Transcript of #338 Cardinal Burke - The New Testament

Cardinal Burke, welcome back for day 2.

Good to be back.

It's a much better night last night.

Good. Thanks be to God.

But, um, so yesterday we spent all day going over the Old Testament and, and a very brief overview of it. And, um, today we're we will be going over the New Testament, brief overview again. So, um, thank you again for coming.

And now—

You're welcome.

Start you off with, uh, same introduction as yesterday, just in case anybody didn't hear it.

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, you're an American cardinal widely respected for your expertise in canon law and church governance. You previously served as Archbishop of St. Louis and Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura. the Church's highest judicial court. Pope Benedict XVI elevated you to the College of Cardinals in 2010. You are known internationally for your defense of traditional Catholic doctrine in sacred liturgy, marriage, family, and the sacraments. You also are the founder of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, which you established as a place of pilgrimage, Prayer and Spiritual Renewal.

Once again, welcome, welcome today too.

Thank you very much.

And, um, so before we get started, I was just hoping we could start in prayer again.

Surely.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Almighty God, we ask your blessing upon our conversation today as we seek to understand more deeply your Holy Word transmitted to us in the Holy Bible, in the Sacred Scriptures, and most especially in the New Testament, the account of the fullness of the revelation of your love for us in our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask you to grant us great wisdom in understanding everything that you wish to teach us through the Holy Scriptures. And we ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who is with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

So the New Testament. So we, we left off yesterday with, um, I think we, we kind of left off with some Covenants that weren't yet fulfilled in the Old Testament. But I think that the biggest, most controversial question about the Old Testament is, did Jesus resurrect from the dead? Seems to be the ongoing argument and basically the overall arc of the New Testament. So where do we begin?

Well, the resurrection is first of all testified to by a host of witnesses. We have the 4 Gospels, which all have an account of the resurrection of our Lord and of his appearance for 40 days after his resurrection. In his resurrected body, in his glorious body before his ascension to heaven, to the right hand of the Father. And these accounts are historical. All the claims that have been made to question the historicity of the Gospels have been proven to be false. And there are other arguments apart from the direct testimony that we receive in the Gospels. The fact of the empty tomb of our Lord, and his tomb was found completely empty. His body had been completely transformed. And there There are no relics of our Lord Jesus in the sense of hair or bones or anything, because he was glorified in his whole body at his resurrection, and he now is at the right hand of the Father in his glorified body. We see too many other testimonies To the resurrection. One of the most striking ones is the conversion of St. Paul. Paul was a Pharisee, a very ardent Jew who persecuted aggressively the Church and believers.

He was present at the stoning to death of St. Stephen, the first martyr. The account tells us that the people who were stoning him, throwing the stones that killed him, laid their garments at the foot of a young man named Saul. St. Paul's name was Saul, and after his conversion, he became known as Paul. And he was on his way to persecute the Church further, had authorization to bring Christians into court for their condemnation when he was thrown from his horse and the Lord spoke to him, appeared to him, and said to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And then he asked, and our Lord said, well, you're persecuting me and my members and those who are part of my mystical body. And at that, instructed him to go to Damascus where he would find a Christian who would help him to be baptized. And at that, he was blind from the moment of the apparition. And as soon as he was baptized, something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see again. And he becomes the great teacher of the faith faith. His letters in the New Testament are just an incredible treasure of teaching about the true nature of our Lord, the salvation he's won for us, what this means for us.

He has too the oldest account of the institution of the Holy Eucharist because he had encountered in Corinth where he was teaching the faith, the people were abusing the celebration of the Eucharist, using it as a time to eat and drink in excess and so forth, and not paying attention to the heart of the Eucharist, which is the renewal of the Lord's Supper. And so St. Paul, in confronting them, said, I hand unto you that which I have first received, that our Lord on the night before he died, and then he gives the whole account of the— and then says in very clear language, he said, What is the Lord's Supper? He who eats and drinks the body and blood of our Lord without recognizing our Lord eats and drinks his own condemnation. In other words, to approach sacrilegiously the Holy Eucharist is a most grievous sin. But anyway, that's another proof is St. Paul, the miracle of his writings and the whole way in which the Church went, the The apostles, when our Lord was crucified, all but John fled, and Peter even denied our Lord 3 times when he was in the— Peter, our Lord was being questioned.

He was warming himself at a fire, and the people said, weren't you also one of his? You speak like a Galilean. Our Lord was from Galilee. And he denied that he knew our Lord. And with our Lord's apparitions after his resurrection, and then after he ascended to the right hand of the Father and sent the Holy Spirit, these apostles who were all so fearful, they were hiding in the upper room, afraid to be arrested, they went out and boldly proclaimed the gospel. And all of them were martyrs except St. John. But St. John, of course, gave us a most most wonderful account of our Lord in his Gospel. And he was the one who took the Blessed Mother into his home after our Lord's death. And he had very privileged knowledge of our Lord because our Blessed Mother would have recounted to him, she lived several years afterwards, would have recounted to him so many things about our Lord. So, some too claim that the Gospels were written very late. But there's evidence now that they were written very close to the time that after our Lord died. It wasn't something that was written, you know, a century or so later.

What is the evidence?

The evidence is done to study the manuscripts, because we have manuscripts of the Gospels, and then also a study of the accounts themselves and comparing them with other writings of the same time, and they're able to to fix the date much, much earlier.

So they were written less than a century?

Yes, they were written less than a century after our Lord died. They were written in that period after his death when the initial preaching of the Gospel, because we must remember too that in those times and in that culture, people were accustomed to memorize long accounts and very accurately. So there was what was called the oral tradition, and people would hand on long accounts of things that had happened. And this was true also, of course, with the apostles and the disciples of our Lord. And with that then, the Gospels were written. There are 4 Gospels, as you know, and 3 of them are called synoptic because they're very similar. St. John's is distinct in that it has a much more—

A different view.

elaborate theological presentation of our Lord. And it isn't, that isn't because it was later. It simply was a particular gift that he had, especially being the Lord's beloved disciple and also taking the care of his mother. But so through the, from these oral traditions, then people began to write down these accounts. And many of the accounts, for instance, in the Synoptic Gospels, Are exactly the same with the accounts of healings, miracles, parables. Some you find in one Gospel you don't find in another, but that shouldn't surprise us that one Gospel writer would have taken down an account that perhaps another one did not, depending on who their sources were.

Was any of this written down as a journal, an ongoing journal during the life of Christ?

That I— there would have been. People would have been writing down his sayings. And I suppose to a certain extent, too, we hear, for instance, when he cures people who, that the people all were in wonderment about what he did. And one can imagine that somebody would have written down then an account of this healing of the, for instance, of the woman who had had hemorrhage for 30 years. And she just touched the hem of his garment and she was healed. Because she had strong faith. She believed that he could heal her. Then he cured the son of the servant of the centurion. That account, that's a very, an account that's remembered every day at Mass because when the centurion came to ask our Lord to come to heal his son, servant. He, our Lord said, well, come and do it. And he said, no, I'm not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Just say the word. All you have to do is say the word and my son will be healed. And indeed, that's what happened. Our Lord recognized his strong faith and he assured him, your son is healed. And the centurion on his way home met some of his servants who told him that it was exactly at the hour that he met our Lord that the healing took place.

Wow.

So the Gospels are simply rich with all of these accounts. And I mentioned this latest translation with such ample notes, but there are also studies of each of the Gospels. They are, there's just a richness there. And the Gospels are historically authentic. There's also, he's an expert in philosophy and Aristotle, a layman by the name of Michael Pakalik. He teaches at the Catholic University of America. But he's very knowledgeable in Greek, the language in which the Gospels were were written. And he has written a new translation also with a commentary. He did the one on St. John already, drawing especially to our attention content in St. John's Gospel that reflects his relationship with the Virgin Mary. And he's done also the commentary on St. Matthew entitled God's Banker. Matthew, because St. Matthew was a tax collector. And then also a commentary, I believe it's on St. Mark because of his— or is it Luke? I'm sorry, I'm not certain about that. But I think he'll have one on all 4 Gospels. But I recommend them very highly. As you know, unless you read Greek, you're always relying on a translation, and translations are more or less accurate.

And, uh, but his translation, it's new and fresh, but it, it's very faithful.

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Visit bubznaturals.com today and use promo code Sean for 20% So before we get too far into the Gospels, I wanted to just kind of do a brief overview of the New Testament. How many books are there?

There are 27 books in the New Testament. There are the 4 Gospels, and then there are what are called the Epistles, or the letters of St. Paul. And then there are what are called the Catholic Epistles, and those are letters of St. Peter, 2 letters of St. Peter, St. James, a letter, St. Jude, a letter, and 3 letters of St. John. And sometimes too, they distinguish in St. Paul, you have these large letters that are written to a whole group, the letter to the Romans, 2 letters to the Corinthians, 2 letters to the Thessalonians, the Colossians, the people of Colossae. But then there are what are called the pastoral epistles, and those he wrote to St. Timothy and St. Titus, who were early bishops, to instruct them on how to be good bishops. And they're really quite wonderful meditations for our bishop today. And then the conclusion of the Bible is the Book of Revelation, or what's called the Apocalypse. And this is a vision that St. John has his Gospel, he has 3 letters, and then the Apocalypse is a vision he had while living on the island of Patmos. And it's a vision of the final times.

And it's probably one of the more, most challenging books of the Bible to read, to understand, but also very beautiful because he describes eternal life as a wedding feast, the wedding feast of the Lamb, of Jesus, the Lamb of God. And it's a And how finally, on the last day, our Lord restores everything to the Father. You were asking yesterday, why did God permit our Lord to undergo what he underwent and other sufferings? And that is because we live in this time. The victory has been won by our Lord Jesus Christ. But now it must be realized in each of our lives. And as St. Paul said, we have to fill out in our lives the sufferings of Christ as his members. If we're living members of our Lord Jesus Christ, that means that, yes, we enjoy all the hope and confidence of the final victory, but we also share in the suffering until that day comes when our Lord returns in glory and restores everything to the Father. And saying that the Apocalypse merits our reading, it's just more difficult, a little more challenging to read. And that completes then the New Testament.

So if the books were written even close to a century later, how How long were people living back then? How do we know those accounts were so accurate if they were not written during the time of Jesus?

Because they're handed down from those who did, who knew our Lord. And St. Luke, for instance, he was not one of the apostles, but he He knew our Lord and he knew the apostles. And so he was able to—

Okay.

Had access to all this. Extract the knowledge. Exactly. And all of the writers, well, of course, a lot of, a good part of the New Testament is writings of St. John. Also, St. Luke not only wrote his Gospel, but he wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Well, I'm sorry, that There I was deficient when I was describing the books of the New Testament. There are the 4 Gospels, and then before the Epistles of St. Paul are the Acts of the Apostles, a very important book. It's the account of the first years of the Church's life, and that is written by St. Luke.

Okay.

And in there we find, for instance, the accounts of Paul's journeys after being a persecutor of the Church. He was converted, became, we call him the Apostle of the Nations, but he traveled all the inhabited world at that time, a good part of it, preaching the Gospel. And that's why you have, and then finally ended his days in Rome.

Where did the New Testament start?

The New Testament starts in the Holy Land, in In Judea and Galilee, and, well, Nazareth, Bethlehem, well, Nazareth, and Our Lady receives the announcement that she's to be the mother of the Savior. She conceives in her womb God the Son, and he unites his divine nature to our human nature, taking human flesh from her, the Father being the Holy Spirit, or the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. And then birth of our Lord in Bethlehem, in Judea, but then in Nazareth, the hidden life of our Lord until he was 30. He was at home with the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph. We have a couple of accounts, for instance, of When he was 12, they went for the annual pilgrimage to the temple. And that would be a big pilgrimage, all kinds of relatives and so forth. And his parents thought that he was with some relatives as they were heading back home. And it turns out he wasn't. And they went back to Jerusalem then, and they found him in the temple. He was only 12 years old, but he was conversing with the rabbis, the great doctors of the Jewish faith, about the whole mystery of salvation.

And it says that they were astounded by his knowledge. Of course, he was God the Son. And But for the rest, when he was 30, then he, St. Luke recounts, he went into the synagogue and he opened the book of the prophet Isaiah. This is another indication for us too about the power of the Word of God. And he read the account in the prophet Isaiah about the coming of the Messiah. And then he closed the parchment and said, today this is fulfilled in your midst. In other words, he identified himself as the anointed of the Lord. And then, of course, he was baptized by St. John in the Jordan. And St. John the Baptist announced to the people that that this is the one whom we've been awaiting. He says, I must decrease, because people were going to John in great numbers because he was announcing the coming of the Messiah, of the Savior. Then when he baptized our Lord, he said, he must increase, I must decrease. I'm not worthy to tie the strings on his sandals. And then also said, behold the Lamb of God. And that also is recalled every day at Mass when the priest shows the host.

He says, behold the Lamb of God. Behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb. In that text from the Mass, we have from the Gospel, we also have the reference to to the book of the Apocalypse, to eternal life. And then we respond, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Say but the word and my soul shall be healed. And then we have the Gospel response of the centurion who recognizes in Jesus God the Son incarnate.

Why did God have to send his Holy Son.

This is the great mystery of his love for us. Obviously, God can do all things, but how did he choose to restore the plan that he had from the beginning? When he created Adam and Eve, he wanted them to be his coworkers, to be stewards of this wonderful creation. Garden of Eden. And then they became proud, just like we are today, no longer recognizing that we come from the hand of God. We get the idea, oh, I'm so high and mighty, either because of our talents or money or whatever it might be, or power. People, so they go off on their own. Well, Adam and Eve, the serpent came along and said, oh, God told you not to eat from that tree because he knows if you eat from that tree, you'll become like him. Well, why would they in the world want to become God? There's an act of pride. They no longer want to be the son and daughter of God, but they want to be God himself. And so they fall for the trick and they sin. So how does God choose to restore the friendship, which he could have done in any number of ways, but he does it in this most marvelous way by coming himself?

sending God the Son in our human nature to redeem it, so that we, by being incorporated in Christ, could share that victory. So Christ wins the victory. He never committed a sin. Our Lord, obviously, he's God the Son, but he took all our sins upon himself and to restore— and died for them to restore our communion with God the Father. And so it's It's just this, it's really incomprehensible. We spend our whole lives trying to understand how great God's love is for us that he would have his own Son suffer a really cruel passion and death. I'm sure you've probably seen The Passion, Mel Gibson's film.

Yes.

He did a great service because he brought out, sometimes people can have a kind kind of sanitized understanding of the passion and death of our Lord. But in that film, it shows how cruel it was.

Mm-hmm.

The flagellations, the beatings, so much loss of blood, the carrying of the cross, the crucifixion itself, which was a horrible form of death by asphyxiation. And But in any case, get back to the point. All of this was so that we might finally get it through our thick skulls how much God loves us, who we are, because he's created us in his own image and likeness, and therefore has sent his Son to give us the spiritual power to overcome sin and death in our lives, to be forever with him in his His great desire is that we should be forever with him in the Kingdom of Heaven.

So if Christ was God the Son, he was God.

Yes.

And God is the beginning and the end and everything in between.

Exactly.

Did they have the same thoughts at the same time?

Yes, he—

Or is it one mind?

Yes. There's a beautiful passage in the Gospels in which our Lord prays that we might all be one as he is one with the Father. And even— and that is the great mystery of redemption, is that it is possible for us, with the help of God's grace, to attain an ever greater union of mind and heart with God himself and to find, therefore, our perfect happiness. But our Lord himself, as he was dying on the cross, he, first of all, in the agony in the garden, he prayed to, it was terrible. He saw what was coming. They say that he was in such agony that he was sweating blood. And he prayed to the Father to take the chalice of his suffering away. But then he concluded the prayer, but not my will, but thy will be done. And so too, hanging on the cross, he cried out in the words of the Psalm, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We see the agony, not that he thought that the Father had forsaken him, but that his suffering was so great that he cried out in those words. But then he was at peace.

He gave us the Blessed Mother as our Mother and breathed his last. He said, it's consummated. He had accomplished the great work. And then—

So he did have his own individual thoughts as well?

Oh, yes. Yes. Well, he was— he had a human nature connected, linked to his divine nature. And while the divine nature Permitted him always to understand the Father's will and to pursue relentlessly. And at various points in the Gospel, he will say, I've come to do the will of the Father. It's not I, but my Father. He's always referring us to the Father. And, but he He suffered in our human nature, of course, and that would have led him to cry out in those words of the scriptures, but at the same time, to accept his death.

So they shared thoughts and Christ had individual thoughts.

Yes.

Is there any indications of when he knew he was the Son of God?

We understand that he would have known that from the very beginning, that even— he's 12 years old, he's in the temple, and when Mary and Joseph, Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, arrive, and she says to him, Son, why have you done this to us? My Father and I have been searching for you. Your Father and I have been searching you for 3 days. And he says to her, did you not know that I must be in my Father's house? And this is clearly an indication of his consciousness of who he was. Yes, with a true human nature, but at the same time with a consciousness that came from his divine nature of being incarnate to carry out about a mission. And of course, he shows God's love throughout his public ministry in words and deeds. We say in the parables, these wonderful teachings, for instance, the parable of the Good Shepherd, of the Prodigal Son. He teaches us always about God's infinite love and mercy, his justice, but a justice which desires to to be fulfilled in his great act of love, but also in the deeds and the miracles. We see, for instance, a wonderful miracle, the feeding of the 5,000, and a prefigurement of the Holy Eucharist.

I mentioned about the healing of the woman who had suffered for so many years with the hemorrhage, the healing of the man born blind, this wonderful account in St. John's Gospel. But any number of these miracles, which are, we could say this, that the truth announced in the teaching then is actuated in the goodness of all his actions, always healing, restoring people. Of course, even more importantly, freeing people from demons. We find this in the Gospel that the people who in some way had been— Satan had taken hold of them, they encountered our Lord, they immediately knew that he had power over them. He was God. And so there are various accounts too of where our Lord freed individuals from the demons. And always too, when he was going to heal someone or save them, he always said, your sins are forgiven. And that this is the most important healing, is to have our sins forgiven. And then he also then healed them physically. But the account, for instance, of the woman caught in adultery, the adultery in the Jewish religion was punished by By being stoned, by being put to death. And so he finds the people ready to stone this woman who had been caught in adultery.

And he says, let he who is without sin throw the first stone. And the people all reflect on that and they gradually, they're all gone. It's just him with the woman. And he says to her, is there no one here to accuse you? And she said, no, Lord. And he said, go thy way, but sin no more. In other words, he saved her from this, from being stoned, but at the same time instructed her very clearly that she should stop a life of adulterous behavior.

Would you say that— does the New Testament make the Old Testament's rules obsolete? Is this a new way to live?

No. The New Testament brings to fulfillment everything that is taught and everything that happened in the Old Testament finds its fulfillment. But that's not a cancellation. Our Lord himself said in the Sermon on the Mount, do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. That would be a way of referring to the Old Testament. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. And then he says, and not even one iota, not even one Not one dot of the law or the prophets will be destroyed until all is but rather fulfilled in him. And that is his understanding. We never find our Lord speaking against the Old Covenant, but always in terms of its fulfillment in him, the New Covenant in his body and blood, in his Through his suffering and death on Calvary, he establishes the new, and then that's— it is the covenant. There can't be anything more than that. That is the covenant of love between God and man.

So when you say earlier, you said when I asked if Christ and God shared a mind and if they have the same thoughts at the same time, And it sounds like yes and no. They all— Christ has his own individual thoughts, but they also share thoughts. And you brought up unity, a oneness that God wants us all to be. Is that the message? Is that the message in the New Testament?

Is that you treat— Yes, just to be clear, when I said Christ have his own thoughts, Yes, he had his own thoughts as God the Son incarnate, but they were always in harmony with the Father. That's probably— I wasn't clear enough about that. Our Lord is never thinking in a way contrary to the Father's will. And when one reads the Gospels, this comes across very clearly. And he always, when he began his public ministry, he said, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. And that's his sole mission. And any thoughts that he had, of course, they were his own, but they were always in harmony with the Father. And that's why in that prayer that I mentioned that you just alluded to, to which you just alluded. He says that his great gift to us is that we should be of one mind and heart with him who is always one mind and heart with the Father, that we would enjoy that communion between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. And so we— this is something that many times we don't think about, but we are called to share in the life of the Holy Trinity.

Not that we are God, but that we are participants through divine grace in the life of God himself. And the more we cooperate with divine grace, the more we draw closer to To the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Why was Mary chosen?

That's all a mystery of God's love. It's wonderful. That's why I smile. Because when you think about it, that Mary was chosen from all time because God knew from all time that he would save us and that it would come even as he spoke to the serpent and made the first promise of salvation that a woman would bear a son who would crush the head of Satan. Why was she chosen? Because in this great mystery of God's love, he wanted to be redeemed by one of us, one like us. And the only way you can be like us is to be born of a woman. You know, people say, well, God could have just sent our Lord directly onto earth. But no, he wanted. Then Christ wouldn't have been a human. He would have been something else. But no, he wanted us to be saved by someone like us in everything but sin. And so Mary, and to be one like us in everything, you have to be born of a woman. So he chose Mary to be the mother. And then He, to prepare her, from the moment of her conception, she shared already in Christ's saving work, in the redemption that he would accomplish.

She was preserved from any stain of sin. Only a sinless virgin could be the Mother of God, could carry out this great mission.

And And all of that is for the glory of God.

It only makes us love God more and want to praise Him more. People say, well, if you believe that about the Blessed Mother, you're diminishing who Jesus is as God. Not at all. In fact, the more one knows and loves the Mother of God, the more one knows and loves her only begotten Son, because she Mary is all for Jesus. Her whole life is nothing but directed toward Jesus and his saving mission. And so when we get close to her, she draws us into that great mystery in which she participated in a unique way. To be the Mother of God, this is something Only one person had that gift, and that was the Blessed Virgin Mary. That's why we love our Blessed Mother so much, and we have so much devotion to her. But we understand that the Savior is her Son, But we love her for the part that she played in bringing him into the world. And of course, she was his first and best disciple.

Is she the mother that all mothers should aspire to be?

Absolutely. She is. Every mother should desire most of all that Christ Be— that their children be alive in Christ, their eternal salvation. Every mother should desire most of all to bring our Lord to her children. It's the most important thing. That's why when parents receive the great gift of a new human life, excuse me, the first thing they want for their children, of course, They're nourishing them and keeping them warm and clean and everything, the baby. But the first thing they want is to bring the child to the Church to receive the grace of baptism, to become alive in Christ and to begin to grow and develop into the full man in Christ that we're all called to be.

Does God suffer?

Yes, God suffered in— all you have to do is look at the crucifix and you see how God suffered in our human nature.

I guess what I mean, does he feel emotion? Does he suffer today? Does he look at humanity today? Does he suffer? Did he look at it before Christ was born, before his suffering, and Well, yes, God knows all things.

He sees that his children are going astray, and he's trying to reach them, calling all of us to be his messengers, to reach out to others. He's trying, most of all in the Church through the sacraments, trying to bring his children back to him and to their eternal salvation. God doesn't want anybody to live in sin or to suffer eternal death. And so God is all compassionate. I suppose that would be the best way to discover the suffering of God is he's full of compassion for us and wants to draw us to himself.

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Is Christ and Mary the new Adam and Eve?

Yes, in the Church, we refer to Christ as the new Adam. He was the father of us all. They're our first parents. And he failed in his mission, but that mission was finally accomplished in our Lord Jesus Christ. And his cooperator was Eve as his bride, the companion that God gave to him at in creation. And so she too, who had failed, it's Blessed Virgin Mary, is the woman who restores then the dignity of woman, restores the woman to her place in God's plan. And so that's why we call our Lord the New Adam and the Blessed Virgin Mary the the new Eve. And we believe that when— and this is depicted in some religious art— but after our Lord died on the cross and was buried, he descended into hell, but not hell in the sense of a place of eternal punishment, but what is sometimes referred to as Hades. In other words, all the people who had died, all the just people in the Old Testament, and we believe that Adam and Eve too repented of their sin, sin and strove then to live in communion with God. And we have, you know, King David, we have, well, Moses, all the great figures, that they were in this place waiting for the Savior.

And then our Lord descended to that place and brought them to heaven. And some of the sacred art, especially in the Eastern churches, it shows him taking Adam and Eve by the hand and leading them out of this place of waiting for redemption to share in the redemption. And it's said in the scriptures that the graves, many of the graves of the just When, at the moment of Christ's death, were opened, and we understand that these souls then, body and soul, were taken to heaven.

Adam and Eve were supposed to live forever, correct?

Were they supposed to live forever? Yes, they would have lived forever in the friendship of God. It was through their sin that death came into the world.

So, if when Christ came, it was to forgive us, it was to forgive us for all of our sins, all sins can be forgiven.

Right, and so that we could live forever.

So, why are we not living forever?

Well, we do if we die in him.

Okay.

When we die, our soul goes immediately for judgment. And if we have repented of our sins and made satisfaction for them, we're received directly into heaven. If not, we spend time in purgatory, a place in which we're prepared for heaven by fulfilling the satisfactions. People who we say have an untimely death, who who die without being able to, through their suffering, be ready to enter heaven, they go to purgatory, and there they're purified of any sinfulness in their lives, what we call the temporal punishment due to their sins, and then they go to heaven too. We talk about the Church Yes. The Church glorious, saints in heaven. The Church suffering, those in purgatory who are being purified to, and when they are purified, to go to heaven. And then the Church militant, those of us who are here still fighting the battle and waiting for our Lord to call us home.

So, if we say he will come again to judge both the living and the dead, what does that mean if our souls immediately go to judgment when we die?

What it means is that he will judge the living, those who are still— when he comes at the end of the time, some people will still be on earth. earth. And so he'll judge those, but then he will also then judge those that are still in purgatory. And of course, those who have gone to heaven already, they have been judged and been found worthy to be in the company of the Blessed Trinity with the angels and all the saints. We believe that on On that last day, on the day of our Lord's final coming, that the bodies of all the just will be restored to them in glory, like our Lord's own glorious body. We call that the resurrection of the body. And so those who've already gone to heaven, their souls have gone to heaven, their bodies will be restored to them, they will be in glory with our Lord. Our Blessed Mother already enjoys that privilege. When she died, she was assumed body and soul into heaven. And so she enjoys that life already. And there are some people think also, for instance, that St. Joseph was one of those who would have, at the Lord's death and resurrection would have come out from the tomb, and that at that moment he would have been assumed body and soul into heaven too.

That's not Church. Church doesn't teach that formally, but it also doesn't condemn that thought that that could be possible.

When we're talking about purgatory, is there any mention of purgatory in the Bible, in the Scriptures?

We find a very strong message of it in the The 2 books of the Maccabees in the Old Testament, in which there is an account of a battle and a number of soldiers were killed of the Maccabees. And when they took their bodies to bury them, they discovered that some of them had pagan amulets or little statues or whatever on them, which would of course be a serious sin. And so—

What do you mean by tattoos?

These weren't tattoos.

They were like statues, little objects, like jewelry, like metal, for instance, we do today. But it wasn't something holy. It was of a pagan— it was connected with the pagan gods. In other words, it would have been an act of idolatry, a grievous sin. And so they took up a collection to have prayers said for them and sent to Jerusalem. And the Scripture is very clear that it's a good thing to pray for the dead, that they might be freed from any sins that they had committed and that they might be received into eternal life. And we, the Church, has understood this from the very beginning, that we are one in communion not only with the saints in heaven, but also with the deceased who have not gone to heaven, and that therefore we should help them by praying for them, and then also asking them to pray for us. They have an ability to pray and help us, even as we're called to help them by our prayers. And so that is a very serious part of our Christian life. The whole month of November is dedicated to what we call the poor souls, the souls in purgatory, to pray for them, to honor the dead, to pray for eternal life for them.

And there's also the possibility, as we know, the merits merits of our Lord by his passion and death are infinite. And also the saints who led such holy lives, they merit graces for others. I always say to people when they're suffering something terrible, don't forget to offer this for the souls in purgatory or for others in the Church who are suffering. Because our sufferings, when we accept them, unite them, to those of Christ, that can be meritorious for others who are struggling or have some great suffering or for the souls in purgatory. And the Church then, we're able through the Church to gain indulgences for ourselves and also for the faithful departed to hasten their arrival in heaven. This is all a very beautiful aspect of our life in the Church. Too often we don't think about that, that the communion of saints includes not only us, and we're saints in the making, but also those souls in purgatory. And so we all work to help one another to to attain eternal life in heaven.

When did the ridiculing, the persecution, the harassing Jesus begin?

Well, practically from the very beginning of his public ministry, there were those who said, who is— he forgives sins, only God forgives sins, he's a blasphemer. They tried— at one point they were going to throw him off a cliff, but he slipped through their midst. And there were many complicated reasons why people opposed him, but mostly they didn't want to accept that the Messiah was not an earthly ruler. He wasn't somebody who had come to to make everybody rich or to make everybody politically free, but that he had come to save us from sin. That his victory was over sin and over evil. And so they rejected him. And so they And of course, we see the culmination of it. He enters Jerusalem for his last Passover. He's 33 years old. And as he enters Jerusalem, the people are all cheering him. But then the high priest and others who were plotting against him had found one of his apostles who was a traitor, Judas Iscariot, and then plotted for his arrest and his condemnation.

And they went—

Pontius Pilate was a Roman. He wanted to release Jesus, but he had this mob on his hands. Those Who had first been hailing our Lord as he came into Jerusalem, then turned. And so Pilate tried in every way to release Jesus. Even there was a custom every year he would release one prisoner, and he suggested to the people that he would release Jesus, and they said, they yelled, crucify him, crucify him.

Crucify him.

And so he finally— that's what he did. He let him be crucified. But that was the culmination of all the hatred toward our Lord, just the stubborn refusal to accept him as our Lord and Savior.

Did anybody realize that the prophecies were coming true from the Old Testament?

Oh yes, there were very— there were just people. For instance, 2 individuals we know about from the Gospels are Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee and who came to Jesus, as the Scripture says, in the night. He realized who Jesus was, but he couldn't— if he had been known among the other high priests, he would have been in trouble. So he came to— but when our Lord died, he and Joseph of Arimathea, who was another just man, who recognized that our Lord was truly the Messiah. They came and took care that he had a reverent burial, because normally he would have just been thrown in a common grave. But Joseph of Arimathea had a tomb, and our Lord was buried there. And there were others as well. Of course, the holy women, our Blessed Mother, but also Mary Magdalene and other holy women who were with our Lord. And St. John, of course, was always with him. And then the other apostles, they received finally— our Lord had told them why he had come, but their minds were eventually Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, they understood and they remained faithful. But even at the moment of his death itself, there were those who understood that he was the fulfillment of all the prophecies.

And well, after his resurrection and ascension, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the Church spread very rapidly. The power of the risen Christ was clearly visible in the conversions and the spread of the faith. St. Paul's letters are especially wonderful in that regard because we read— not that there weren't troubles. Sometimes people think that the early years of the Church, that everything was just perfect. No, there were people who also were up to mischief in the Church in those days, and St. Paul had to confront it. We find the teachings with regard to sexual morality and honesty and so forth, and that which he had to address. But nevertheless, notwithstanding these faults, which are always going to be present as long as man suffers from the effects of original sin and does not cooperate with God's grace. Notwithstanding that, the Church spread in a most wonderful way, and the whole history of the Church and the evangelization of the nations is just replete. And then the catalog of saints, many of whom are martyrs, martyrs who, in fidelity to Christ, in giving witness to Christ to others, actually died, were put to death. But just coming, it's interesting, very soon there will be beatified some martyrs who were in what is present-day Georgia, the Diocese of Savannah, but they were Franciscan friars who came to preach to the Indians, the Native Americans in that area.

I think it was called at that time Old Florida. But in any case, they came and of course, as part of the teaching of the faith, they taught that marriage is between one man and one woman. And there was a practice among some of the Indians of men taking more than one wife. And so they taught this to the people and And people were seemingly accepting it and were baptized, including this chief. But then he wanted to take a second wife. And of course, he wanted the priest to bless this. He had been baptized. And the priest told him, no, you can't do that. Marriage is in our Lord Jesus' stead. that a man takes to himself a wife and the two of them become one flesh. And so the chief then had killed him and then went to the other Franciscans who were with him. I think the total number— I should remember this— I think it was 5. And tried to get one of them to say, no, no, this is all right.

You can take a second wife.

And they all said, no, two So they all gave their lives to be faithful to Christ with regard to marriage. This is one example. Of course, it's very close to home here. But it's an example of the grace of the risen Christ, which is immeasurable and unceasing. There's no limit to it, and it's timeless until Who were the apostles? The apostles were the first bishops. Our Lord, we see from— this is a very good question, by the way— our Lord, from the very beginning of his public ministry, he chooses 12 men. And for what purpose? He gives them a more intense teaching. So that when he died, and in just a minute I'll talk about the Last Supper, that when he died, before he died, the night before he died at the Last Supper, he conferred on them the grace to be able to act in his person, to be priests, priests, bishops, in order to first of all, to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, but also to forgive sins, to be his pastoral presence in the Church, even as his love expressed in the Last Supper and in his crucifixion and death is the Holy Eucharist.

Divine love made flesh, we say. So also his pastoral love, offering the Last Supper, forgiving sins, is in his priests. And so we have in the Church what we call a hierarchical communion. All of us are one, but the— In the Church. that communion is served by those who are charged to be the priests, the teachers of the faith, the celebrants of the sacred mysteries, and the guides, the moral guides for the faithful. And so those are the apostles, and they were recognized from the very moment of our Lord. Throughout his public ministry, they were recognized as being chosen for a very special service. And then after our Lord's passion and death and the coming of the Holy Spirit, they were the ones who went out, for instance, baptizing, confirming, giving the sacrament of confirmation. Celebrating the Eucharist, anointing the sick, general teaching, teaching the faith with authority. We talk about the apostolic tradition and also teaching the good morals that are required of a Christian.

How were they chosen? Chosen directly by our Well, how did he make the decision to choose them?

Well, I wouldn't presume to know his mind. It's interesting because he chose— they were a various lot. They weren't all, you know, they weren't all like John the Evangelist, but Peter was a tax collector, and then There were 2 brothers, James and John, who were called the Boanerges. They were very zealous. They were the sons of thunder, they called them. But he saw in each of these men gifts that would serve his pastoral mission. And And then he chose them and he formed them. He had to instruct them, teach them, sometimes admonish them. When he announced that he would have to suffer and die to save us, St. Peter said, oh no, that can't happen, and so forth. Our Lord said to him, get behind me, Satan. You're thinking like men and not like God. And so, and then The mother of James and John was also asking— she didn't understand correctly, and obviously they didn't either— that he wasn't going to establish an earthly kingdom where he would have power and money. And so she's asking if her 2 sons can be on his right and his left in his kingdom. And he tells her, well, that's not mine to decide, but God the Father, but they will.

He asked, were they willing to share in his suffering, in the bitter chalice from which he would drink? And they say, yes, of course. And he says, well, you will. But they only later came to understand What this meant, the suffering that they would— and both of them died. Well, John did not. John died a natural death. But James was the Bishop of Jerusalem, and he was— that was James the Greater— and he was martyred in fidelity to Christ.

Were they all chosen at once?

In a very short time. Early on in the Gospel, there is an account of the choosing of the 12, and it talks about particularly he chose James and John, and then And Philip goes to get Nathanael, wants to bring him to see our Lord. But it's like within a short period of time, he has the 12 together, and the Gospel announces their names.

Was Judas an apostle?

Yes.

Why would God choose somebody that would betray him?

Well, perhaps it's a lesson to all the apostles and their successors that being chosen to be apostle doesn't mean that you can't betray our Lord. And Judas is a meditation for all of us who our priests and bishops, that how we must be faithful to our Lord in all things.

What happened to Judas?

He hung himself. He sold Jesus for 30 coins. He betrayed him. And then he went back to try to— he apparently realized what he had done. And they He tried to give the money back, but they took it, and they bought a plot of land called the Potter's Field. But he then despaired, and he hung himself. And that's very, very sad. We talk about sin against the Holy Spirit, and what is that sin? And it's the despair of God's mercy. That's what happened with Judas. Peter too betrayed our Lord in the sense he denied that he knew him. Now, he didn't take money to— Judas was much more heinous betrayal in the sense that he took money to hand over our Lord to those that would kill him. I mean, that's very repugnant. But Peter denied him, but the Gospel tells us that then he wept and he was sorrowful, but he trusted in God's mercy.

Who were the disciples?

The disciples were all those who came to follow Jesus.

They, discipuli are students of the master and the disciples.

And so they—

But the apostles are also students.

Yes, they were.

They're the chosen ones.

You could say in a way, the apostles were part of the— they were among the disciples, but who had been called to exercise this particular office in the Church as shepherds Shepherds of the flock as leaders. Okay.

Would you say that the Gospels are the most important part of the New Testament?

Yeah, absolutely.

Why?

Because they are the account of the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ, of his words and deeds by which we are saved. And I'm a big fan of St. Paul, obviously, and also the other epistles and so forth. They all have wonderful things in them, but everything that they have that's wonderful is pointing to the heart of the redemption, which is Jesus Christ incarnate, God the Son incarnate, who suffered, died, rose from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and sent the Holy Spirit upon the Church.

And so the Gospels is Matthew, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And John. What happened to the other 8 apostles? Why didn't they write a gospel?

The 4 gospel writers are not all apostles.

They're not?

No. Mark was not an apostle, neither was Luke. So, not all the apostles wrote a gospel. There are some, what they call, pseudo-gospels people came up with. One was attributed to St. James, but they're not part of the— they're not recognized as gospels by the Church. And so, but Mark had a special connection with St.

Peter and Luke.

They were closely associated, but they were not apostles.

Okay.

And the others, well, Jude left us an epistle and James, but the other apostles did not leave us writings. Okay.

Do the Gospels contradict each other at all?

No, there's no contradiction in the Over time, people have also put the Gospels together in one text. And there you see certain accounts are found in all the Gospels, some found in 2 Gospels, 3 Gospels, but there is no contradiction.

Were the apostles with them all the time, all 12 of them.

Yes, but we understand from the Gospels they accompanied him everywhere. They left their nets and followed him, and they were fishermen mostly, but he called them. He called Matthew, who was sitting at the tax collector's place. He called them, and they And they followed him, and from that moment on, they were completely at his service.

Let's talk about the Last Supper. What was the significance?

This is very important. Our Lord has come into Jerusalem. He came into Jerusalem knowing that it would— he would have to embrace his passion and death. So on the night before the Passion began, he brought the disciples together for what was the Passover meal. It was the annual celebration of the Passover, of the great liberation of God's people from slavery in Egypt. He brought them together, and in that meal, He said things in his power as God that instituted 2 sacraments. The sacrament of all sacraments, as we say, the Holy Eucharist. He took the bread and the wine and said— This is my body. This is my body which will be given up for you. This is the cup of my blood which will be poured out for you. And by that, he signified that we would share in the salvation that he won for us by giving his body up to death, by pouring out his lifeblood. In a sacramental way, that he would make always present that salvation by a sacrament, which would be nothing less than a share in his very body and blood. In other words, to receive him, body, blood, soul, and divinity, into our very being.

That— so in At that moment, he anticipated the salvation that he would win for us on Calvary by instituting the Holy Eucharist. And at the same time, he commanded the 12, do this in memory of me. And he instituted the holy priesthood so that— because Christ, he was going to die.

And he knew that.

He knew that.

Yeah.

And he wanted to leave those who would perpetuate until the last day the offering of the Holy Eucharist so that he would always be able to feed man in every age, in every place, with his saving body and blood. And so the Last Supper, Holy Thursday, is for us, you know, Easter Sunday is the great victory, but it's inseparably connected with the Last Supper because the gift of Easter Sunday, the gift of eternal life, comes to us sacramentally through the Holy Eucharist offered by the priest who acts in Christ's person. person to bring us the sacrament. And it's not something, you know, some people say, well, if there isn't a priest, the people can just come together and have the Eucharist.

No.

This is— Christ willed it in this way, that there should be a consecrated man who offers the Holy Eucharist. for us so that we can be strengthened with the gift of Christ's very life. And also, it's a pledge of eternal life. And St. Thomas has a beautiful text, O Sacram Convivium, O Holy Banquet, in which Christ is received, the memory of his passion is renewed, food, we are given the pledge of eternal life. Everything in this most wonderful sacrament. That's why also we receive the Holy Eucharist in Holy Communion at Mass, but it's such a great mystery that we also worship the Holy Eucharist outside of Mass so that we never lose Sight of the truth that this is the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ. And so we put the Blessed Sacrament in a beautiful, what we call monstrance or ostensorium, and we pray before the Holy Eucharist. Also, when we pass a church, if it's possible for us, we go in and make a visit to our Lord in the tabernacle. Because the hosts are consecrated at Mass, because our Lord wants to be with people at all times, even when the Mass is not being celebrated, the Eucharist is reserved in the tabernacle.

People pray there, but then also, if someone is sick, if someone is dying, the priest takes the sacred host, goes to them so that they can die with our Lord with them on their way from this life to the life which is to come, or that they can be strengthened when they're weak and need that help. And so this is the wonderful sacrament in the Church. There are 7 sacraments, as you know, but the sacrament, the Most Blessed Sacrament, as we call it, is the Holy Eucharist.

So, is it a symbol of the body and blood of Christ, or is it the body and blood of Christ?

No, it is the body and blood of Christ.

It is the body and blood of Christ.

It is the body and blood of Christ. That's why we treat the Eucharist with such great reverence. If it were just a symbol, and there are Christians who are not Catholic who think that the Eucharist is just a symbolic meal, meal. And so after the Eucharist, they just throw the hosts away that are not used. But we could never do that because we believe this is the teaching, the word that was found at the Council of Trent to express this transubstantiation, that the very substance The substance of the bread is changed into the body of Christ, Christ himself coming to feed us. And the accidents, it looks like bread, but the substance by the action of divine grace is the body of Christ.

And the Last Supper was on Friday?

It was on Thursday.

It was on Thursday.

Christ died for us on Good Friday, and on the evening of Holy Thursday, we call it, he celebrated the, uh, his Last Supper, the, the Passover meal, which was transformed. We call it now the Lord's Supper. Uh, it's the, it's the first Eucharist.

Is that considered the first Mass?

Yes.

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And remember, privacy isn't paranoia, it's protection. All right, back from the break. Let's get into the crucifixion. So we just covered the Last Supper and everything that that meant with the Eucharist. How long after the Last Supper did they come get him, and why did they come get him?

Well, he went out to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane with Peter, James, and John, and, uh, they, they came to To get him because they've— well, it's complicated. Put it simply, they said that he was stirring up trouble and that the Romans then would in some way crush them. Their idea was to get him away lest he seemed to be a threat to the Roman government. He wasn't, in fact, because there was no part of his public ministry where he was trying, for instance, to gather troops or to, you know, set up some kind of government. That just wasn't his mission.

What did the Roman government believe in at the time?

The Romans said they occupied Palestine the Holy Land today.

And they had a Roman governor there by the name of Pontius Pilate.

And that's why they brought our Lord— when they arrested him, they took him to Pontius Pilate to ask that he be condemned to death. And Pontius Pilate— But first, after the Last Supper, he went out directly to the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed there.

And he prayed—

his prayer was so intense that they say he perspired blood. He knew that the passion was at hand. And so it was while he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane—

that Judas arrived with the soldiers and they arrested him. The famous sign—

how did Judas indicate who he was so the soldiers would arrest him? He kissed him. He went up to him and in that culture, it wouldn't be unusual to give somebody a kiss. We're not talking about some passionate kiss, but to kiss them on the cheek. This is a normal way of greeting. And our Lord said to Judas, Judas, you would betray me with a kiss? In other words, a sign of friendship, of bond. Instead, it was— but that's what happened. And they— so they took him and took him before Pontius Pilate. And he Eventually condemned him to death by crucifixion. It's clear that he said to the people, he said, I find nothing in this man to condemn him. But the people even said that he presented to them, Christ to them, as their king. And the people responded, we have no king but Caesar, the king of the Romans. So then develops the whole story of the Passion, and our Lord is scourged. He's mocked.

And then—

Crucified. And then he has to take up this arduous walk from the Praetorium where he was condemned to Calvary, to this hill nearby, dragging the wood of the cross on his shoulders. And eventually they arrive at Calvary. And then they— he's nailed to the cross and the cross is lifted. And this is— it's a particularly agonizing form of death because the weight of the body pulling down on the chest, the person eventually dies of asphyxiation.

He can't—

he has to keep pushing himself up to get a breath. And at a certain point, the body is so weak that—

That's right.

And we have the account in the Gospels of our Lord's passion and death. And in the Gospel of John, it's particularly rich.

And our Lord gives us what they call the 7 last words of our Lord.

But among them are the words by which he gave us the Blessed Mother, his Mother as our Mother, said to John the Evangelist, who was at the foot of the cross with Mary and Mary Magdalene, Woman, behold your Son, he says to his Mother. And behold, and then he says to John, Behold your Mother. And so we see that our Lord is confiding the Church, especially to the intercession, the care of the Blessed Mother. And then he dies.

Where were the apostles at this time?

They had all scattered except for John. They were around but hiding. They didn't want to—

Fear?

Fear. They were all afraid. We have to say they were a cowardly lot, except for John.

Yes.

And after his death, there's a very significant— our Lord permits that the Roman soldier— well, they came, then he was crucified with 2 other men who were real criminals. And one of them mocked our Lord, and the other one, whom we call Dismas, the good thief, he said, And he reprimanded his cohort, saying, we're here dying because we've committed crimes. He's not done anything. You should not mock him. And he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom, which was an expression of a belief in eternal life. And our Lord said, today you will be with me in paradise. And so we believe that that thief was actually one of the first to share in the grace of salvation that Christ won. But anyway, what I wanted to get to was, our Lord had died, and so the soldiers came, and what they did to make sure that these criminals were dead is they'd break their legs. legs. And so they did that with the 2 thieves that were buried with him, the 2 criminals. When they came to him, he was clearly already dead. And so they didn't break his legs.

But when the Roman soldier pierced his side, going into his heart with the spear, and the Scripture says that blood and water flowed out. And for us, this is a sign of the sacramental grace that comes to us in virtue of Christ's passion and death. And it's the water of baptism, the blood of the Holy Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ. And that's also then at the heart of a great devotion in the Church to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Yes.

We often— you've seen the image of our Lord and he's holding his heart, showing his heart to us. And that's simply a reminder to us that our Lord is with us always in the Church. And his heart never ceases to beat with love for us. And that heart is now glorious after his resurrection.

And that's, for us, such a wonderful truth.

Do we have any idea of how big his discipleship was at the time of the crucifixion?

It was large. We hear many accounts, for instance, at the Sermon on the Mount, that a large crowd followed him.

Yes.

People were— well, they had been going to John the Baptist before our Lord began his public ministry. And the people were looking for the Savior. So I wouldn't be able to put a numerical figure on it, but let us just say that there was a sizable group of people who were following him.

But it It was no match for the Roman army.

No, no, no.

And he wasn't arming them physically.

He was arming them spiritually.

And so they wouldn't have been in any position to fight the Romans. And the fact of the matter is that the high priests and the leaders of the Jewish people had whipped up a sizable crowd that were actually asking for our Lord's execution. Because it's clear that Pontius Pilate didn't want to have him executed. And even Pilate's wife Sent a message to him that she'd had a dream about Jesus and that he shouldn't condemn him to death. But when the people were shouting and he saw that there was a riot at hand— this among the Jewish people, not obviously the followers of Jesus— then he succumbed and he said, then, you know, What happened to him? What happened to?

Pontius Pilate.

I can't remember how he ended his days. He continued on there. He's mentioned in the Creed that we pray every Sunday at Mass. Our Lord suffered under Pontius Pilate. I seem to recall that he came to a sad end, but I I don't— it's not coming clearly in my head what happened to him. But that's certainly able to be researched. But I have the recollection that he came to some kind of a sad end.

How did the discipleship grow after that?

It was the—

Well, I guess maybe we should save that question until after the resurrection.

Okay.

So what happened in between?

So our Lord, as I was mentioning before, Joseph of Arimathea was a just man.

He was among the leaders of the Jewish people, but a just man who was a disciple of Jesus. Jesus.

He went to Pilate and said, I would like the body of Jesus to be buried.

Pilate was surprised that he was already dead. But then when he found out that he was, he gave the body to Joseph of Arimathea. And so he, together with Nicodemus, and then of course the Blessed Mother and the holy women, they prepared Jesus' body for burial, and they buried him in this tomb. It would have been carved into the hillside, a stone tomb.

Why did he get his own tomb?

Because he— I suspect it was the one in which he intended himself to be buried in time, and that he gave it to Jesus. He was that— Who gave it? Loved our Lord that much and was that dedicated to Who gave it to Jesus?

Joseph of Arimathea.

Okay.

And so our Lord is buried on Friday. He died at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

He's buried that evening.

Sometime between his burial on Friday evening And the morning of Sunday, the resurrection took place.

And the only way we can describe it is that there's an explosion of light, or—

because his bodily remains, his poor tortured body, was glorified, was raised.

Was raised.

He came back to life in a wholly transformed way and then began a series of his apparitions for 40 days.

Then he appeared to the apostles who were hiding in the upper room.

They're still scared, so they're hiding in the upper room. He appeared to them. Once Thomas wasn't there, and the other apostles told Thomas they had seen the Lord. He said, unless I put my hand into his side and see these wounds, I won't believe it. And our Lord came back then the following Sunday and showed himself to Thomas.

And Thomas was overcome. He exclaimed, my Lord and my God.

He recognized Jesus immediately.

He appeared to the apostles who were fishing.

Some of them had gone back to fishing. He appeared on the side of the sea with them and offered them Breakfast, and they recognized then it was the Lord who appeared to them. Then there's the very famous account of the 2 disciples who, after our Lord's death on Friday, are walking to the neighboring town from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and they're lamenting the demise of our Lord, and he appears to them, but they don't recognize And he says, what are you talking about? And they say, are you the only person in Jerusalem that doesn't know about what happened to Jesus of Nazareth? And they then recount the whole thing to them. And then he said, you haven't understood. And he explained to them. And this gets back to the point we've made several times in our conversation. He then interpreted the whole scriptures for them to show that he in fact was the fulfillment of the promise of salvation. And so they arrive where they're going to stay, and they sit down for a meal, and he breaks the bread in the same way he did at the Last Supper, and they recognize that it's him, and then he disappears.

But it's very powerful.

They said they recognized him in the Eucharist, in the breaking of the bread.

He disappeared right in front of them?

Yes. And so, at the end of those 40 days, he called the apostles together at the foot of the Mount of the Ascension and instructed them to go forth and First, he told them to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit, and then he also instructed them to go out and to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And then at that, he ascended into heaven. He was lifted up and away from their sight. And they went back then, that was on Ascension Thursday, they went back and they prayed for 9 days for the gift of the Holy Spirit that had been promised to them. That's where the practice comes of a novena in the Church, 9 days of prayer. The first novena was the 9 days of prayer from Holy Thursday to Pentecost Sunday. And then on Pentecost, they're in the upper room still Yeah. Hiding for fear of the Jews. And there's this tremendous wind, and then they see like little flames of fire above their heads, and it was ascending— God the Father and God the Son sending the Holy Spirit upon them.

And these disciples, who up to that point were fearful and weak, Weak becomes simply bold. Peter goes out and announces in a very forceful way the truth about our Lord, about the redemption he had accomplished. And they say that day alone, several thousand people were baptized. And from that Pentecost Sunday, it's just this constant flow of the grace of the Holy Spirit As people are taught, they receive the gift of faith. They ask for baptism. They're baptized and become members of the Church, the mystical body of Christ.

So it grew exponentially after the resurrection.

I'm sorry?

It grew exponentially immediately after the resurrection.

Yes, yes. Completely incredible. And under persecution.

It wasn't as if they were free just to do whatever they wanted.

Yes, they did go out and preach fearlessly, but they were persecuted for it. And there were many martyrs. I say all the apostles except John were put to death. But they went. We know that St. Thomas went as far as India. They went all over the world to bring the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And And yes, it's really—

that in itself is a miracle.

How long after his death did the apostles live?

Different.

They lived to be different ages. Some were martyred earlier, some later. John, of course, wasn't martyred. He lived to a good age.

And he's the one that didn't flee.

He didn't flee. He remained always with our Lord. He seemed like maybe he was one of the younger apostles, and that he was particularly devoted to our Lord, and that our Lord called him his beloved disciple. He had a special closeness to our Somebody who you can see from his Gospel too understood very deeply who our Lord was and what his mission was and was completely invested in it.

How many times did he reappear?

That's a good question. Several times. Gosh, I don't know the exact number, but I would think that it must have been the ones, at least the accounts in the Gospels, I would say 10 or 15 times.

10 or 15 times?

Yes.

And the last time was when he—

When he ascended into heaven.

Yes.

We don't know, because there are the accounts in the Gospels, but he clearly could have appeared more times than that. All the accounts are there. In fact, it says that he appeared many times. And we, for instance, there's no direct account of an appearance to our Blessed Mother, but we can't help but think that he surely appeared to her. And first, the first appearance was probably to our Blessed Mother, and then the other ones that followed from it.

Why do you think there's no writings from Mary in the New Testament?

I think that, first of all, she always presents herself as the handmaid of the Lord, the one who's serving him. And I think that her account of his life is the Gospel according to St. John, that she confided to him so many things about about our Lord's public ministry, his passion, his death, his resurrection, that that's where we find the last words we have from our Blessed Mother in the Gospel at the wedding feast of Cana, the last recorded words. Because we have beautiful, for instance, when she visited Elizabeth She had conceived our Lord, and she learned from the Archangel Gabriel that Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist, already 6 months pregnant. So she went immediately to help her.

And there's this beautiful—

Elizabeth acknowledges her as the Mother of the Redeemer, and then she has this beautiful prayer, the Magnificat. But the last words, she's with Jesus at the supper at Cana, the wedding feast of Cana, and they ran out of wine for the guests. And she takes the wine stewards to our Lord and says to them, do whatever he tells you. And that's her, those are her last words. And those are beautiful words from our Blessed Mother. Just remember that. Do we do whatever our Lord tells us? That's what she's leading us to do.

When did we figure out he would come again? Did he tell us that?

Yes. When he said, I will be with you until the last day, to the end of the age, end of time. And so yes, he's promised to return to us. And, uh, in glory on the last day.

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What does that mean, the end of time?

I mean, if—

Time means that there won't be any more time. In other words, when our Lord comes to restore everything to the Father, we'll be back in Eden. And as you were saying earlier on, Adam and Eve were meant to live forever. We will be in that state where we will live forever. There will be no more sin or death. And simply that joy, the eternal joy of being in the company of How did we get the Book of Revelation? St. John the Apostle had these visions at Patmos Island where he was living with our Blessed Mother. And he describes right at the beginning of it how it happened that he received these visions and he wrote them down.

What were What were they?

Some of them.

Well, for instance, the vision of the coming of the Lord in glory to inaugurate the wedding feast, his wedding feast at which all those who are saved would take part. There are other visions that are letters to the various important cities at that time in the Church. So there's quite a variety, but the principal ones are of our Lord seated in glory, returning to consummate his saving work by By turning over all being to the Father.

How does it end?

It's simply, from what we understand of the vision, is that our Lord himself descends to earth in his glory and—

In the flesh of Flesh and blood. Yes, but glorified.

Remember that from the time of his resurrection is— and this is something that's a mystery to us. We don't understand how it is that it is his body, but it's his glorified body. For instance, he can pass from one place to another without using a door. And this is recounted in the scriptures. And so it's hard for us to understand that. Well, of course, it's beyond our comprehension. It's not something that we've experienced. But the scriptures assure us that that is indeed what will happen.

You know, a lot of people are scared of the end times.

Yes.

Should they be?

No.

Yeah. If one is living, striving to live a good and just life, there's nothing about which to be afraid. Our Lord comes to save all that is good and to save the just. And so people, because you don't have an experience of of this. People are afraid of it, but we have the promises of our Lord, and our Lord is never going to deceive us. He's never going to tell us lies. And so we know that he'll come to save the living and the dead. And so we just have confidence. We don't know what it will be, how it will be, but we have confidence that our Lord will be true his promises. And people are oftentimes wanting to predict when the world will come to an end. And I'm sure you've heard this from time to time. People even say, you know, well, it's going to happen in 1984 or something like that. And they asked our Lord, Lord? And he said, basically the response was, it's not, we shouldn't be worried about that. That's the concern of God the Father. He will bring the world to an end when the time is right.

We just have to be watching and ready to receive him. We have to have our belts tightened and be looking for our Lord, have our eyes fixed on him and waiting for his coming. And he tells about the good and faithful servants who, when the master returns, they're ready to receive him. And that's how we should be, not worrying about when it's going to happen, but only be concerned that every day, every moment of the day, That we are ready to receive our Lord, that we're looking for him, and that we welcome him with all our hearts. I was quite sick a few years ago with this COVID. It was in August of 2021. And it— I had a very severe attack of it, in fact. I was taken to the hospital, And the doctors told me that I was dying. And they asked, they wanted to put me on a ventilator. They said that was the only hope they would have to save me. And people said to me, well, when they told you you were dying, weren't you terrified? And I said, no, to be honest, I wasn't because I'm a priest. I had been preparing at that time.

I had been a priest for 46 years.

I said, I prepared so many people to die, assisted them in dying, and our Lord promises that those who die in him will pass from this life to eternal life. So I just understood that now my time had had arrived. I said the only thought I had was that I wasn't planning on dying. And I was thinking of all the things that I left undone. But I wasn't terrified at the idea of dying, but simply that I wish I had been a little better organized, so to speak. But that's the way we should, I believe, that's the way we should live. that all of us, this life is a pilgrimage. We're not meant to be in this world forever. And so we should be at peace and live in a way that we're ready to meet our Lord.

Is heaven here?

No.

Heaven, we— it will be a new heaven and a new earth according to So the earth will be transformed. Exactly. So it won't be this world as we know it, but transformed in a way that we can't know how that is. Sometimes artists have attempted to express it, but it's simply something beyond anything we could imagine. But we know that it will be because it will be God in his fullness, that it will be completely beautiful and good and true.

So if you're living when it happens, does that mean you will not die?

Yes, that means exactly that. You will be transformed as a living. And this comes up, and the people are asking our Lord about Whether St. John, whether John the Beloved Disciple would be, whether he was going to die and so forth. And our Lord just simply says that when the— some will be alive at the time, but all will be caught up into heaven, into this new earth, which will be the new heavens and new earth transformed, completely redeemed.

So it might be here.

Yes.

Well, we have to say that our Lord, of everything that he makes that is good is enduring. And so that in some way he will make the goodness of his creation, and his creation is good. We appreciate so many good things. Even for instance, this beautiful place here in Tennessee and other. So somehow all that goodness will endure, but in a transformed way.

Do you think that the Do you think the gateway to heaven is wide or narrow?

Our Lord says it's narrow. I think he says that to us because human beings have a tendency to be presumptuous and to think, oh, I'll do whatever I want and God will forgive me. We can never presume upon the Divine Mercy. And so I always like to think that we should think that we better be on our best behavior and be always striving for that.

All of us have our faults, to be sure.

Amen.

But we should we shouldn't presume upon God's mercy, but always have that genuine sorrow for our sins and a desire to be more fully a reflection of the goodness of Christ. And in that sense, I think it's narrow. On the other hand, in the book of the Apocalypse, when it talks about The great assembly of those who are saved. It says that first they have 14,000 or 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, so many thousand from each tribe of Israel. And then it says there was a crowd of the saved that's innumerable. And so, I'm sure that our Lord's mercy will be very abundant, but we don't presume upon it. We, you know, it's, you're kind, but I don't presume upon your kindness by doing wicked things to you, in other words. And so, the same way as we would even with our own parents. Our parents are good to us, But we have great reverence for them. We don't want in any way to displease them. We count upon them understanding and forgiving us for our faults. But at the same time, we have great reverence. What, with regard to our Lord, is called fear of the Lord, one of the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit, that we recognize how infinitely good God is, how he has done for us more than was imaginable in his goodness.

And therefore, we want to be our best, and we're sorry for the ways in which we fail our Lord.

In a recent homily, you spoke about the call to martyrdom in the family, in the family life, particularly for men as husbands, fathers, and leaders of the What does it look like in practical terms to live out that kind of sacrificial love for our wives, marriages, and children?

It means that a man has to strive to be as virtuous as he can be, be a model for his children, and in that way, to be a protector of his wife. And St. Joseph is our great model of this, how he protected always Mary and the Child Jesus, the flight indeed of the home of Nazareth. By his work, he was a carpenter, construction, constructing buildings. So for a man today in a society which there's so much corruption. I think today, for instance, the young people are assaulted with this pornography, and it's so available to them. It's on the phones. They don't have to be particularly clever to be exposed to this. And so fathers have to be vigilant. and insist with their children that, you know, what is good and right for them and to discipline them also when a child needs to be disciplined, to correct them. And sometimes people, they want to be pals with their children. Well, a father is not called to be a buddy of his children.

He's called to be the father, the secure guide, the protector.

And so sometimes he has to say no. And the child might say, I hate you, and run off and hide in his room or something. But in the long run, he's going to be very grateful to that father who told him no before something that was not for his good. And so we have to have the courage to say no.

No, this us.

And even when for a while our child or whoever it is that we said no to dislikes us for it. And I've had the experience, because I've lived a long time as a priest and a bishop, of people writing to me and telling me that they didn't understand something that I did, especially as a bishop, but they wanted to write and tell me that now they understand and they thank me for insisting on whatever it was. And that's the way we should be as fathers too. We're in this for the long haul, for eternal life. And therefore, We aren't looking for the immediate gratification of a child says, oh, I love you. But we're looking for the long-term good of that child. And the child will eventually understand and be very grateful. But the important thing is that we've fulfilled our responsibility before God and in God, to be a father of a family.

I got a hot question for you. You ready?

I'm as ready as I'm able to be.

Cardinal Burke, if demons are real, how can an ordinary person actually fight them?

Only in Christ, uh, and Only Christ has the power to repel demons, to cast them out, to get them away from us. And in the Church, we have the formal prayers called exorcisms to drive away the demons. But those prayers are all said in the name of Christ. The priest never says, I No, it's Christ who drives out the demons. We invoke St. Michael the Archangel and so forth. And in Christ, even as we saw in the Gospels, when our Lord cast out demons, demons can be cast out, but only in him.

If we would presume to battle the devil on our own, we will be defeated.

This is a great temptation for exorcists. These are the priests who are charged with saying the prayers of the Church to free people from the evil one, either his obsession or his possession, even worse, of the person. There's always the temptation, the exorcist is fighting this fight with Christ, but he can be tempted to see it as his battle. And I'm going to drive that devil out. And that's fatal, because we can't. They have powers that we don't, preternatural powers, and only the supernatural power of Christ himself can cast them out.

Do you see that a lot?

More than I would like. It seems in the present time, and I know this from talking to brother bishops and so forth, and exorcists, there's a lot of demonic activity going on. And I think part of it is that for— there was a period, not in the so distant past where people said, oh, Christ has conquered Satan and so forth, nothing to worry about. Well, no, Christ has conquered him and he continues to conquer him, but Satan continues to prowl about the world, as the letter of St.

Peter says, seeking whom he may devour.

And Satan hates hates us because we're made in the image and likeness of God, and we're destined to be with God, and he's rejected all that, and he's eternally damned. And so he's coming after people. But if we pray, if we fortify ourselves with the sacraments, if we take all the precautions with regard to the evil one, we can be sure that our Lord won't let him have power over us. But it's when we begin to think— Satan is never happier than when we think he's not around, because then he can really do damage. We have to have our eyes wide open and see, now this is something that's diabolical. And sadly, in the world today, and even sometimes in the Church, we see things that are diabolical. They're so evil that they could only come from the evil one himself.

Do you see a lot of exorcists that say, I am the one that drove the demon out?

I have not encountered that myself. I do have known exorcists who, but not because they were presumptuous, but because the work is so intense and difficult, who've suffered in their health, and it's a heroic thing. But no, I've really never known an exorcist who did that.

What does Scripture, particularly Ephesians 6 and the armor of God, teach us about spiritual warfare? And what prayers does the Church give ordinary people to drive the devil out of their lives and homes?

Well, the ordinary prayers are simply to call upon the Lord, have mercy on us, to invoke St. Michael the Archangel, who is especially our advocate against the devil, St. Joseph, the terror of demons, demons. And of course, our Blessed Mother. These are all ways in which we arm ourselves. We put on the helmet of salvation in this— what is spiritual warfare? There's no other way to describe it. St. Paul, at the end of his his life is writing to St. Timothy, and he says, my time is coming. And he said, I fought the good fight.

I've stayed the course.

So we have the military image. We have the athletic image. Then I've kept the faith. In other words, that he trusted in our Lord Lord, stayed close to our Lord, and therefore every day he soldiered on in his life. And then he says, for the rest, there is the glory that the Lord has reserved to those who love him.

For the person watching who's never prayed a rosary in their life, walk them through through it, what should they do tonight?

Well, the first thing to do is to understand that the Rosary is really a Gospel prayer. It's the repetition of the Hail Mary.

These are the first part of the Hail Mary is taken directly. Hail Mary, full of grace, are the words of the Archangel Gabriel.

to the Blessed Mother, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, the words of Elizabeth. And then we add, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. It's a beautiful prayer, and we pray it while meditating on a mystery of, in the life of our Lord, of our Blessed Mother. Traditionally, there were 15 mysteries, the Joyful Mysteries, Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious Mysteries. And Pope St. John Paul II added 5 more. But anyway, so we take, and the beads are important because they help us to stay on course with the prayer. We begin with the Apostles' Creed. We say 3 Our Father and 3 Hail Mary. for that this prayer will increase in us faith, hope, and charity. And we always pray for our Holy Father, for the Pope. And then we begin whatever, usually on, like on Monday. On Sunday and Wednesday, we pray the Glorious Mysteries. Then on Monday, Joyful Sorrowful. Tuesday, the Sorrowful Mysteries. Thursday, these Luminous Mysteries that Pope St. John Paul II gave us. Then Friday, again, the Sorrowful Mysteries. And then on Saturday, the Joyful Mysteries again.

But, and so we, let's take for instance, the first Glorious Mystery is the Resurrection of our Lord. And so we, we We take into our mind what is the resurrection. Sometimes people even read a little verse from the Scripture about it. And then we say this prayer, just trying to— we say 10 Hail Marys and an Our Father and 10 Hail Marys and a Glory Be, just simply reflecting on our life in Christ as we see it in his resurrection. Then the next mystery is the Ascension. then the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. And you see how that fits in so much with our conversation about the Gospel today. You see how it's really a Gospel prayer. And then the Assumption of our Blessed Mother, and then her coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth. So those are glorious mysteries. Then we have the joyful mysteries, the Annunciation, Archangel Gabriel appearing to Mary, the Visitation, Mary visits St. Elizabeth, the birth of our Lord, the Nativity, his presentation in the temple, and then the finding of our Lord in the temple at the age of 12. You see how wonderful this is, because we're always, we're getting, drawing ever closer to the mystery of our Lord's saving work.

And by repeating this prayer over and over, This strengthens us in that reflection. And then the sorrowful mysteries, the agony in the garden, the scourging at the pillar, the crowning with thorns, carrying of the cross, and the crucifixion. And then the new luminous mysteries are the baptism of our Lord, the wedding feast at Cana, his proclamation of the kingdom, the transfiguration, and then the institution of the Holy Eucharist. And I always like to think, too, of the holy priesthood, as we were talking about before. So this is a powerful prayer given by Our Lady to St. Dominic, a powerful way for us to draw near to our Lord through the intercession of our Blessed Mother so that we can live more fully him. I don't know if that helps.

That absolutely helps. Thank you.

But get rosary beads, because that helps you to count the prayers and so forth. But it's a very concrete— rosary beads are not magical, but people like to— many people are buried with the rosary in their hands. And it's not because of some magic, but It's simply a concrete sign of the power of prayer. And so it's always good to have a rosary in your pocket.

Makes sense. I got mine right here.

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Okay, we're getting into our final segment.

Yes.

Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Yes.

I wanted, if I could, to present you with a special gift in honor of these conversations we've had, an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. reproduction. This is done digitally, so it's very authentic.

And, oh, wow.

This is how Our Lady appeared to a Native American, Juan Diego, in 1531.

And you can see that she appears as the woman in the Apocalypse, the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and with stars stars over her head. And then in the— on her garment and so forth are all symbols from that ancient world, but all will point to the reality that she is the Mother of God. So it's a very powerful apparition that took place from December 9th to the 12th in 1531. And I wanted you to have this as a—

Thank you.

a reminder of how close Our Lady is to you and how she wants to bring Christ. She says that she's come. She appears to Saint Juan Diego. She says, I'm the Mother of God. I want a little chapel to be built where I can bring my children to my Divine Son, who alone is our hope and our salvation. And of course, we're coming now, 1531, 2031 will be 500 years. So we're preparing. I founded a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin. We're doing a 5-year preparation, and each year we're reflecting on one of the mysteries in the life of Our Blessed Mother, starting with her Immaculate Conception, with her perpetual virginity, her divine maternity, Her Assumption, and then her mediation of all graces. And so we'll be giving all this attention to our Blessed Mother in order to draw closer to our Lord. And I want to invite you in a special way to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse. It's not so far from Tennessee. And then eventually, the visitor shrine in Mexico City, where you can see the actual, the miracle of this too.

There's much to say, and I don't want to go on and on, but the miracle of this apparition is, there are many miraculous aspects, but Our Lord left the image on this mantle of Saint Juan Diego. He was wearing the typical dress of the time. And when the bishop asked him for a sign, he went and said, Our Lady appeared to me. She wants this chapel. And he said, well, bring a sign from Our Lady. Well, she had roses bloom in the middle of winter on this craggy hill, this, where you wouldn't find any flowers. And so, and Our Lady put them in his mantle. When he opened the mantle up for the bishop, the flowers fell out, but then her image appeared, and that image is still on that garment today in the Basilica in Mexico City, and it's a cactus cloth garment. It should have disintegrated within 30 or 40 years, and instead it's still miraculously preserved.

So—

Wow. Thank you.

Oh, you're most welcome.

It's a— and I brought a book to you about the Shroud But there are many wonderful accounts, and millions of people were converted to Christ as a result of her apparition.

Millions of people?

Millions, literally millions.

Well, I think we are already working with your team to do your life story and talk all about this up at the shrine that you started.

Well, that would be wonderful. Anything we can do to help Our Lady We call ourselves Our Lady's messengers.

We're the Juan Diegos who are going out and bringing the message of Our Lord that she wants us to deliver.

This is beautiful.

Thank you.

Oh, you're most welcome.

It'll be hanging up right in here.

Okay. That's wonderful.

She'll be a good protector.

So Cardinal Burke, we, we've wrapped up the Old Testament, the New Testament. I think the overall arc of the New Testament is definitely the resurrection.

Yeah, they, they— I, I, I know that There's a— the passion is to be followed. There is to be a movie now coming out on the Resurrection, and I think it should be coming out soon, but I hope it is as good.

Next Easter.

Next Easter.

Easter of 2027, from what I understand. Yes, but that is And then 40, it's a 2-part series.

Oh.

Then the next one is 40 days after that.

All right.

From what I understand.

Well, the resurrection, of course, it's the moment of the resurrection, but then it's the apparitions that follow and then the ascension. So that's very good if they're doing that.

So I hope that— that God— I'm sure God will bless that work.

So after this 2-part interview series, the Bible can be very intimidating, you know, for, for a newbie like myself to get through it. And that's why I'm doing this series, starting— you know, it started yesterday But as I mentioned, we'll go through every single book in the Bible.

Oh, that's great. No, and people, just, I always say to people, just sit down and start, for instance, with the Gospels, and then, and just take it a little at a time. It's the Word of God. And people, if they do that, they get very much at home with it. And then they want to go more and more, even into some of the books of the Bible that are more difficult. And so, yes, and that you're going to do every book of the Bible, I think that's wonderful.

Thank you.

I'll be praying for that, that God bless that, and that all your listeners, their lives will be enriched.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you for being here.

You're most welcome.

Can we end with a prayer?

Sure. Surely. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Almighty God, we give you thanks for this time, blessed time we've had together to come to know more deeply your divinely inspired Word as it comes to us in the Holy Scriptures. And we ask you to bless us now as we strive to deepen our knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and therefore our knowledge and love of you. We ask this in our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who is with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Amen.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, terror of demons, pray for us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Thank you.

You're not gonna lose it all.

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