"Christianity is not pacifism." Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi explains.

本站添加: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Sometimes I, you know, being a wrestler, former wrestler, I wrestle, you know, travel with the Olympic team, Olympic team. I uh wrestled for the NCAA's and wrestle in high school and all that stuff. It was a great learning experience. It took a toll on my body, but it was a great learning experience.

[00:00:16]And um I still watch from time to time these mixed martial art bouts because it's not just the violence. People that don't understand, let's say, mixed martial arts and they see it for the first time see violence. That's all they see. They don't see the technique that's involved in certain maneuvers that I understand. So when I watch it, I'm not just looking at violence. And by the way, one time somebody once asked me, how can the Catholic Church justify any form of violence? You know, of course, the Catholic Church cites St. Augustine and the just war theory where in his Thomas Aquinas agrees with Augustine.

[00:00:50]You can in preserving the life of another take someone else's life. For example, suppose you're home with you're a man. Suppose you're a home. You have a wife, you have kids, and you have these bandits, rogue individuals, break into your home, and their intention is to steal your money to violate your wife and your daughter in front of you and to kill them and kill you. Do you say, "I'm a Christian. Let me lie down and do as you please." Or do you stand your ground and say, "I have a right to defend the life of those I love. I don't want to kill you, but if it's a matter of you putting me in that position, I will take your life." That's not a sin. Just to make myself clear here, Christianity is not pacifism. Even Pope John Paul II made that statement. St. Pope John Paul II. Now, I bring that up because violence did not begin with men. It began in heaven. There was a holy violence in heaven. St. Michael cast out Lucifer in a battle in heaven. So when people say to me, "Violence is not Christian." I say, "Well, then read your Bible." Violence began in heaven. It's justified in certain contexts. How about God sending Jonah Arc to wage war and kill people? Yeah, how about that? Well, I'm not here trying to focus on the violence, but the reason I brought it up was because when I see some of these mixed martial art fighters after the victory speaking on the mic, they often times they thank God and I'm grateful for that. They thank Christ or they thank God that's beautiful. But some others will say, "I trust in myself. I believe in myself and I think twice when I hear that expression." Certainly you have to focus on the task at hand and you have to trust that the the skills you've invested in acquiring during training. Yes, you have to trust in that. But the glory is all for God.

[00:02:41]Jesus says that there are individuals that boast of their own accomplishments and they're like thieves of my grace. I am very much wary of seeing in these souls who attribute to themselves their accomplishments many thefts of my grace.