have this awakening of love, and he alludes to the fact that a man, say, awakens the idea of something more, and maybe he starts to think, oh, he's attracted to that girl, the girl's attracted to the guy. As young, young people, as still going into puberty and then adolescence, we have this awakening that something is big right. So this period is more than emotional or biological, it's deeply spiritual.
Speaker 1:As John Paul II taught, the body reveals a spousal meaning, the capacity to express love, in which the human person becomes a gift. This is our whole thing If we learn to do this and understand this. It turns your whole life around. You become unselfish when we sit in the selfishness all the time and always taking selfies, selfies, selfies.
Speaker 1:It's just such a toxic environment. It's all about me, me, me, right? If you don't give something to me, I protest, I burn a Tesla, I do that. You know. It's just so ridiculous. You know all these protesters that have no idea they're trying to find meaning and purpose in their life by protesting something they know nothing about and at the end of the day, they can hurt people. They're violent. You know, anytime you take this love story out of your heart, linda, you become irrational and then you can become very easily violent. And so John Paul talks about the actual, profound reality, and maybe you can read that. You know it's really his thesis on this whole thing. If you see it there, linda, I put some notes together in article two there, and that's really where we're at right now.
Speaker 2:And what St John Paul said was "body in it alone is capable of making visible what is invisible, the spiritual and the divine". So that's precisely what he's telling us is what our bodies are intended to be. And do you want the rest of it here?
Speaker 1:I'll read this yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2:Our bodies speak a language that, when rightly understood, communicates God's eternal mystery. Created male and female, we are called to reflect the Trinity through our communion. This communion, beginning with the marriage of Adam and Eve and culminating in the marriage of Christ and the church, is the cornerstone of the biblical narrative. So, yeah, we have the bookends of the Bible, our marriage beginning with Adam and Eve and then Christ in the church, and then the wedding feast in eternal life. So it's a wonderful analogy. One thing I do remember, jack, is that, while it's the best analogy we have, the Pope reminded us analogies always fall a little short of the reality, to keep that in mind. But this is a fantastic one that we're going to unpack.
Speaker 1:So our bodies I'm going to just repeat that so we let that sink in Our bodies. In fact, our bodies alone make visible the invisible. What are we talking about there? And let me continue another part that John Paul said. He said our bodies were created to transfer into this visible reality of this world that we can see and express the invisible mystery of love. We know, linda, love is invisible, even in a spousal relationship. If I'm showing my love to my wife, I can't just sit there and say nothing and do nothing. I have to make it visible, I have to transfer God's love into her heart. And how do I do that? It's from my actions, the way I talk, the way I look, the way I. You know 1 Corinthians 13, my kindness, you know, and all those types of things. And so that's what we're created to do and that's, you know, we're created.
Speaker 1:Our bodies reflect love. But they only reflect love if we become persons of love. Otherwise they can reflect taking lust. You know, the opposite of love is not hate, the opposite of love. It can turn into hate.
Speaker 1:But the opposite of love is lust.
Speaker 1:It's selfishness, it's pornography, it's seeing another person, linda, and seeing them as someone to use an object, I see that person's body as an object and you can see, love is not in that world, it's lust it's taking, and this is our world is full of this. To be a sign of contradiction, as Jesus is, is to actually go into that world of hatred and using and abusing, using children for sex trafficking and all the things child porn, I mean sick stuff going on in the world today, governments, again, that are just corrupt, seeing us as not as people to love that live in this country, but as just objects to use to pull our money out to do whatever right. So you see, this permeate everything and that we're called, then, to be the sign of contradiction, to walk into this world and transfer God's love into the world. And it's such a beautiful, profound thing that when you grasp this in your heart you go yes, of course, this is what's missing.
Speaker 1:This is what in my heart. I see the brokenness and it is broken and you should see that. But what do you do? Ah, now I have to become a person of love. I receive love and now I have to be love and that's the meaning and purpose of your whole life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd like to just reiterate what you just said. As you're saying, we're transferring God's love into the visible world, I can't do that unless I have received that love first. And so another good starting point is one might be thinking through what we're talking about. Do I receive God's love? How do I do that? Because I can't give what I don't have, as we say. So that's a wonderful starting point. And then, once I am working on that and I'm feeling God's love, I do go out and share that with others. In Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians, st Paul explicitly says and there's different versions but love is not self-seeking. It is not self-seeking. And we are in that toxic culture of crossing out the knot and saying you know, we are self-seeking. This is what the Pope was talking about in that paragraph I read. To start out with, he said don't inscribe the plan of your life a deformed content. And you see, that's what all of that is. It's very much deformed from God's plan.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you, and I think, linda, I don't want to go much further than this right now because I want people to sit on this. This is all throughout Scripture, like you mentioned, from one end to the other, it's this love story. It starts out with the love and a marriage of human beings with Adam and Eve. It ends, like you said, in the marriage, in the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, with the marriage of Christ and the church. Well, these two bookends are linked. It's always we are reflecting Christ, the bridegroom's love for the church, for us, and so this, of course, is the avenue, the gate that brings us into eternal love of God, of God himself as a trinity. So what I want to do now you mentioned, you know how do I do this right? How do I get into this? Well, this is the Claymore Battle Plan. So again, I remind everybody, like I do on most episodes, go to our website, go under resources and it's all in the show notes, click on Claymore and with Claymore you're going to see this a download for the Claymore Miletus Christi, which is, soldiers of Christ, and the Claymore sword. Is that Claymore sword behind me? And it's because John Paul said, the battle that we have to fight first is on a battlefield of our own hearts, between love and lust, between truth and lies, between all that's good and all that's evil, between all that's beautiful, this authentic love, and everything that wants to profane it. So this is the first battle and this is where it starts. So how do you do that right? So in this battle plan, you're going to see five aspects to Claymore formation as soldiers of Christ. And the first one, linda, you're not on every Friday show with us and you're going to join us, hopefully for a couple more, to continue to unpack this.
Speaker 1:But we're talking about spiritual formation here, and so I mentioned already the three things you do. First thing in the morning, instead of looking at that phone, you fall to your knees. First, you open your heart up with our Blessed Mother. Be it done to me according to your will. You understand, the temptations are going to come all day long, but now they're invitations to prayer. Now I'm opening that up and I see that beautiful young woman coming down the Osco aisle and I say thank you, jesus, for the beauty of that woman. I mean, the way she touches my heart is incredible. And I open my heart up and please allow me to see her as you see her. And then the third thing again is become that person of love. Whether I talk to that young lady, I say hi to her or not, you know I still have to love her.
Speaker 1:Now, how do I get past this? We have 15 to 30 minutes of prayer with Scripture. So we're reading Scripture Today. Let's read 1 Corinthians 13,. You guys, you know who's ever listening today? You know, sit there and read that and spend your 15 to 30 minutes reading with scripture and then meditate right on something that sticks out in there for you and that might be a great daily exercise.
Speaker 1:The third thing is mass, right. And the fourth thing is confession. So what is that? That's this, linda, that's that divine mercy image behind us. Right that if I want to step into this love story, I go to confession, I take what's called the nuptial bath, huh, baptism and also confession to wash me of my sins, you know, wash me of this lust and selfishness and be filled with grace, receive the Eucharist, which is when Jesus wants to become one flesh with us. Do we understand that, linda? You think the Eucharist I mean when you really go to a Mass, and I want you to comment on it a little bit. I mean, we literally take Jesus into our heart. What does that mean to you, linda, and maybe help the guys that maybe haven't been to Mass for a while? Or they're looking, they're at Mass and they're looking at what's happening on that altar and you know. Then you say this is my body given for and my flesh is real food, spiritual food.
Speaker 2:You know me. One way I've thought about it is the link is that we need to feed our souls and yet, you know, because we can't see our souls, we're talking about the invisible world. The Lord knew we would need something visible to help us understand that he is feeding us, and so that's what it is. Also, in the Divine Mercy meditations, one of them I can't quote which one it is, but one struck out to me in that, as we receive the Lord and he's there with us, he's kind of telling St Faustina, you know, you're already distracted, you're not even thinking about me, welcome me in your heart.
Speaker 2:And I thought, okay, the parallel for me was if I had a visitor come into my home and I opened the door and let them in and then I just went about my business, you know, whatever that might be, what would that be like for that person? And then we're doing that to Jesus if we get immediately distracted. So what I've been working on is trying to have that conversation with him, the gratitude that he has come to me, and then asking for the strength from him that I'm going to need to get through whatever the situations might be on that I can love more. Part of my confession always is I don't love enough, I just don't, and I need to love more. So that's how it affects me personally, personally, and it clearly is a union of love when we open ourselves to the fact that he is everything.
Speaker 1:He's what we need and he promised that to us. And finally, when all the smoke and fog clears, our great yearning, burning desire to love and be loved points directly at the Eucharist and Jesus' great yearning, burning desire to become one flesh with us. And we become one flesh again at that Mass. And we'll talk a little bit more about that sacrament of the Mass, linda, and what Christ is really doing. But if you ever wonder how he loves your spouse or how he loves that young lady coming down the aisle at Costco, just look up at a crucifix and you say this is my body given for you, right? I pour my love out to you to the very last drop. You mentioned in there John 6, where Jesus is saying this is actually my flesh that you're taking in.
Speaker 1:Right that when we enter into mass there's some confusion sometimes it's this Jesus being crucified over and over and over again. A lot of Protestants get that idea from Catholics, right? But it's not. You enter into and make present that one time. See, god doesn't live in time, right? So he did this, gave up his body for us on the cross one time. But during the Mass there's an altar there and that sacrifice of Jesus as the Lamb of God being sacrificed to bring us back into relationship with God. We enter into and make present that one-time historical experience brought down through history and, like you said earlier, linda, god and Jesus himself gives us this opportunity to every generation that comes afterwards.
Speaker 1:I didn't leave you. He says in Matthew, I will be here until the end of the age. And mass is that when heaven and earth kiss, and they kiss right there. And the most profound kiss is when I receive the Eucharist into my body and I become one flesh with the bridegroom, the eternal bridegroom, hanging on the crown, and I become one flesh, the bridegroom, the eternal bridegroom, hanging on the crown, and I become one flesh when we sit there and really pay attention to that. So I would say, linda, maybe the next meditation, if you have time this week after you meditate on 1 Corinthians 13, to read John 6, and maybe in its entirety. It'll set you up and then it'll go into that and watch, for many disciples will get up and leave because it's such a profound mystery it doesn't compute. That's why we said in the beginning just open your heart to this, because these are great mysteries and, like you said, some of these mysteries will take a long time to really come deep, but you'll experience a profound change in your heart over time.
Speaker 2:It's impossible not to if you're open if you're open, jack, we pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit before we begin so that he will help us have the words that our listeners need to hear In all of your words. Today it struck me that it took me right back to the Catechism 221. We've unpacked that God's very being is love and God's revealed his innermost secret. He is that eternal exchange of love Father, son and Spirit and has destined us to share in that exchange. Now juxtapose that against receiving the Eucharist and I would say that provides a meditation for me right there.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's beautiful. So I'll put those in the study notes 1 Corinthians 13, john 6, and, from the catechism that Linda just referenced, 2-2-1. They'll all make sense if you read those. So read those together. Try to find someone else to read those with right.
Speaker 1:This is a discipleship for young men and old men and and the and the women that love them.
Speaker 1:You know mothers, relatives, maybe a girlfriend, maybe your wife, but when you read those, let it go into your heart and and disciple with another man, if, if you're, you know, if you're so inclined, because when you share this as men together, something really profound happens and you shore each other up, you help each other to go out into your individual lives and love other people. It can be a difficult journey and it's not something you want to take on by yourself, because you really are a sign of contradiction in this world, linda. I mean, this world is not full of love and we we live in a fallen world and we have to realize that when we exploded onto that stage that we mentioned earlier, this was not neutral zone, was it, linda? This is a battle between good and evil, and Satan doesn't have his own clay. He would just love to twist and distort our bodies and the way we look at each other's bodies, and just be cognizant of that right that's something that wants to take this life away from you.
Speaker 2:Take us right back to the opening paragraph, where the Pope says do not be afraid of the love. That places clear demands on people. There's no getting around it, Jeff.
Speaker 1:But it's the most beautiful thing. And what man doesn't want to be a hero in his own life? Really, I mean, you want to be a hero. The only way you're going to be a hero is if you lay down your life for others. There's no other way. And at the end of your life, as it comes, you'll look back at your life and say, yes, I left it all on the battlefield of love. And it hurts sometimes, and we were wounded sometimes, and we picked ourselves up and we fought on until our prize right and until that veil of death, Linda, gets lifted up and this glory fills you. But we're not waiting until then. The battle goes on today, and so this is how you know that God is real, because he will give you the grace to do this, if that's what your heart is seeking right.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh, young people. I wish I'd had some of this 50 years ago.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes it's really wonderful it's.
Speaker 2:you know, guys, listen to Jack is what I say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Thank you, Linda. Thanks for being with us. I'll make sure Linda joins us again soon and we'll continue to unpack the story of our hearts. Huh, hey, thanks everyone. Thanks for listening to us. Talk to you again soon. Bye.