When the Antichrist comes, he will not be able to do everything he wants. Why? Fr. Iannuzzi explains

[00:00:00]Satan now is being given a long leash, and this is all part of God's plan, so don't worry. God has everything in check. Even St. Thomas Aquinas says that when the Antichrist comes, yes, Thomas Aquinas speaks of the Antichrist, when the Antichrist comes, he will not be able to do everything he wants because of >> [gasps] >> God will keep his power under control and allow him to do only what God permits.

[00:00:27]Now, God will permit Satan to have more power and activity in the measure we sin more.

[00:00:35]The less we sin, the less power Satan has. The more we sin, the more power Satan, even his offshoot, the Antichrist, will have. So, in these end times, even though sin increases Satan's power, God has foreseen all things, and we can draw tremendous consolation from this one truth. God has all things in check, all things in control. So, we pray, that's our duty, to pray for the leaders of the state and church, to pray for its leaders, the shepherds of the church especially.

[00:01:09]>> Thanks for tuning in to Everything Catholic again, and now for this video, I've put together for you a few clips, with one of them being a little bit long, but as always, I hope all of you will learn a lot from this one. Now, without wasting any more time, let's start with this reminder.

[00:01:21]>> Temptation, there will be setbacks, there will be difficulties, but all this is part and parcel of our journey on Earth in proving our loyalty to God. If earlier I said the test of the angels was God's plan to be obeyed, and the test in Eden was God's word to be obeyed, what is our test today that enables us to inherit heaven? It is keeping the faith to the end. Keeping the faith to the end. And for this reason, in Ezekiel, God tells Ezekiel the prophet that even though a man may live a virtuous life, in the end if he turns away from God, he can be lost.

[00:02:01]And even if a man who has squandered his life and all of God's grace throughout life, in the end turns back to God, like the good thief, he can be saved.

[00:02:10]What matters, my friends, is keeping the faith to the end.

[00:02:13]Now, it doesn't mean that we should take the chance and squander God's grace and in the end try to be saved. No, because number one, we don't know when we're going to die. We should always be prepared. Number two, every correspondence to God's grace is an increase of glory for all eternity.

[00:02:28]So great is its achievement.

[00:02:31]Therefore, to deliberately squander one grace is to cause all the blesseds in heaven, angels and saints combined, a decrease in glory throughout eternity.

[00:02:45]>> And the second clip, as I said earlier, will be slightly longer and it touches on the creation, the fall of the angels, and also our purpose. Listen to this.

[00:02:53]>> Here Jesus is telling Luisa that all creation from the beginning of time, before Adam and Eve were made, before the angels were made, all creation was made for one sole purpose, to live in the kingdom of the divine will.

[00:03:15]And this happened for a little while until what happened?

[00:03:20]The first disruption, disordainment, separation, undoing of the kingdom of the divine will among the angels in heaven.

[00:03:32]When Lucifer, with 1/3 of the stars, the Bible doesn't say a third of the angels, it says a third of the stars, indicating a third of all creation, the cosmos, fell with Lucifer and rebelled against God.

[00:03:49]And God, to humble Lucifer, did not defeat him, rather chose an inferior angel to Lucifer in rank.

[00:03:57]St. Michael.

[00:03:58]Lucifer was a seraph, highest order of angels, but God chose an archangel, lesser in rank, to defeat Lucifer.

[00:04:07]Cast him out of heaven.

[00:04:11]Whereby 2/3 were confirmed in grace in the beatific vision for all eternity.

[00:04:17]Which suggests that before the fall of the angels, all the angels were not confirmed in the state of grace.

[00:04:27]That's right. God made all the angels in heaven, but they had to merit heaven by passing a test.

[00:04:37]So, they were given heaven freely, but in order to remain there, they had to pass a test in order to be confirmed in grace and enjoy perpetually the beatific vision.

[00:04:50]Up until Lucifer rebelled, the angels did not perpetually enjoy the beatific vision.

[00:04:58]It was on loan.

[00:05:01]They would be given it as a reward and confirmation for having passed the test of loyalty to obedience to the will of God, which was what?

[00:05:12]According to St. Irenaeus, an early church father, Lucifer was given a vision that the angels would serve humans. And Lucifer said, "I will not serve this plan." And rebelled against God. Well, 2/3 of the angels decided to side with God in his plan, although not completely understanding perhaps where all this was going to go in the end, how angels would serve men.

[00:05:38]Perhaps not knowing in detail that God would become man and not angel to raise the human nature above that of the angelical nature. Who knows? But what matters is that Lucifer chose not to go along with God's plan. He did not want to take a leap of faith in God, but trust upon his own knowledge and resources, and failed. Whereas two-thirds were confirmed in grace, and in so doing were confirmed in the beatific vision for all eternity.

[00:06:07]And when these angels were confirmed in the grace of God, they enjoyed the kingdom of the divine will in heaven, and they continue to enjoy it and will for all eternity without having to pass any other tests in the future, because they are forever confirmed in the beatific vision, which is in grace. Now, this was the first disruption of God's plan for which all creation was made.

[00:06:35]It was made for the one purpose of living in God's divine will.

[00:06:39]After the rebellion, God wanted to now complete his plan of becoming man in order to raise the human nature to the divine nature, above the angels.

[00:06:56]So, Christ incarnated himself in fallen man. Imagine that.

[00:07:03]Satan thought that by entering into the Garden of Eden and spoiling God's plan of becoming man through innocent Adam and Eve, that God could no longer go forth with the plan of raising mankind above the angels.

[00:07:22]So, after Adam and Eve were made, God allows them to undergo a test, just like he allowed the angels to undergo a test.

[00:07:33]Just why?

[00:07:35]Well, Mary reveals to Luisa in The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will book that no creature is given heaven unless they pass a test.

[00:07:47]They don't obtain this by merit unless they prove that they are loyal to God.

[00:07:51]So, what is the test of the angels? Loyalty to God's plan.

[00:07:56]What is the test of Adam and Eve?

[00:07:58]Loyalty to God's word.

[00:08:01]Not to partake of the forbidden fruit.

[00:08:05]But, guess what God avails himself of to put Adam and Eve to the test? Nothing other than a vile serpent, Lucifer himself.

[00:08:16]This is why Lucifer enters paradise.

[00:08:22]Just for a little while to test Adam.

[00:08:24]Had Adam and Eve said no to Lucifer, Lucifer would have been banished forever from Eden.

[00:08:31]And Adam and Eve would have been happy for all eternity in the paradi- paradisiacal state, and would have made little Adams and Eves. And we would have been conceived and born without original sin in Eden.

[00:08:46]And then Christ would have eventually come down to Earth in Eden to still become human being, you see?

[00:08:54]This is part of God's plan A A, to become human. Not plan B.

[00:09:00]God did not become human because of original sin. No. God was still going to become human even if Adam and Eve had not sinned.

[00:09:07]So, if Adam and Eve had not sinned and passed their loyalty in that moment, when they told the serpent to leave, they would have been confirmed in grace.

[00:09:18]And then would have been given the gift of impeccability, much like now the angels in heaven are given.

[00:09:25]Once they passed the test, they could no longer sin.

[00:09:29]Before they passed the test, they could sin.

[00:09:33]But, since Adam and Eve did not pass the test, they were banished from Eden, and they bore us, their progeny, in this fallen world, in a wounded state, where when we are conceived, although in God's image and likeness, our intellects, memories, and wills are impaired, whereby we do not see all the ends of our actions, which Adam and Eve and the angels before sin were able to do.

[00:10:06]And this is why they were only given one test.

[00:10:11]Once sin ensued, once it entered into the spiritual DNA of mankind, we became ignorant, as St. Augustine puts it, ignorantia, he writes, Latin word for ignorance, which we became subject to, and concupiscencia, concupiscence, which is the body warring against the soul.

[00:10:34]So, not only is the soul impaired in its faculties of the intellect, memory, and will, whereby it no longer sees all the ends of its actions, but the body now is subject to death, decay, illness, sickness, um miscommunication, inability to love as it desires, as it do, as it desires, and it wars against the soul in its desires.

[00:11:00]Even in that poor plight that we were reduced to because of our original our parents' original sin, God nonetheless comes down to Earth, fulfills his plan in a wounded human generation.

[00:11:15]2,000 years ago, he assumes a human nature, just like ours, but without any impairment to the intellect, memory, or will, just like Mary.

[00:11:30]Only Jesus and Mary were preserved from the effects of original sin.

[00:11:36]Now, Mary was conceived without original sin.

[00:11:39]And Jesus, who is God, was conceived in Mary's womb as God, who knows no sin.

[00:11:50]>> And just before we get to the end of this video, here's one very short clip for our reflection together. Listen to this.

[00:11:55]>> But because of the fall of the angels, original sin in Adam and Eve in Eden, now the work of redemption had to take place, which was not part of plan A. It should have went from creation to sanctification, and that's it.

[00:12:06]But here comes redemption. Christ has to come to suffer, die, shed his blood, and resurrect and ascend and send forth the Holy Spirit for the birth of the church.

[00:12:16]And after having done this work, everything was in perfect order.

[00:12:20]Everyone had all the grace they needed to become holy.

[00:12:25]>> Well, that is all for the video this time. Again, thank you so much for taking a little bit of your time to be here with us. Always remember that, if ever you have any feedback or suggestion, please don't ever hesitate to let us know in the comments below.

[00:12:37]>> When Christ came to fulfill the work of redemption, he did everything necessary in order for everyone to be holy.

[00:12:44]So, therefore, if anyone is lost, it is no fault of Christ's.

[00:12:49]It is their own individual fault.