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
#661 The Zombie Apocalypse: Are You Living or Just Breathing? Escaping Our Self-Made Prisons
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Have you ever observed people walking down a street completely absorbed in their phones, disconnected from one another and their surroundings? Jack and Deacon Greg Farrell describe this modern phenomenon as a "zombie apocalypse" – bodies moving through space without authentic spiritual life. This haunting image perfectly captures the crisis facing many today, especially young people struggling with unprecedented levels of anxiety and depression.
The Claymore discipleship program offers a powerful antidote to this spiritual disconnection. Developed by the John Paul II Renewal Center, this battle plan guides men through Scripture reading, prayer, and fellowship with others on the same journey. At its heart lies the practice of Lectio Divina – a contemplative reading of Scripture that allows God's word to penetrate deeply into one's heart.
Deacon Greg shares a profound reframing of Jesus's words about "the gates of the netherworld" from Matthew 16. Rather than seeing the Church as merely defending against attacks, we should understand that gates don't attack—they imprison. Our mission as disciples is to storm these gates and free those trapped behind them. These gates represent the many ways we imprison ourselves through addiction to technology, pride, anger, fear, and the fundamental lie that we don't need God.
Ready to storm the gates? Download the Claymore Battle Plan from jp2renewed.org today and begin your journey toward authentic spiritual freedom.
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Keep Charlie Kirk and his family in your prayers!
Welcome to the Become who you Are podcast, a production of the John Paul II Renewal Center. I'm Jack Riggert, your host. This is our Friday episode, our special edition for Claymore Militist Christi. This is a discipleship program. We started a while ago, coming out of pilot now and really using it in some spots across the nation, writing a book, a handbook to go along with it. Not quite done with that yet, but this is already going. So I'm going to tell you again, or remind you again download this. If you download it from our website, jp2renewedorg, it'll be in the show notes. Go to resources at the top. At resources, you'll see poke on that, you'll see Claymore. Just download this. Here's the page that you want to download. It won't take all your color print and so you just see a sword there. It's only about six or seven pages. It gives you the whole breakdown, the whole outline of this battle plan, and it's a discipleship program. So we find one or two other guys to journey along with.
Speaker 1:I want to give a special shout out to a couple of young guys I met this last weekend Adrian, oscar, paul. We had a great conversation. We went out to a wonderful restaurant. I had been working with Adrian for a while, but the first time we met face-to-face he brought another wonderful young guy, oscar, and a young guy at heart. His name is Paul and I hope we can continue to stay connected, but these guys are on fire. It's really amazing when you see the spark goes off. Anyways, as part of Claymore, we asked them to read Scripture about 15, 20 minutes a day and to follow what we call Lectio Divina in the church. And again, if you go to Claymore, you'll be able to download a piece on two pieces there that are important. One is Lectio Divina, kind of just go what Deacon Greg and I are going to go through today, and also Praying with Temptations, another important one to do. This all started out before I bring Deacon Greg in officially and I'll just say a quick hi to you, deacon. How are you? I'm doing great Good. Hey, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1:I just want to set this up a little bit because you know I was telling you, deacon Greg, that I was in an Arthex in the back of church after Mass, talking to a few other people too and talking about a business trip I took to Washington, seattle, washington and I had a little time to kill before dinner, grabbed the coffee. Everybody grabs coffee there, no matter what time of the day it is, and as I was coming out I was looking for something. It was a nice evening. I was looking for a place to sit and I looked up the hill. Just a little ways Up a little walk up the hill, there was a long table sitting up there, so I figured I'm going to head back up there I the hill. There was a long table sitting up there so I figured I'm going to head back up there. I just was going to kick back and I'm a people watcher.
Speaker 1:So I'm looking down at the street below me where all these young people are crossing on the sidewalks there and, you know, just walking by each other. But they all had this phone stuck in their face and they were all walking kind of slow. I guess they're worried that you know they don't want to fall into a pothole or something, but nobody was saying hello to one another. Everybody was alone, everybody was walking about the same speed and it and it hit me that this was out of the twilight zone.
Speaker 1:There there was a I don't know if you remember this, deacon Greg, but when I was, when I was a kid, there was a TV show on called the twilight zone.
Speaker 1:It was awesome, and they had one on zombies, and zombies are basically bodies without a soul and sadly that's what this reminded me of Bunch of zombies without a soul, you know. And these young people are anxious, depressed, et cetera, et cetera. So, anyways, it's a long way of setting this thing up, but you reminded me that there was a gospel that spoke to this a while back and that you had gave a homily on, and it was an awesome homily. You send it to me and I said hey, if you don't mind, come on the show, let's talk to these young guys about Lectio Divina and how you, when you're reading scripture, what you do, how you meditate on it, you know, and how you decide. When you're reading Scripture, what you do, how you meditate on it, you know, and how you decide, you know what touches your heart. And then I want you to talk about that homily that you wrote. It was really good. So, anyway, say I'm throwing it in your court, brother Deacon, and you take it from there, will you? Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:So whenever I'm preparing for a homily, or even if I'm not preparing for a homily, when I'm doing the daily scripture readings, first things first is got to be in the right frame of mind. Right, get rid of the distractions, turn off the TV, the music, you know, all of that sort of stuff, anything that can be a distraction. Find a quiet place. Huh, find a quiet place, and ideally I have that cup of coffee in my hand when I'm doing it. Yeah, yeah, but it's also for me, it's also part of the daily prayer ritual. You know we've got liturgy of the hours, but then right after that, the daily readings from Scripture, and it's so beautiful the way the church has them laid out and so on. That follows the liturgical calendar and so on. And that's, I think, part of it for me too, is I always have to look and see who's being celebrated today, what saint is being celebrated, if there is one. If I know that we're celebrating the feast of, say, st Gregory the Great, like just a few days ago, then when I'm reading that scripture I say you know, how does that all tie together? Why does the church have these scripture readings on this day, etc. Etc. But being in the right frame of mind. Being in that quiet place is a great way to start.
Speaker 2:Another thing comes into play, and that is study.
Speaker 2:Because once you understand more about the faith, more about the history of the church, the history of not just the church but Old Testament history, all of that sort of stuff Once you get a sense of that sort of thing, then things kind of fall into place in ways that wouldn't if you don't understand that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:So then I'll start reading the scripture and there might be something that pops out at me that brings to mind something that I learned or heard or something like that a long time ago or recently, whatever it might be somebody else's homily, it might be something I read in a book while studying, and that sort of thing really brings the scriptures alive.
Speaker 2:So having that kind of base knowledge of our faith, of the history, of not just religious history but history in general, you know like what's going on at the time when Jesus was there there's a Roman empire, there's all kinds of intrigue and all of that sort of stuff going on in it it really adds kind of a depth to it that you miss if you just take those readings in isolation. I'm always looking for that connection, that connection between the reading and either my life or the life of my parishioners, you know, or my family's life, like there's some things that I know, you know, being an older guy. Maybe they're not quite as relevant to me now, but for a younger person it might be much more relevant.
Speaker 1:You know that sort of thing, yeah, I would say, you know, to these young guys, it's something, Greg, no matter where you're at, no matter where you start, something's going to stick out. And just to make it clear for somebody that's brand new, just go to that Claymore Battle Planet, I said, and there's a couple of links there under spiritual formation. You'll see some links there where you can get these readings that Deacon Greg is talking about. If you download something like the Magnificat, which has the daily mass readings, or HALO, you know, the prayer app, they're very, very good and they'll include commentaries, they'll actually something that you could listen to. That'll actually help you set up.
Speaker 1:Especially Hallow, you know, has Jeff Cavins on and he'll give you, you know, five, six, seven, eight-minute homily from every reading every day and give you some of that background. So if you are a little overwhelmed because you don't know the church that well or something, he'll start that way and each one of these readings, when they come up, will give you who that saint, who that feast day is. So you'll have all that right in front of you. There You're going to get an Old Testament reading, a psalm, a gospel, perhaps a letter from St Paul, and so something there, deacon Greg is going to come out right, something or a question, and you can always look it up in the catechism if you want to.
Speaker 1:You know, get a copy of the catechism, but let's kind of dig in and Lectio Divina, then we're reading it, meditating, we call it the next one, right where you describe that you're picking something out that's touching you somehow, and then sit there and prayer. Right, greg, you know, the third thing is to pray. You know God, if you're there, tell me what you want to. You know what you're trying to tell me through this passage that's touching my heart. Or is there another passage and expect you know over time you're going to get some great insights. But expect you know over time you're going to get some great insights.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's when you open yourself up to the Holy Spirit. It is truly amazing what can happen, what can come out of that. If you connect your reading with, like those commentaries and so on that you mentioned. It's amazing what other people see too, and it can help. You mentioned it's amazing what, uh, what other people see too, and it can help you see. It's like they're, you know, you're you're standing there, uh, next to them and they're pointing out something far away and you're like, oh, never would have saw, seen that that's right. So it's, it's really. It's really kind of uh cool when you can do that and when you start making those connections, like the light bulb goes off and it's like, oh, I feel good about this because I see something now that I didn't see before.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's a great point. You know we talk to these young guys, deacon Greg, a lot about the adventure that go on. You know, when you step into this faith, you're stepping into an adventure. You know we didn't create this universe or this larger story and we're finally saying, ooh, the smaller story of my life is connected to your point right now, to a bigger story, and now I'm entering into some whole new world and it could be a little overwhelming at first. So just take some baby steps, take some bites.
Speaker 2:Take some baby steps. Yeah yeah, it doesn't all. You know. I'm 56 years old. I didn't read the scriptures like this when I was, you know 20 years old for sure.
Speaker 1:If I even read the scriptures, I course it started a long time ago, certainly by the time and I'm older than you when I was a young guy, it was already coming apart, but it's really accelerating now and so there's an urgency to. This Time could be ticking down here in history, man. I always say that if we had the wrong people got elected this last election as president, we'd have a whole different cabinet and this country might be gone. So that's how close we were, so we got a little reprieved. But the young guys are going to have to step up and help those that are left in the older generations Not everybody is to help restore the country. Give them a future. Give them a future.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, to help restore the country, give them a future. Give them a future, Absolutely, it's. You know, Scripture is as relevant now as it was when it was written 2,000 years ago. You know, it's amazing to me how little people have changed over the years. You know, in Scripture you read about a lot of saints. Amen, but there's also. It's also full of sinners, people that struggle, people that fail. You know, look at Judas man. He was not a saint by any means.
Speaker 1:No, that's a great point, though. You know, human nature doesn't change. You know we hear these progressives, right, these liberals, and so, oh no, human nature is different, it's changed. Now we got to throw out tradition and start all over again and say, no, no, dude, you missed it. You know the ancient Greeks, 400 years before Jesus Aristotle, socrates, plato they were talking about the same things, deacon Greg, you know, it's amazing insights that they had. And we're talking about 2,500 years ago, 3,000 years, the Book of Wisdom. Yeah, it could have been from the Old Testament. It might have been a thousand years before Jesus came. It might have been yesterday. They wrote that, as far as I'm concerned. Isn't it amazing?
Speaker 2:It is amazing as I'm concerned, isn't it amazing? It is amazing, and you know the whole gist of all of this stuff. You know, why do we have scripture? Why did Jesus come in? And it's really for us to be taking that next step in I'll call it in evolution, right? We're kind of fighting with the animals within us. God wants us to take that step toward him, towards his divinity, and when you think about the enormity of that and the beauty of that, I mean it's really just amazing.
Speaker 1:Well, this gets into our zombie story. Because when you disconnect to your point, when you disconnect from that larger story, when you disconnect from God, you become a zombie. Disconnect from that larger story, when you disconnect from God, you become a zombie. In essence, it's a body and a soul without grace, without participation in the life of God, without—you have a soul, whether you realize it or not, but it's not filled with the Spirit. And so that the default position of a body and a soul without grace, without this grace that we're talking about from God and without a connection to God, that the fall position. This is just reality, deacon Greg. Right, for these young guys it's sin and death. It's just reality. I mean, there's a six-foot hole waiting for all of us out there, with a whitewashed tomb chisel poised waiting to put my date of death on there. And between now and then, we have to get this thing figured out and become persons of love, right To know the truth, become persons of love and bring good things into the world.
Speaker 1:That's what we're supposed to be doing, and the default position is sin and death, man and sin is part of all of our human natures. But we're called to your point to transcend that. We have to. We're called to your point to transcend that, to move beyond that, you know, to get into a greater life and allow Christ's redemption. Man, jesus came with power. He didn't come to manage our sins. He came with power to give us a new heart. Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk about that gospel that you were reading. Can you proclaim that gospel? Just read it, like if these guys are reading that gospel. And then you picked out something in there, right, and it includes the zombie correlation, and I want you to pretend like you're giving this homily to us today.
Speaker 2:and that reading that you picked out I think it was from Matthew right, it was from Matthew and it should be noted that it was the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. You know, it's not that often that we have a saint's feast day on a Sunday where we actually celebrate it on the Sunday, but you know, it's a very important feast day because it's Saint Peter and Paul, two of the greatest apostles and evangelizers, and so on. So, yeah, it's a very important feast day because it's St Peter and Paul, two of the greatest apostles and evangelizers, and so on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's from Matthew and it goes like this Give us the chapter Were you in the verses Matthew, chapter 16, verses 13 through 19.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I'm going to suggest to the guys that they read this and I'll put that in the show notes again. Sure, so one more time Matthew 16.
Speaker 2:Matthew 16, verses 13 through 19. Okay.
Speaker 1:I have that in the show notes and I want to ask everybody to read that on their own after the show and see what else you find in that. Thanks, deacon Greg.
Speaker 2:Sure. When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea, philippi, he asked his disciples who do people say that the Son of man is? They replied some say John the Baptist, other Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them but who do you say that? I am Simon. Peter said in reply you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said to him in reply Blessed are you, simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So that's the gospel from Matthew for that day. That's a mouthful there.
Speaker 1:You could have picked out a lot of things, but what did you pick out for that homily?
Speaker 2:So there's two things, the thing that really jumped out at me, the first of which was that Jesus said the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it, against the church. And then the other thing that jumped out at me was right at the beginning, when it says Jesus went to Caesarea Philippi. Now, if you know anything about that area at that time, it's an important piece of information, because in Caesarea Philippi it's a real like pagan. There's a bunch of pagan temples there, you know, and it's not by mistake that Jesus took the apostles there. I mean, they had to go a long way out of the way to get there. So he's making a point in a very, very pagan area. So those two things really jumped out at me. And knowing what I know about Caesarea Philippi, but also that you know the gates of another world shall not prevail against it, it's always been kind of a strange way to say something like that. It just didn't make sense.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so so think about this that location is full of zombies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, in essence, you know, and, and, completely separated from God, yeah Right, walking around and, just, you know, trying to. You know, when I think about a zombie is I think about a, you know, a body. When you see a zombie movie, you know they want to feast on somebody's blood. Right, they need life because they're not getting that life, deacon Greg, and this is our whole culture. We could bring this right up to today and my story in Seattle. You know, these people are starved.
Speaker 1:They're starved for something right and they're trying to fill themselves up and they don't even know what it is. So that's a good setting. And then how about the netherworld? What's the meaning of the netherworld and the gates of the netherworld? You know what's that got to do for our young people coming on and this will go out to everybody, right? I always say it's the young guys, deacon Greg and all the people who love them, right? Parents, grandparents, friends, girlfriends, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:So those are the things that jumped out at me and after contemplating them for a long time because I do work on these homilies, these Sunday homilies especially for a long time you know there's a connection there and that's kind of the gist of the homily. Is that connection between the netherworld and the mission of St Peter and Paul? So should we go into the homily?
Speaker 1:Yeah, just is there anything else we need to say, or you're going to address go into the homily, or do you want to? Yeah, just, is there anything else we need to say? Or you're going to address it in the homily itself about that netherworld, right? So the guys will get a little understanding of where we're at. I'd go into the homily and then, if we have questions, I'll think what they may be asking, right? Thanks, deacon.
Speaker 2:Okay. So parts of this gospel reading from Matthew can be a little confusing, like the part about the gates of the netherworld not prevailing against the church. People tend to think it means that the church will be able to successfully defend against an attack. But when is the last time you went somewhere with a gate and thought, oh no, that gate is going to attack me. Well, gates are meant to keep you in or out. So what last time you went somewhere with a gate and thought, oh no, that gate is going to attack me. Well, gates are meant to keep you in or out. So what is Jesus getting at? Well, first let's talk about the netherworld, or Hades as it's sometimes translated.
Speaker 2:It was a place where the dead went to await judgment. According to ancient Jewish tradition. It's not hell, but it was a dark, dreary, joyless place. It's also the place where the agents of evil and deception were thought to reside. Kind of imagine the DMV, but worse. But most importantly, it was a place of separation from God, separation from his love and the life he created all people for. And the gates prevent the dead from escaping, just like in a prison. But here's the thing Death is not just something that happens to us after we die. We can experience a spiritual death while we're still breathing.
Speaker 2:You know, I saw a meme the other day that kind of illustrates the point. It was a bunch of. It was a picture of a bunch of people walking on a sidewalk. Every single one of them had their heads bowed down, peering at the cell phone in their hands. Every single one of them had their heads bowed down, peering at the cell phone in their hands, and the caption read here's your zombie apocalypse. It was amusing, I thought, but also sad because of the truth.
Speaker 2:It brings up that so often, without even knowing it, we're building a prison for ourselves with gates locked up tight that robs us of the lives God created us for. And it all began in the Garden of Eden. I'm sure you remember that story. The serpent convinces Eve that eating the fruit from the tree is really a good thing, despite what God told her. She makes her choice and then Adam falls in line. The serpent convinced them to build their own prison gate that separated them from God, a gate built on lies and half-truths and disobedience. That is when spiritual death and bodily death entered the world, and that's been the game the serpent has played ever since convincing us to build our own gates of the netherworld, as it were. There are so many ways he accomplishes that and, of course, he has a lot of help. Much of our society seems to be working for him.
Speaker 2:Okay, so what are these gates? What does this prison look like? Well, they can look like our cell phone, our computer, our social media accounts. Could be pride or anger, or laziness, or ignorance or greed, despair, fear or an unwillingness to accept responsibility for our actions. Could even look like the friends we choose to hang out with. And, of course, it could look like the temptation that humanity has been fighting since the very beginning, the one where we convince ourselves we don't need God or, worse, that there is no God. The truth is, it could be any number of things, but it's always a failure to love others, to allow ourselves to be loved by others, to love ourselves in the right way and to love God above everything else. You know, we build for ourselves a prison of loneliness, separation, anxiety, self-absorption.
Speaker 2:Okay, so, getting back to that question, I asked in the beginning what is Jesus getting at when he tells Peter that the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against the church? Well, jesus is giving Peter and the church he's supposed to shepherd a mission, the same mission Jesus completed after his death on the cross to storm the gates of the netherworld and set those people free who did not belong there and lead them to the gates of heaven, where they do belong. It's a mission that the two men whom we celebrate this day, peter and Paul, took up with a passion, and we can see from the other two readings that Jesus didn't just give them the mission and then ditch them. He gave them help when they needed it. Both of them stormed the gates of the netherworld. Everywhere they went, and brought the good news that death does not have the final say. But they didn't just show up and knock on the gates. No, they went prepared, because if a person is going to storm the gates they need to be dressed appropriately.
Speaker 2:Paul gives us a description of the proper attire. In Ephesians. He says put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now armor seems like the right kind of attire for storming the gates. He then lists the various parts of the armor the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Holding them all together is God's love. That's what the people imprisoned in the darkness need. They need truth and faith and the hope of salvation and the word of God and mercy, and most of all, they need love.
Speaker 2:All of us here share the mission to storm the gates of the netherworld, just like Peter and Paul did. Now that may sound scary, you know. When we think of the gates of the netherworld, we might think they're like the gates of Mordor in the Lord of the Rings movie. I'm sure you remember that they were massive and guarded by nightmarish creatures and meant to make everyone believe that they're impossible to breach. That's what the devil wants us to think. He wants us to think that storming his gates would be futile, that our sins are unforgivable, that other people's sins are unforgivable, that we can't possibly work free of the prison. But it's not really like that because, remember, the gates are made of lies and half-truths and Jesus has already broken the lock on the gates.
Speaker 2:So all of us need to put on that armor of God. We need to fill our hearts with God's love and take advantage of his mercy in the sacrament of confession. We need to fill our hearts with God's love and take advantage of his mercy. In the sacrament of confession, we need to trust that Jesus will give us what we need for the mission. We need to fortify ourselves at the table of the Eucharist. And then we need to storm the gates of the netherworld, wherever we find them, and do our best to free those people who are trapped there. Remember, because we are part of the church founded on Peter the Rock, the gates of the netherworld can't stop us.
Speaker 1:Man, that's beautiful, that's beautiful. You know, so many thoughts are going through my mind, this enslavement, that we see how many of these young people that I was describing and you're also describing in your homily are. These are self-enclosed walls that, like you said, they can come down but we keep them up ourselves. Isn't that something that our freedom? St Catherine of Siena, st Teresa of Avila, st John of the Cross, they all talked about? You know, freedom and freedom. What is freedom? Right, freedom's always for something, and you described it very well for truth, for love. Freedom's not just licensed to do anything, and that's what we think right. We get caught up in there. One of the things and I'll throw it back at you, deacon Greg is that I think one of the most dangerous things we see now for young people that I didn't even have when I was growing up are these phones, the social media, et cetera, where I could be out into the world, right, even a broken pagan, let's call it culture. I could be living a demoralized or a degrading life, but at least I would come home right, especially as a young man. At least I would come home and I would be kind of quiet right, kind of sheltered from all this. But now we bring this thing right in and we continue this bombardment morning, noon and night, and I don't think we ever get a rest.
Speaker 1:One of the young guys that I had dinner with this week, that I described Adrian, said it can be exhausting, and I brought it up a couple of times during the course of the conversation, quoting him. I said, yes, can be exhausting, and I brought it up a couple of times during the course of the conversation. Quoting him. I said, yes, this is where that exhaustion comes from. Right, you just get tired, greg. I think you get anxious, depressed, suicidal, because you go I'm done, I'll never get out of this mess. But yet I want you to comment on that. These walls can come down, can't they? These walls can come down.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean, the devil's power is in his lies. You know he doesn't make us do things.
Speaker 2:He convinces us that it might be the right thing to do. He convinces us that we should do it, or he convinces us that if we don't do it, we're going to be missing out on something, all of those sorts of things. And you know, when you think about what a lie is, it's just simply an absence of truth. You know, it's like darkness. Darkness is the absence of light. It's not something that can hold you back, it's just an absence. Boy, what a great point. Yeah, so that's what lies are. They're like darkness, they're not real.
Speaker 1:And there's a power, isn't there. When I start to walk into the light, I know something is happening. And it takes courage to keep going. And that's why I think we try to get people to disciple with each other. To have a couple of young guys or girls, you know, or any of us, you know, I got to walk with my friends, deacon Greg, because, man, it's a battle, you can get a little down sometimes, but the next guy's up, the next guy's saying hey, jack, I just went through that yesterday, dude, this is what I did, you know, I read some scripture, I sat in the chapel, I prayed a little bit and, man, I came out of it and so you're right. And the same thing with truth. There's something about speaking the truth against all these crazy lies that freeze you. Isn't there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's amazing how much anxiety and all of the struggles that especially young people go through that are based on lies, that are based on half-truths you know, that are just really meant to drag people down into the darkness and, like you said, the truth. You shine the light of truth on these things and they disappear, disappear, just like the darkness.
Speaker 1:That's something on these things and they disappear, Disappear, Just like the darkness, Something you know the mystics and the saints talk about that you know. Turn the light on, start speaking the truth, and the demons scatter. They do Especially in the name of Jesus. Right, when you declare the name of Jesus, they'll actually start to scatter from your heart, from your mind, from that force around you.
Speaker 1:You know, when young people are anxious, there's a psychological term called cognitive dissonance and that term is very real. It's when your heart, your human heart, everything that we're talking about, we're made for the truth, we're made for authentic love, we're made for relationships, good relationships, everything that's true, good and beautiful. When the culture is telling us a lie, bringing us false and illusions, and it meets that heart that you're created for, that purity, the truth itself, when they meet, something happens. You do get anxious. I would say all anxiety is not bad as long as you don't try to stay there. Maybe I should read scripture and maybe pick out a word or a phrase or two and meditate on that, pray on that and then sit in silence and allow God to speak to me. What do you think about that, Deacon Greg?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's absolutely true. Yeah, that cognitive dissonance is a huge problem right now because there's, like you said, when you were younger you were able to, you know, check out from that for a while.
Speaker 1:At least a few hours right.
Speaker 2:Yeah Now it's nonstop, nonstop and it's overwhelming.
Speaker 1:And we do it to ourselves. We're walking around with this. Now, look, can you see John Paul? John Paul's site, yeah, yeah. So he comes up on my phone, reminds me. Hey, turn that thing off for a few minutes.
Speaker 2:We need that reminder, you know. But it takes discipline. That's really so. You know, part of what I was thinking about for this homily is you had Peter and Paul. They were asked to do hard things. You know, and that's really an important ingredient in developing your character is to actually do hard things. So much, so many times we just want to take the easy route. You know just, it's so easy to sit there and watch Netflix. It's so easy to sit there and scroll on the phone.
Speaker 1:That's why that sword Deacon, greg, I mean, what you're describing is what it means to become a man. That's what you're describing. Yeah, you know, if you want the soft pansy-ass road, you know, go for it. You'll never become the man that you're supposed to be. I mean, you know Peter and Paul, you know those guys had some rough times, didn't they? This was not easy. I mean, these were. You know, peter was a fisherman with this family, you know. And now he's out there, and you know, preaching the gospel.
Speaker 1:And it's not like everybody just said oh yeah, tell me more. Tell me more, because Jesus was a sign of contradiction, saying no, you know, if you want to find a great life, you can't start. You can't be using and abusing and stealing and looking at a woman as an object and grasping, taking, taking, taking At some point. You know that adds up to an empty life. And then you're facing that tombstone out there too. And what did you do, greg? You look around and you see a dysfunctional family that you created, that children that you didn't raise properly or maybe weren't even there for them.
Speaker 2:You've used women and left them on their own, maybe to have an abortion or whatever right you got to start to turn that stuff around Turn that stuff around Not easy to do the hard things, the hard things that that bring you closer to Christ, that bring you closer to your, to your loved ones, you know, if you're married and that sort of thing, especially early on in the marriage, at least in my case, it was very difficult. But it was difficult because I made it difficult with selfish decisions.
Speaker 1:Amen Me too brother. Me too.
Speaker 2:Been there. But you know you can avoid it. You can avoid those things by making even more difficult choices, which is to live a virtuous life, and then you build up that discipline. You know, and that's a big part of it, that can be hard, that discipline part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's a big part of it. That can be hard. That discipline part, yeah, and we weren't called to be. When young people today hear a virtuous life, they get that mixed up with being Puritans. Catholics are not Puritans in the sense that we don't put away all music, we don't put away all fun. We can have a glass of wine, you can even smoke a cigar. You know these young guys.
Speaker 1:You know I go to some great young Catholic communities with a bunch of young guys and you know, just for fun. They meet once a month in this one area that I'm thinking about right now, not too far from my house, and I go there once in a while to say hi to everybody. And a lot of them are involved in Claymore and discipling other young men. But anyways, they go outside. They'll have a beer Some guys drink, some guys don't. They'll go out and smoke cigars and light a bonfire and just talk about life and love and what they're going to do. But these are virtuous men, these are strong men, these are guys that are reading scripture every day, praying the rosary on the way there, but still having fun. You know, and this is what we're talking about, it's a balance, you know it's a beautiful balance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those things, in moderation, they're perfectly fine. It's just. Living a virtuous life means they don't become your master. It means that you are the master of your desires and all of that sort of things. I'll be honest Catholics are the happiest people I know. They have the most fun and avoid the most difficult parts of life for the most part. There's always difficulties. We all have our crosses to bear, but they tend to be because virtue is really the path to happiness. I don't think people realize that, but it's. It's so true.
Speaker 1:It is true. It is true, and again, that the ancient Greeks got this look into the habitual good and getting in those habits of doing good things. So when we fall down on our knees, deacon Greg which we do with Claymore first thing in the morning, before you look at that phone fall down on your knees and we imagine and in reality it's happening our Blessed Mother kneeling with us in her fiat. Be it done to me according to your word. It's interesting, you said this already. The second thing we say is we follow our Blessed Mother and Jesus to the wedding feast at Cana, where he said do whatever he tells you, right. So that's the second thing we do, you know. The next thing we do very quickly, this just happens in five minutes.
Speaker 1:We understand that temptation is not a sin, that Jesus himself was tempted, and what we do is we open our temptations up, we give them over to Christ, you know, and we just open them. I don't hold on to those things. I got a million temptations. I would be exhausted, right, but I'm not, because it's an invitation to prayer, you know. And then the third thing we get up off our knees. We love the next person. We see it's not brain surgery. But in order to do that, you need grace, and so we're opening our hearts to grace, we're giving God our temptations. We listened to a little snippet from a Divine Mercy app from Sister Faustina and Jesus having a conversation, because she's always talking about that mercy as we end up here. Deacon Greg, maybe just a word or two on mercy. We really need to be bathed in Christ's mercy, especially in today's times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we really do. I mean, if you look at the whole ministry of Jesus, mercy is a very big part of it. You know, His death on the cross is an act of mercy. It's an act of justice and an act of mercy at the same time, Because if you think about mercy, God is like the perfect expression of mercy. He's the perfect expression of justice. Those things to be in the same place that's really the only way that the whole passion of Jesus could really take place.
Speaker 2:Is justice and mercy at the same time juxtaposed together, as they say? So mercy is a fundamental part of who God is, and when we exercise mercy to other people, when we seek mercy from God, we're really participating in what it is to be divine right. God is mercy. So if we are merciful, we are like God. So it's a huge benefit to everybody to really have a merciful heart. And that merciful heart, as I said, is not just about being merciful to others. It's about seeking mercy, opening yourself up to mercy, asking for mercy, and if you ask for it, God is ready to give it to you. God is ready to, you know, pour out that mercy upon you, because that's what he wants to do the whole story of the prodigal son. I mean I can't read that story without weeping because it's just so much about God's mercy, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, when I first started to really dwell on mercy, john Paul said mercy is the second word for love, basically what you're saying right there. And I started to pay attention and I realized how many times at Mass you hear the word mercy, right from the very beginning of Mass. And if you pay attention to that word, you'll hear it over and over and over again. And so it's the second word for love. I love you and I'm going to shower you with mercy. And I think that's what these young guys are doing. When they see somebody that's coming back in, digging Greg to the faith, they're starting to come back into prayer. And then they see their friends and they see how far already you know, there's a separation. Almost right away that happens. All of a sudden they start to hear them throwing the F-bomb around and now before they didn't even notice it Now they go oh man, yeah, is this the way I was talking all the time?
Speaker 1:you know or oh, look at that girl or whatever and there's nothing wrong with looking at a girl I mean, they're beautiful but to lust and say, oh, I wish I could have her, do her, versus I wish I got to know her and got to know who she was, this is just a different perspective, right? And they start to see that, and then that's what they do. I think that's exactly what they're feeling. They're feeling, you know, merciful toward these other guys and then inviting them into the story and say, hey, and of course not all of them are going to come, if they come, they come. There's nothing we can do about that, but they're inviting them in. And these are gutsy young guys, deacon Greg, you'd be proud of them.
Speaker 1:You have to meet some of these guys one of these days.
Speaker 2:You know they're storming the gates of the netherworld. You know, to get back to the homily there, they're identifying the people that are wandering around in the netherworld and they are walking through that gate and saying, hey, there's a better way which? Is just a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they're experiencing it already. I mean, can you imagine, I mean you come back in to the faith maybe your childhood faith or maybe something new and you already feel that change of heart dinging you already enough to be able to turn to another guy and say, dude, I don't know everything, but I know that maybe you should try this or listen to this. So it's just a reality, I guess is the point I'm trying to make. It's the reality of a changed heart. I know it, you know it, and all these guys that I know, we've all we're fallen broken people and you know some worse than others. Obviously I got pretty bad and so I and I think what happens is when you come from you know a really broken youth, that you really appreciate it. I really appreciate. You know where I'm at now, what I know, and it still doesn't make it all easy and certainly perfection is far away, but it's good. I know something good is happening, right.
Speaker 2:Something good is happening. Yeah, perfection may be far away, but you're heading in that direction, so that's yeah. I cling on to the person.
Speaker 1:That's perfect.
Speaker 2:And that's where that mercy comes in. They'll drag you that way, yeah.
Speaker 1:Deacon Greg, you're such a pleasure. Thank you so much. Thanks for being with us. Thanks, everybody. Talk to you again soon. All Bye-bye, bye now.