Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Good News 042526: House of David and the Real David: An Easter Reflection

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Good News 042526: House of David and the Real David: An Easter Reflection · Catholic Spirit Radio

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Welcome to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio, a program for teens and almost
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teens to better understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant in their
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lives, and it's a place where your questions about faith and religion can be answered.
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And now, here's your host, Deacon Al. Good evening, and welcome to Good News.
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I am Deacon Anna Lundy, a permanent deacon of the Peoria Diocese,
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here with you on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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Good News is a program we air every Saturday and Sunday evenings from 8 to 8.30,
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that looks, among other things, at the readings of the Mass,
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the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we do a short reflection on it.
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What does it mean to us today in this world, in this life?
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And it's a great time of year. We're still in the Easter season.
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This is the fourth Sunday of Easter.
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This is sort of Easter Sunday 3 continued.
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The readings, all of our readings, our first reading is a continuation of last
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week's first reading. our second reading, a continuation of last week's second
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reading, our gospel, a continuation of last week's gospel.
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So this is kind of like part two of our Easter season, and I think you'll enjoy it.
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The readings are very meaningful, as they always are. But first,
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I want to talk to you about television.
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The reason is that usually television.
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The made-for-TV movies on religious topics, on theology, on the Bible,
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Bible stories, they're usually pretty bad.
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I mean, Cecil B. DeMille kind of pretty bad.
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It used to be, I had a couple Easter's where I watched every Easter movie that I could find.
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And on cable, with all those channels, you can find a lot of Easter movies.
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And they were all absolutely horrible. Just horrible.
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Really bad production values. really twisted versions of Scripture.
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In one, a Roman guard, rather than Jesus, a Roman guard looks to Jesus and tells
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Jesus to look at his mother, and then tells John to look at Mary and tells John, she's now your mother.
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Where is this coming from? Just really horrible,
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horrible translations and i remember one it was an italian made version of king
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of kings and so is all voice over uh dubbed well there was this there was the
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crowd scene when jesus is carrying the cross on the uh on the way to golgotha.
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And the crowd is murmuring, and you can actually hear them say,
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peas and carrots, peas and carrots, peas and carrots, as they murmur together. Just awful stuff.
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And so the first really good film I ever saw that was really accurate to Scripture,
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and it had some errors, but for the most part, it tried to really be true to Scripture.
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Was Passion, the Passion of Christ, which I thought they did a really good job of.
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It was the first one that actually showed the Passion accurately.
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If you read Scripture, it's pretty gruesome. I mean, it describes flesh hanging
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from his bone, and they showed that in the Passion, where in many of the movies,
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they really sugarcoat that kind of thing.
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There's no scarring, there's no cutting of skin shown.
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There's no really, it's done with shadows, you know, kind of a thing.
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So I'm just in generally disillusioned by Hollywood's efforts to do films about
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theology and Bible history.
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Anyway, I've been watching on Prime Video, House of David.
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Oh my gosh, what a great program. Now I should say, I've also really enjoyed
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from Angel Studios, The Chosen.
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The Chosen is just an outstanding series and really good production values,
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follows scripture very, very closely.
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There's some areas that have to be dramatized because scripture is not a script.
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It's not word for word. It's not moment to moment. And so in order to connect
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these events of Scripture,
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sometimes it takes a little human imagination to think, okay,
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what probably happened here? What's likely? What's logical?
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And so, scenes have to be created to tie these biblical events together.
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And they do that as well in House of David. And they tell you right up front
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that there's some theatrical license taken.
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But for the most part, it is just dead on with Scripture.
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It takes you through 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles, 1 Kings, and does a really,
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really good job of explaining the life of David.
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And I've just been really, really impressed with its accuracy to the point where
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they recently—and I don't want to give a bunch of stuff away—but they recently,
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if you've read the Scriptures, you know all this already.
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There was the scene where the priests at Nob are murdered.
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Fifty of the priests of Israel are murdered as King Saul searches for David.
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Now that he's turned against David first, they were great buddies,
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father and son relationship.
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And now Saul in his insanity has turned against David and he's hunting him down.
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And he hunted them to Nob and David got there first.
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And while there, he had to leave the palace in such a hurry,
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he had no weapons with him.
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So he asked the priest at Nob, he says, do you have any weapons that I could take to defend myself?
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He said, we have one weapon, and you're welcome to it if you want it.
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And it's the sword of Goliath.
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And my wife sitting next to me gives kind of these, like, that's kind of stupid.
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They've hung on for all these years to the sword of Goliath.
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But that's actually scriptural.
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It tells in Scripture what's being kept by the priests.
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They're keeping the tabernacle. The tabernacle is hidden with them. The sword of Goliath.
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The ephah of the high priest. That's that breastplate and apron that the high priest wears.
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There's some other items that go with that, but it's called the ephah.
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And those things are being held secretly with the priests.
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And and so to have him
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come there and receive the sword of goliath is
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really scriptural so they're doing a really good job i mean down to very nth
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detail they've taken a little bit of license like there's there's one female
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character that they have as being the the daughter of of saul or actually she
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was the daughter of jonah.
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Not the daughter of Saul, but it works. It's not a main character,
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and it's not significant to David's life, but it fills in a theatrical gap that the story needed.
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Talking to some friends about the show at breakfast today, and one of them has
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been watching, and he says, it's kind of slow in parts.
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Well, yeah, but Bible's kind of slow in parts, too, let's be honest.
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And another one says, it's so violent.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Bible's very violent. Old Testament, especially. Old Testament,
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extremely violent, because you have to remember, this is really early in mankind's development.
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I mean, we are a very violent animal and didn't have a lot of courts.
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A lot of things were determined, right or wrong was determined by,
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well, if I can kill you, then I'm right.
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And so, it was a very violent society. That doesn't mean that the Bible promotes violence.
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It just admits that that was part of the history of society at that time.
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The Bible talks about slavery. It doesn't promote slavery, but it admits that
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there was slavery at that time.
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Totally different type of slavery than the slavery we talk about from the early
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years of this country, from the 1700s and 1800s here. Completely different type of slavery.
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But yes, slavery existed.
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So I've just been fascinated by this series. I think it's really excellent.
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Check it out, called House of David. It's on Prime.
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I also understand that the series by, oh, who's the big time director?
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I think this one's on Hulu. He's doing a series on saints.
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Yeah, the...
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What's his name? I can't think of his name now all of a sudden.
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Anyway, big-time Hollywood director doing a series primarily on the Saints,
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and I'm told that's very, very good.
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I have not watched any of them yet, so I'll have to check them out and see.
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But I must say that Martin Scorsese has done several episodes now,
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and everybody I've talked to has said it's really, really well done.
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I tend to look at two things. I look at, first, accuracy to Scripture,
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and the second thing I look at is production value.
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I don't want to see a wristwatch on people, jet streams, things like that.
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I'm always disappointed in, oh, the Ten Commandments, when Moses, Charlton Heston,
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starts to leave Egypt with the Israelites, and they're heading out across the
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desert, and you can see the tread marks of the camera truck ahead of him.
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In the sand, you can see the tread marks. Chariots don't have treads,
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so it's kind of easy to tell it's not chariot marks.
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And there was, I remember as a kid, I think they've edited it out now,
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but there was a scene where he held up the tablets on Mount Sinai,
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held up the tablets of the Ten Commandments, and you could see his watch band.
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You know, those kind of things drive me crazy when I'm watching that kind of historic episode.
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So anyway, check out House of David. You won't be disappointed.
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It is very violent, but it was a violent time.
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You'll also see David is presented as David is presented in Scripture as a very
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good man with a lot of flaws.
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David was not perfect. We aren't perfect. I think that's a very positive message
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for us to understand that we can be people of God and not be perfect.
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Jesus is the only perfect person that ever was. Mary a close second.
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But we're all flawed. And, I mean, David was an adulterer. David was a murderer.
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David, by some measurements, was a traitor.
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So he had his moments. He had times where he was very humble.
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He had times where he was very arrogant.
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So he's presented just as a human being, but it's done in a very truthful way.
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And there's no denying his faith in God over everything else,
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that everything in his life he leaves to God's will. And that's a great lesson for us.
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We try and be in charge, or we think we're in charge of way more than we actually are.
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You know this is God's plan not not ours but.
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I was reminded the other day talking to a friend of mine who's looking for prayer,
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and what he's praying for is that God will do what he wants,
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rather than pray that he can have the strength to do what God wants.
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And I think when Scripture says that we pray poorly, that's often what it's referring to.
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So, yeah, watch House of David. I think it's a great learning experience.
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It's a great lesson in understanding Scripture. and understanding history.
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And I just, I think you'll really enjoy it. Okay, with that,
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we're going to take a break for just a few minutes.
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We're going to come back and look at the readings from the fourth Sunday of Easter.
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Welcome back to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio. I'm Deacon Al Lundy.
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Something I was going to mention in the first half, and I'll only spend a little
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bit of time on this because we'll be talking about it more in the future,
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but for anyone in the country,
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whether you're in the Peoria Diocese or any of the diocese surrounding us or
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any diocese anywhere in the U.S.,
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the Peoria Diocese has released the schedule for a series of events that are
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going to take place in September during the Beatification of Fulton Sheen.
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And there's going to be a number of very special masses.
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There'll be all sorts of special events. And you can go to our website for our
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diocese and see that schedule.
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It's the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, cdop.org, and see that.
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I know that the radio station here is putting together some bus trips to St.
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Louis, where we're actually going to have the mass, because the only place big
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enough to hold everyone is a place called The Dome in St. Louis.
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It seats like 80,000 people.
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So it's going to be quite a mass. And it's going to be televised,
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but it's going to be closed-circuit TV streamed. And you can also,
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while you're on the site, you can register for the streaming.
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If not now, soon you're going to be able to do that. I know my parish is putting
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together a number of buses.
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I'm sure just about every parish in the diocese will be putting together bus trips.
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So you can find ways to get there. It's going to be beautiful.
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It's going to be amazing.
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Fulton Sheen, known worldwide for his television and radio ministries.
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And we're very excited about the fact that he's going to be beatified in the Catholic faith.
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So be looking for that. I feel horrible that I'm not going to be able to go.
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A lot of our deacons are going to be able to take part in some of the ceremony,
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and I will not be available. I've got some,
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unexpected surgery coming up at that same time. So, I will probably be resting
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in one bed either at home or at the hospital, hopefully at home by then.
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So, I'll try and catch it on the streaming. But my heart's just breaking that
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I'm not going to be able to vest and be there with my brother deacons.
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So, let's look at the readings from the fourth Sunday of Easter.
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Our first reading is from the Acts of the Apostles.
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And as I say, it's a continuation of a speech, an address to a crowd that Peter
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started giving last week.
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So, this is Acts of the Apostle, chapter 2. Then Peter stood up with the eleven,
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raised his voice, and proclaimed, Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
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that God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified.
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Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and
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the other apostles, What are we to do, my brothers?
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Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you,
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in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins,
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and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off,
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whomever the Lord our God will call.
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He testified with many other arguments and was exhorting them,
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save yourselves from this corrupt generation.
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Those who accept his message were baptized, and about 3,000 persons were added
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that day. The word of the Lord.
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So one of the things this points out is the importance of baptism.
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Jesus talked about you need to be baptized in order to be saved.
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Peter is now saying, how do you get over this sin of having crucified Christ?
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Ask for God's forgiveness and show him your intentions through your baptism,
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a death and rising again to a new life.
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And so baptism is essential to the life of any Christian.
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But it also, I want to point out that some people, some of our brothers and
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sisters in the Christian faith, use this to say,
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well, you shouldn't baptize in the words of the Trinity, you only need to baptize
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in the words of, in the name of Jesus Christ, because that's what Peter says.
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No, that's not what Peter's saying.
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That is, Peter's saying that this baptism is different than the baptism they
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knew of through John, John the Baptist.
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That now this baptism has to include a faith in Christ where the other one had faith in God.
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Now this has to include Jesus and you will receive the Holy Spirit. It's a triune baptism.
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So, you can't go simply by, well, Peter said, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
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That's how you should baptize. No, Jesus said, you baptize in the name of the
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Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
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So, that's the rite of baptism.
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This is just Peter warning you that the old baptism is no longer good enough,
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that you need the new baptism that includes Christ and the Holy Spirit.
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Our response to Earl's psalm, by the way, Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd,
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written, we believe, by King David.
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Most of the psalms, not all of them, but most of the psalms, were written by David.
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Remember, David was a poet and a musician, and the psalm actually means song.
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These are prayers that were written to be sung originally. And so I think it's great.
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We talked about David earlier, and now we have a psalm that we have great confidence
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in was written by David himself.
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Our second reading is a continuation of the first letter of St. Peter.
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And Peter says, Beloved, if you are patient when you suffer for doing what is
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good, this is a grace before God.
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For this you have been called, because God also suffered for you,
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leaving you an example that you should follow in His footsteps.
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He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.
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When He was insulted, He returned no insult. When He suffered, He did not threaten.
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Instead, He handed Himself over to the One who judges justly.
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He Himself bore our sins in His body upon the cross, so that from sin we might
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live for righteousness.
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By His wounds, you have been healed.
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For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd
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and the guardian of your souls. The word of the Lord.
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I love this message from Peter in that suffer with patience,
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because no matter what we suffer, if we're to be honest with ourselves,
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nothing we will ever go through in our human lives will come anywhere close
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to the pain that Christ went through in his passion, in his crucifixion.
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We have sometimes great inconveniences. We sometimes have things happen that we wish didn't happen.
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But we're not being asked to suffer the way Christ suffered.
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And in fact, Christ suffered so that we wouldn't have to suffer to that degree.
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So we should be patient and should be grateful that we have a God who understands
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our suffering, who suffered before us, and who suffers with us,
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and takes the weight of so much of that suffering off of our shoulders.
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In our gospel message, we're back to the gospel according to John.
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John reports that Jesus said, Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter
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a sheepfold through the gate, but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
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But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
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The gatekeeper opens it for him and the sheep hear his voice.
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As the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
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When he was driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them and the sheep follow
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him because they recognize his voice.
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But they will not follow a stranger. They will run away from him because they
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do not recognize the voice of strangers.
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Although Jesus used this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what
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he was trying to tell them.
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So Jesus said again, Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.
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All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate.
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Whoever enters through me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.
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A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy.
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I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. The Gospel of the Lord.
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So, Jesus had to repeat this a second time so that the Pharisees and the scribes
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would understand what he was saying.
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So, what is he saying? Who are these thieves?
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Who are these thieves and robbers who came before him?
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Well, some of them are the Pharisees and the scribes.
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He's telling them to their face, the people are following me and not you because
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I want what's good for them, and you want what's bad for them.
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You've misled them all these years.
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You had the chance to be a good shepherd, and you chose not to be.
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And that's the only reason why Christ needed to come, because there was no way
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that the blind could lead the blind.
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Flawed human beings are not going to lead flawed human beings. We follow Christ.
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Now, we don't even follow the Pope or the priests. We follow Christ. They follow Christ.
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They're here to help guide us, but it's Christ's leadership we follow.
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It's Christ's teachings that we follow.
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This belief that we're somehow cultish to the priests or follow the Pope like a cult, we don't.
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These are servants of God who are sent to help us. These are shepherds.
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But Christ is the gate it's only through Christ that we find salvation and a
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good shepherd job is to lead us to Christ well the Pharisees and the scribes
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were not leading anyone to Christ they knew who he was and they chose,
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themselves or in some cases Rome over following Christ.
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And so Jesus is calling them out, and this is leading up to his arrest and passion and crucifixion.
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This is why, because he wasn't afraid to call them to their faces what they
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were, and to say, you're the problem, I'm the solution.
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I'm here to help save people rather than lead them astray.
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Most of the scribes and Pharisees were using people more for their own profit
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and their own social standing, than to actually bring them to God any longer.
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So, those are our readings for this Sunday. Pay attention to them,
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study them. Go home and read about David.
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Look at 1 and 2 Samuel, look at 1 Chronicles and 1 Judges, and read the life
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of David. It's fascinating.
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And to see what it takes to have a heart that is close to God.
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To know that is to know David. And to see David as the preamble to the Messiah,
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I think you'll find fascinating. And watch the show.
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It's done very well. We'll talk more good news of Jesus Christ next week on
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Good News here on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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May Almighty God bless you, protect you from all evil, and bring you to everlasting life. Amen.
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