Fr Dan Reehil - The Truth About Faith That Many People Struggle to Accept

[00:00:00]Good day. Welcome to Battle Ready. Let's pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[00:00:05]Come Holy Spirit. Come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, thy well-beloved spouse, infuse into our hearts and minds your gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding in perfect deference to your perfect will that all would be for the glory of God our Father through Christ our Lord.

[00:00:20]Amen.

[00:00:21]In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

[00:00:24]All right, we're in the new year. A little happy new year to you. We kicked it off with honoring our Our Lady as Mother of God.

[00:00:33]And uh you know, almost immediately the attacks began. You know, we had the um the massacre in New Orleans at yesterday at about 3:15 in the morning, which I mean, I'm not blaming anybody, but you know, people who are going to stay out till 3:15 in the morning, it's just it's uh nothing good happens at that hour. You know what I mean? Um but you know, it could have been worse.

[00:01:01]There could have been bigger crowds. So, we're we're just you know, praise God that uh uh we're sad for the victims, but we know it could have been worse. Then, of course, we had the the the Cybertruck blow up in Trump Tower in Las Vegas. So, um you know, these people these are terrorists. Uh they want to hurt us.

[00:01:25]And we have to be praying for God's protection to rain down over our country. And the way we do that first is by repenting.

[00:01:32]You know, basic repentance is what begins the conversion that grants and draws down from heaven God's graces of of uh protection and uh deliverance from the evil. So, we have to begin there. You know, a lot of people want to be protected, but they don't want to do the work. The work of loving God with all our hearts and strength and soul. But, that's [snorts] how it works, you know.

[00:01:55]Can't get around it.

[00:01:56]So, we have to begin there. Um let this time be a time of prayer the next What do we got? 18 days until this transfer of power occurs? It's going to be very important. We're praying for protection of our country. And again, it's it can't be lip service. It has to be actual worship of God. The worship of God. It would be good if the whole the USCCB put out a global email to all Americans asking for uh these the next 2 and 1/2 weeks to be weeks of prayer, fasting, and penance for America.

[00:02:30]That would be a great thing. Uh I don't think we'll see it, but you know, it would be a great thing. Sadly, once things do spiral out of control into chaos is when sometimes people get woken up and then they start asking for prayers. I got to tell you, prayer is always good, but there's a point where it's a little bit too late, you know? Our Lady always said she came before both World Wars and and warned us about the wars and said, "Repent and turn back to God, or there'll be a war. Repent and turn back to God again, or there'll be a second war."

[00:03:00]You know, she gave us the chance to to do that, and we we blew it. And the world went spiraled into two World Wars.

[00:03:08]And then it's harder to uh disengage yourself from a tragedy that huge. It's just once it's in play, it's in play. And it takes time to undo that damage. So, you know?

[00:03:21]Uh a little bit of planning ahead and getting on our faces ahead of the curveball would be good. Okay.

[00:03:30]Today, I want to read to you the scripture that uh comes to us at the mass today.

[00:03:35]>> [snorts] >> And we have finished our Christmas octave.

[00:03:39]It's over. Thank God uh for the graces we received during these 8 days of Christmas. And now we go forward into the mission of Jesus Christ.

[00:03:50]So, So begin to look forward to this ministry of the Lord and in our gospel today St. John the Baptist is the one who's pointing out that mission.

[00:04:00]So let me read you what John says. This is from Matthew chapter 3.

[00:04:07]John the Baptist preaches and baptizes, okay? In those days John the Baptist appeared in the desert of Judea preaching repent for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.

[00:04:18]This was the man of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of the one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight."

[00:04:28]And John's clothing was made of camel's hair and with a leather loincloth around his waist and his food consisted of locusts and wild honey.

[00:04:35]>> [snorts] >> Uh the people of Jerusalem and the whole of Judea and the entire region along the Jordan went to out to him and they confessed their sins and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

[00:04:48]Okay, they confessed their sins. That's the repentance part that I'm talking about. That has to come first.

[00:04:54]But when he observed many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

[00:05:04]Produce good fruit as proof of your repentance.

[00:05:08]Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.'

[00:05:11]For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

[00:05:22]So there's the second part, producing the good fruit, actually going and doing the good works that God's calling us to.

[00:05:29]"I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who's coming after me is more powerful than I am. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

[00:05:38]His [snorts] winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear the freshing threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn.

[00:05:45]But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

[00:05:50]So then Jesus shows up and he John baptizes Jesus. So that's the account from Matthew.

[00:06:03]This is from Mark, similar but a little bit different. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God.

[00:06:09]It is written in the prophet of Isaiah, "Behold, I'm sending my messenger ahead of you. He will prepare your way. The voice of the one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his path."

[00:06:20]Hence, John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

[00:06:26]Uh it goes on about his clothing.

[00:06:29]He says, "I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." And then he baptizes Jesus.

[00:06:35]Okay?

[00:06:49]In Luke, it begins chapter 3 with in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis and Lysanias was a tetrarch of Abilene during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.

[00:07:12]The word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the desert. He journeyed throughout the entire region of the Jordan Valley proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah.

[00:07:26]The voice of the one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.

[00:07:35]Okay, so finally >> [snorts] >> we get to John.

[00:07:45]>> Uh so this is the Gospel of John chapter 1.

[00:07:52]19, verse 19. This is the testimony offered by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"

[00:07:59]He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."

[00:08:04]Then they asked him, "Who are you then?

[00:08:06]Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not."

[00:08:08]"Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No." "Therefore," they said to him, "who are you, so we may have an answer to give to those who sent us.

[00:08:16]What have you to say about yourself?"

[00:08:19]He replied in the words of the prophet Isaiah. So here John's Gospel, he's taking those words that were used to describe him, and John himself is proclaiming them.

[00:08:28]"I am the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord."

[00:08:34]Some Pharisees were present in this group, and they asked him, "Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize with water, but among you there is one whom you do not know.

[00:08:45]The one who is coming after me, I'm not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandal."

[00:08:50]This took place at Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. This is actually the reading from today.

[00:08:55]Very interesting.

[00:08:57]John knows the scriptures. Of course, he's a good Jew. How could he not? His father is at one of the high priests at the temple.

[00:09:04]Uh and >> [snorts] >> he he says he's not a prophet, but he really is a prophet. But he's a very humble prophet, and this is the benchmark of the great saints of God.

[00:09:16]They are truly humble. Humble doesn't mean you're a doormat or you're self-deprecating. That's not what humble is. Humble is merely uh recognizing your place before God, and God gets all the glory.

[00:09:30]That's it. God gets all the glory.

[00:09:34]So John's saying, "I am the voice crying out in the desert. This is a very interesting thing. John is a smart man.

[00:09:41]He's the voice.

[00:09:43]When we think of a voice, the voice is used to carry a word, idea, or thought.

[00:09:48]Okay?

[00:09:49]So, you have an idea.

[00:09:51]It's in your mind, it's in your heart.

[00:09:53]You use your voice to express this idea.

[00:09:56]And this idea goes across to anybody listening in the room. Suddenly, they grasp your idea from the voice, and the voice is done.

[00:10:04]Now, the idea takes root, and the idea can bring forth great change and great goodness in people's hearts if it's a good word. And of course, if it's a bad word or something uh vulgar, that will bring forth bad fruit in somebody's heart if they nurture it.

[00:10:20]He says, "I'm the voice." He knows he's not the one. The one coming is the word, and he speaks the word, and it literally is the word because it's part of scripture.

[00:10:32]But John knows he's the voice. And then, once his mission is done, the voice ceases. The voice is done, and that word goes forth, and the word is Jesus Christ. And that's what he's preparing hearts for is to receive that word.

[00:10:46]Interesting, John says it himself, you know, I must decrease so he may increase. And then John just goes away.

[00:10:53]And eventually is uh captured and uh put in jail and then uh beheaded.

[00:10:59]But it's interesting to note, you know, we should really uh take uh a good look at what John's doing here.

[00:11:08]Because ironically, it is his humble admission that he is not worthy to untie the straps of the Jesus sandals. That makes him so great. And this is one of those great uh wonders about how God does things. He lifts up the lowly, and he casts down the mighty from their thrones.

[00:11:27]It's right out of the Magnificat.

[00:11:29]What do I mean by that? The the lower that we make ourselves, the the more we give honor to God and place ourselves beneath him, the more he raises us up.

[00:11:40]And the more we try to glorify ourselves, the more he will cast us down, like Lucifer. Lucifer was the big loser who got cast out of heaven because of him trying to make himself like God.

[00:11:52]Uh Adam and Eve in the garden, they tried to be like God, they are cast out.

[00:11:58]They are made very low in that moment, and they have to suffer for it. And then all of us get strapped and with the same uh uh suffering that they had to endure by losing the uh that holy closeness with God, walking with him in the garden, and of course then being uh burdened by original sin.

[00:12:19]So, Jesus comes to remove that original sin, but it's not a blanket sweep. It it is done through baptism.

[00:12:27]And uh it has to be chosen either today by either the individual or by the parents of the child.

[00:12:34]And this is what removes the original sin.

[00:12:38]So, when we think about uh humility, you know, a lot of people will say to me, "Father, I don't need the middleman.

[00:12:47]I don't need anybody to uh go between me and Jesus.

[00:12:53]I'm just going to go directly to him myself."

[00:12:55]And that [snorts] kind of eliminates the church. So, by one, by eliminating uh the body of Christ, you're cutting off the head from the body, which in most cases, when I see a head cut off from a body, it means the body's dead. Okay? That's the first thing.

[00:13:09]Number two, Jesus instituted this body of Christ, this church, in order to uh instill graces into us through the sacramental system.

[00:13:20]To impart that grace, that life-changing grace that would give us new life. You know, this was a rescue mission. He didn't come to make us better. That's what a lot of people say to me. Oh, he came to make us good. No, no, no, no, no. Wrong. Zero. Buzz.

[00:13:35]He came to make us alive again. We were dead and we had no way to get back that life and that that relationship with the Father. He alone did that. Okay. So, you've separated yourself from uh the body of Christ. Uh you've decapitated it's kind of decapitated the head from the body. You don't need the church.

[00:13:57]Now, who's governing your thoughts?

[00:13:59]Where do you go when you have a question?

[00:14:01]You know, this is the reason there's something like 60,000 denominations of Christianity in America today because somebody had a disagreement over something and they split the church in two and half stayed and half started a new church with their new ideology.

[00:14:14]There's no governing body to uh discern what is actually the truth about the word of God. Well, the the original church, the OG that Jesus started, has that governing body and it's called the Curia.

[00:14:28]And the bishops in union with the Pope uh for 2,000 years have been uh opening up that bud of the gospel into a beautiful flower uh in the fullness of the truth to guide us along these paths and to apply these metrics of the gospel to individual situations as they occur with the advancement of technology and medicine and everything else. So, you know, there was no in vitro uh in 2,000 years ago that had to be discerned and measured in modern times by applying the principles of the gospel to uh those the those procedures.

[00:15:06]You know, this applies to everything.

[00:15:07]I'm just using an example.

[00:15:10]What else do I see when somebody says that to that they don't need the middle man? Well, it could be from a place of pure heart.

[00:15:18]But, if Jesus established this, if Jesus established this order of the church, if Jesus said to Peter, "Whose sins you retain are retained, and whose sins you forgive are forgiven."

[00:15:30]Meaning, I'm giving you my authority now to forgive sins. It's going to be called the sacrament of reconciliation.

[00:15:36]I'm giving you my authority and my spirit to transform bread and wine into my very body and blood, then who are you to come along and say, "I don't need that."

[00:15:49]Do you think Jesus established the Eucharist because he had nothing better to do?

[00:15:54]Do you think Jesus established the Eucharist as one of many options to give us new life and to give us food for the journey through this life? No, this was a predetermined and very principled decision that he made to do this, and it was no small decision to die on the cross.

[00:16:14]And then to make that that dying passion, death, and resurrection represent at the holy sacrifice of the mass to institute the Eucharist so you could be fed. No small feat.

[00:16:27]But let's go a step further.

[00:16:28]Okay, I don't really need the church. I don't want a middle guy. I'm going to go straight to Jesus.

[00:16:35]Where is the humility in that?

[00:16:38]You know, if Jesus said, you know, "This is what I desire.

[00:16:41]Do this in memory of me." This, meaning the sacrifice of the mass.

[00:16:48]He said it at the Last Supper. "Do this in memory of me."

[00:16:53]So, you're coming up to Jesus now and say, "I don't need that. What you want, I don't want that. I'm just going to go to you directly.

[00:17:00]That's all I want to do."

[00:17:02]See, this isn't about you.

[00:17:04]It's about him.

[00:17:06]And it's about honoring the way he wants us to worship him, the way he wants us to encounter him, the way he wants us to be led by him.

[00:17:15]So, you can go directly and do it your way, but it's going to take twice as long and you're going to get half the graces simply because you're not being humble.

[00:17:25]Humility means I bow down before God and I follow his directive.

[00:17:31]That is the whole point.

[00:17:34]He's the one who died for us.

[00:17:36]He gets to call the shots. He gets to tell us how we do things. We don't to get to do that.

[00:17:42]Okay?

[00:17:43]So, maybe you've never thought of it that way, but you should. You know, he didn't come and establish this whole big church with all the beauty and all the splendor and all the glory that it has within it and all the beautiful teachings that have come through the church.

[00:17:59]Teachings of the fullness of the truth, teachings that we have received from the saints. Today we celebrate Saints Basil and Saint Gregory Nazianzen, two of the Cappadocian Fathers who gave us a tremendous body of and breadth of beautiful teachings about God, about Jesus, about the power of the cross.

[00:18:22]You have to realize that when God is doing these things through his people in this church, raising these people up to become doctors that that can expound on the knowledge of God, and that's not random and that is not accidental. That is by his choice.

[00:18:39]And that's where we get the fullness of the body of works that we call the the the sacred tradition of the church.

[00:18:47]Okay?

[00:18:48]Oh, you Why would you not want to be part of that?

[00:18:52]Rhetorical, but I mean I suppose you could have a few good answers. You know, some people wrestle with the fact that they say we worship Mary. We do not worship Mary. Mary is a human person.

[00:19:01]She's not divine, but she is the most special human person ever created. Why?

[00:19:08]Because she would be the first tabernacle to hold the body of Christ in her womb. And the only one by that matter.

[00:19:16]Uh the tabernacles that come after are made of gold and they are not uh merely as splend- full of splendor as our lady.

[00:19:27]Uh you may say I don't like listening to the Pope.

[00:19:30]Well, you that may be true, but if this is the lineage that God has forged for 2,000 years with this starting with St. Peter up till today.

[00:19:41]Yeah, we've had some Popes that were less than shiny examples.

[00:19:46]But did they lead the church astray?

[00:19:48]Uh not as of yet. Not with their uh teaching on faith and morals.

[00:19:54]Okay? The Holy Spirit's guided even men who've done horrible things as Popes. Uh the Holy Spirit has still led them through the proper teaching on faith and morals for the universal church. Okay?

[00:20:06]What else?

[00:20:07]Uh We don't believe there's anybody in heaven but Jesus.

[00:20:13]Okay, where'd you get that from?

[00:20:15]I hear that a lot. I say, "Where'd you get that from?"

[00:20:18]Uh we even heard Elijah went up in a chariot. So like I mean, you got to give it up. Moses and uh Moses and Elijah are the two that come back and speak with Jesus on the mountain where he was transfigured. You know, where did they pop in from?

[00:20:36]You know, uh perhaps the holding tank, but you know, we believe that once Jesus conquered sin and death and Satan, heaven was opened and all those who were destined to go there made their way up there in their souls without their bodies.

[00:20:50]But we do believe as Catholics that Jesus is there with a body. We believe our lady is there with a body cuz we we have have been teaching for uh many, many years that she ascended into heaven body and soul at the dormition, which is the end of her life.

[00:21:08]Uh the church has never emphatically stated whether she actually died or went up to heaven alive, but that seems to not be important for our salvation. We know she went with her body.

[00:21:21]So, there's many things, and you know, the the simplest thing I can say to people who are having trouble believing in this is challenge your own pride.

[00:21:32]Challenge your own pride. Uh say to yourself, "Listen, if I really want to test this is the fullness of the truth in the Catholic Church, uh let me put my pride down, and just try following what the church teaches for maybe a month.

[00:21:48]Go in lockstep with what the church teaches for a month. Uh pray the rosary for a month. Go go to mass for a month. Don't receive communion if you're not having been brought into the church properly. But, go and listen and watch, and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart. He will speak to your heart.

[00:22:06]Uh pick up a catechism of the Catholic Church and dive in there. Pick some topics that are of importance to you, and go read what the church teaches about those things.

[00:22:15]And then pick up some good books on the lives of the saints.

[00:22:18]I find many many people are hearts are set ablaze when they read the lives of the saints. Not the least among them is St. Ignatius of Loyola, who was a great warrior and army man, who was injured in battle, and in his recovery time started reading the lives of the saints and the imitation of Christ. And that's what set him on fire to be a great saint.

[00:22:41]So, do these things. Try them out, you know? What do you have to lose? You have nothing to lose.

[00:22:46]What are you afraid of? You shouldn't be afraid of anything. You're asking the Holy Spirit to guide you.

[00:22:50]Um there's a whole world. It's like it's like somebody's eating a stale piece of crusty bread in a lifeboat, and they don't know if they just go through the doors into the the the beautiful dining room. There's a buffet that's 100 yards long with everything possible on it, and it's all free.

[00:23:08]It's available.

[00:23:10]You just have to enter in through the proper channels, you know?

[00:23:15]When Jesus said, "Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Uh that was the directive given to the church that he founded. That would be the Catholic Church.

[00:23:25]And so we we would ask you to abide in what Jesus asked of us, you know?

[00:23:31]"Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have no life in you."

[00:23:35]That was literal, not figurative.

[00:23:36]There's no metaphor there. Because when those people walked away, many of them his friends, he turned to his disciples, the close ones, the apostles, and said, "Are you going to leave me, too?"

[00:23:46]Where's Peter once again? "Where would we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life."

[00:23:51]So, I would say try it on for size. The Holy Spirit is moving in miraculous ways for about, I don't know, maybe 9 months to a year now. I've seen the the there's a quickening in the spirit. There's a lot happening.

[00:24:06]Uh if ever there was a time to uh embrace Jesus Christ and the faith of that he founded in the Catholic Church, now is it.

[00:24:15]There's a great movement of the spirit that's occurring and I think is going to keep going and crescendoing in the in the year to come.

[00:24:22]And I would want everybody to be part of that cuz there's going to be so many graces released.

[00:24:28]That's the hopeful word of the day for you.

[00:24:30]May almighty God bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[00:24:35]This is Father Dan signing off.