Priest for All Seasons - Father Simon Says - March 11, 2026

0:00Let me tell you what you're listening to. Welcome to Father Simon Says on Relevant Radio with Father Richard Simon. I'm here to answer your questions. Have a question? Give us a call. 1-888-914-9149 as any question you may have about the Lord, the faith, and the church. That's 1-888-914-9149. This is, in fact, a radio show. Father Simon Says on Relevant Radio. Hello. We're here for another exciting venture into strange words and their peculiar meanings, which I always find fun. I don't know if you do, but that said, let us pray in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit, they shall be created and you shall render the face of the earth.

1:01Lord, you taught the hearts of the nations by the line of the Holy Spirit, grant us by that same spirit. They have a right judgment in all things, and have a mortal rejoice in his comfort through Christ our Lord. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee, blessed are thou amongst women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now at the hour of our dead they men. St. Michael, the archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God review can we humbly pray and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God cast into Hell's Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen. All right, in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit, we got that part. Let's open the big book on the coffee table. This is from the book of Deuteronomy 4-1,59. Deuteronomy means the second law.

2:03That's what it means in Greek, and the reason that it's called that is it's sort of a restatement of the law. It's sort of the farewell address of Moses, and that's what's going on here. Again, this is an abbreviated text. We see some verses left out. It's Deuteronomy 4-1, and then it jumps 5-9. But, you know, that he says in verse 2, in your observance of the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I am commanding you, you shall not add to what I command or subtract from it. You've seen with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal-Pahor, and what is Baal-Pahor? Baal-Pahor? We find that in the book of Numbers, and that's a time when the Israelites, like men, well, shall we say euphemistically,

3:03we're dating the women of Moab, and they said they got invited to church by the Moabites, and bowed down to the Baal, which means the Lord of Baal-Pahor, a Baal-Pahor being a town. And there was, well, things got dicey, so there were people executed for this. So, in other words, these laws are important. They're going to keep you focused on your mission as a nation. So it goes on, I'm teaching you the ordinances of the Lord, my God, observe them carefully, for this is your wisdom and discernment. This is kind of interesting that law is a sign of wisdom and intelligence, and to be a nation of laws is a sign of great intelligence.

4:04A book I recommend thoroughly. Well, not a book, but a movie is the old, I think it's from the 60s, Man For All Seasons. It is a movie adaptation of a play. And in it, Thomas Moore, Man For All Seasons, the voice of my head just asked me, Man For All Seasons, it is one of the finest movies going. And it's a movie about the conflict between St. Thomas Moore and Henry VIII. Thomas Moore was hiding behind the laws of England, and Henry VIII ripped away the laws of England because he wanted what he wanted. And it's a really, really good example of what happens with lawlessness. That's an amazing era that I really don't have time to go into.

5:04But the Reformation in England is lionized by many, but it was a time of just horrible slaughter. People looked at this king of England as a barbarian, and he was. You know, the idea of law is, I've often told you, I should thank God for a stop sign. It's stoplight that I encounter because if it weren't for those, I'd be roadkill the way I drive. I mean, their law is a great blessing, and to treat it as a great blessing is a sign of wisdom. And of course, however, take care and be earnestly on your garden, not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen. Very interestingly, I have heard that the song of Miriam, a horse and rider who is thrown into the sea, is the oldest part of the Bible. It's the Hebrew is the most archaic, and this reminiscence of having been delivered miraculously by slavery is the oldest written,

6:10and composed part of scripture as far as we know. That's amazing to me, because it was merely, it was a few lifetimes after the event that it seems to have been composed, especially if you take a later dating of the event. But to be it's fascinating, in the mythologies and the foundation myths of nations, they do not talk about slavery. We see the Jesus arguing with the Jews in the Gospel of John, with the Pharisees. We have never been slaves of any man. Are you kidding? Your national epic is all about your deliverance from Egypt. One of the three major feasts of your year is the Passover, which celebrates your being rescued from slavery. But these guys said, we have never been anyone's slaves. Well, yes, you have been. And I think that's to me a verification of the truth of scripture, a great nation, a truly wise and intelligent people, honors the statutes and remembers history.

7:25What great nation is statutes and decrees that are just as just as this whole law, which I'm sending before you today. Now, don't forget the law. The word Torah means the instruction. It isn't just a law code. It's the instruction. Take care, be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen. That history is part of law. That law comes from history. There are reasons for laws. And the law, the Torah, the instruction contains rules, regulations, liturgical requirements and the history of that period. We are a stupid nation because we have decided to forget our history. We're pulling down statues of people like Abraham Lincoln, who somebody decided he wasn't proactive enough in his opposition to slavery. You studied Lincoln. He most certainly was. Everybody calls Lincoln honest. He wasn't that honest. I admire Lincoln for all the things that most people were despising for. He lied through his teeth until he got into a position where he could end slavery.

8:32Abraham Lincoln passionately hated slavery. From the first time he encountered it. That is historically so. And he hedged his bets. He talked about people going back to Africa. He talked about I don't want to stop slavery in the places it exists. And he got into a position where he could end slavery. But that wasn't good enough for some people. So Abraham Lincoln is persona rungrada in the new history. This whole woke thing about history. If this word in the Bible is true, that a great and intelligent people remembers its history and the source of its laws, we have become a nation of stupid people. Not relevant regular listeners, I often say there. Pretty smart bunch of people. Let's move on to the gospel. This is Matthew the 5th chapter, the 17th to the 19th verse. Do not think I've come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. There are people who believe we because of this verse must follow kosher law.

9:36The 17th Adventists, I think, would point to this. And they're admirable people. However, Jesus clearly didn't mean the whole law. He says he declares all foods legal in Mark 719. Mark the 7th chapter of the 19th verse. Let's start this. Are you still so dull? He has to not understand nothing that enters a man from outside can defile him because it does not enter his heart, but it goes into the stomach and then is eliminated. It's what comes out of a man's heart that defiles him. Matthew the 17th chapter, the 18th verse and following, Jesus clearly changes the law. So what's he talking about? I've not come to abolish but to fulfill. And when a law is fulfilled, it need not be obeyed in the same way. I'm kind of parsing this carefully. But for instance, the law is I must pay my taxes on April the 15th. If I have already done so, I have fulfilled that law and I don't need to worry about April 15th. I've not disregarded the law. I have fulfilled it.

10:51I remember saying to Rabbi left of it, Jesus didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. And he said, what does that mean? Well, this is what I think it means. The 10 commandments, we still honor them as they are written. The dietary laws, those things are fulfilled that because Christ died on the cross, he has broken down St. Paul says the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile. The dietary laws existed, I believe, to keep Jews and Gentiles separate. In his own flesh, he's broke. What does that mean? In his own flesh, he broke down that law that we have to be separate. The work of the law was done. Jesus lived at a time when people throughout the Roman Empire honored and respected Judaism because their religion was ridiculous.

11:56They worshiped things that were half men and half gods, half men and half animal. The Romans worshiped these Randy gods from whom their daughters and sometimes their sons were not safe. These were ridiculous superstitions but people looked at the religion of Judaism and it made sense. One God, a moral law, there's all that going to be pork stuff but every religion has its quirks. But it made sense. The idea of a moral religion and the oneness of God had spread throughout the empire. It was available from China to Spain, from India to Germany and thus a new idea had taken root in the people of the world. In fact, the seven-day week I have read was actually being accepted in the Roman Empire. They had a kind of 15-day week. They had the knowns and the ides and the callons of a month. They divided it up sort of into quarters.

13:06So they were beginning to use the seven-day system even that the Jews used 10% of the Roman Empire was Jewish. So the idea of a moral religion, religion that demanded a high moral code had penetrated not only through Israel but through the world because of Israel. So that separation, the time of separation was over. Jesus fulfilled it on the cross by pointing out the intensity and fullness of the love of God. So how do I fulfill the law? You obey the law by not committing adultery. You fulfill it by being your spouse's best friend and by working on that relationship, by having that relationship as an exclusivity not only physically but spiritually and morally. So whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, that Jesus clearly is not talking about dietary laws, that sort of thing. He's already said those no longer matter. He's talking about the 10 commandments, which are the heart of the law. Remember I've discussed the law. There were three kinds of laws.

14:24There were the mitzvoth, oh gosh. There were the commandments and there were the, or I can't think of it, one of them were the hukim. You can't use linen and wool in the same garment or cotton and wool in the same garment. Why? Well, because it's a law. That's the law of shotness. Those are hukim, the laws that make no sense. There were the liturgical laws, the moral laws and the laws that were just there because. So those laws that were just there because were to keep Israel separate and that dispensation ended with the coming of the Messiah. The liturgical laws were fulfilled by Christ's sacrifice on the cross, which we believe summed up all of the sacrifices. The moral laws, there are many of them scattered through the Old Testament. However, they are all reflections of the 10 commandments.

15:26Those are immutable because they reflect the nature of God and they reflect the nature of humanity and its fullness. We've talked about that. I shall not steal. God is the giver of all things. God is generosity. So they reflect the nature of God. I shall not steal. I would not want to be stolen, so I should not steal from others. They reflect the fullness of human being. So those 10 commandments, Jesus is talking about these. Don't break them and don't teach others too. Whoever does so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. That I think, remember, I interpret the phrase kingdom of heaven as God's royal nature. The hallmark of Christ's personality is obedience. The hallmark of my personality is selfishness and rebellion. I need to be conformed to the image of Christ, as Rome is the eighth chapter tells us. Thus, I have to take on obedience. God's royal nature, as given us in Christ, involves the obedient relationship of the Son to the Father.

16:36And this is God's nature, as demonstrated, the humility and the love of God. When you love someone, you're in a relationship with obedience. And this is crazy. But God should listen to human beings that God should make covenant with human beings that God, now this is going to sound odd, but that God should obey man. What? Yeah, when I say, Lord, please do this and he does it because it's good for my salvation, but he does it in his generosity. God submits himself to me a sinful human being. Now, you can go too far with this idea, but this obedience is clearly the hallmark of the personality of Christ. So whoever breaks these commandments is alienating himself from God's personality, God's essence, whoever obeys and teaches these commandments is close to this royal nature.

17:44God is not a rebel. He's all powerful, but he's not a rebel. I am. And I need to change. So this idea of the commandments not passing away. No, they're fulfilled in Christ. Remember, the word Torah means the instruction. Our instruction is the person and personality of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the Torah. He is the law. He is the instruction come to life, imitate him and you'll be doing well. That said, let us take a break. We'll open the phones at 8889149149889149. Our sponsor, the University of Dallas, provides a rigorous liberal arts education that forms the whole person for wisdom, truth and virtue. Learn more about the Catholic University for independent thinkers at relevantradio.com forward slash you, Dallas.

18:52Have a question? Give us a call. How much of my pain you've felt? 5,000 a year. We've never been pained. Well, in that case, I'll raise you to 8,000 and a bonus. Bring your dog around. I'll give him a bonus too. Father Simon says on relevant radio. I don't know if I agree with this song. Theologically, if you really believe it, that doesn't make it true. Of course, that's the modern understanding of the word believe, which is of course to be of the opinion. You know, people talk about I was lost, but now I'm found we people change that sometimes change words like that or saved a wretch like me. They'll change those words in a song because they find them insulting.

19:57Well, if you're driving, if you're driving south, I'm going to express when think you're going north, no matter how deeply you believe it, that you're really going north, you're going south and you're lost. But moving along. Okay. All right. Let's see this. Let's go to letters. No, this is from Pamela. No one knows for sure what the unpardonable sin is. Yes, we do. If we've committed the unpardonable sin, life is just waiting to go to hell. What hope is there? If we are sure we have a good chance of having committed it. If you think you've committed the unpardonable sin, you probably haven't. The unpardonable sin in the context of the New Testament. It's committed by people who are devout or think they're devout. Jesus is casting out demons and people come up and say, well, it's by the power of the devil that he casts out demons. Jesus says, you're crazy. House divided against itself will not stand. And he says that you refuse to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit is an unpardonable sin.

21:05Let's look at an unpardonable sin. Okay. Unpardonable, not able to be pardoned. What is the word forgive mean in Greek? The word forgive, as I think I said yesterday, is the word forgive, I'm tapping away to find something, but the word forgive, it's a fear me in Greek, which means to let go. I have told you how to catch monkeys. Haven't I? You're roaming through the forest where there are monkeys and you want to catch a monkey for some reason. I don't know why they bite. What you do is you get a big heavy jar and you put a lot of rocks in it and it has to have a very narrow neck. Then you put in things that monkeys like, which is pretty much anything edible. And the monkey will come out of the clearing in the forest, come into the clearing in the forest and will look down into the jar and put his hand in and grab a hand full of stuff and won't be able to get his hand out of the jar because it's full of stuff.

22:18The monkey could easily escape by letting go of what he's holding in his hand, but he won't do it. And all you need to do is come out from behind the bush in which you're hiding and wept the monkey on ahead and you got yourself a monkey. Good luck with that. No one can force the monkey to let go. Now, if a monkey comes up and grabs something from you, if it's your pet monkey, well, you can let that go. But there are situations in which the monkey has to do the letting go. And I really think that that's the idea here that the unforgivable sin mentioned in Matthew, the 31st to the 32nd verse. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven in this age or in the age to come.

23:24Now, I think that this speaking against the Holy Spirit isn't just saying, ah, the Holy Spirit's dumb. That's not what's going on here. What's going on here is denying that something comes from God, which is the sin that the Pharisees committed in this situation. They refuse to recognize the working of God's Holy Spirit. Okay. This is whoever says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. It will not be let go for him. That's literally what it says. It will not be let go for him. What's going on here? The Pharisees, they knew they were from God, and God would look like them. And Jesus didn't look like the Pharisees, so he couldn't possibly be from God because he didn't look like the Pharisees.

24:34So that was that. Maybe not. The knowing more about God than God does is the sin against the Spirit. And we believe that the sin against the Spirit has two dimensions, sort of two sides of the coin. One is my sin is too big for God to forgive. I refuse to recognize God's power, the Holy Spirit's power to forgive sin. Remember that Jesus in the Upper Room said that received the Holy Spirit who sins you forgive our forgiven. The Holy Spirit is the forgiver of sins. We say that in the confessional form that we use currently. My sin is too big for the Holy Spirit to forgive. In other words, you refuse to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit. Well, the other side is presumption. I don't need God to forgive me. God needs my forgiveness.

25:34That is the sin of our age. I couldn't believe in a God who would allow this or wouldn't allow that or would allow the Holocaust or who would pick your poison. I certainly couldn't believe in a God. I can't identify with a God who's male. I can't identify. You follow? In other words, we create these idols and call them God. We create a God who just agrees with us. In the first reading today, we see, don't add to these in the verses left out. We see, don't add to these. Don't attract from them. The Pharisees were busy adding to the rules. This idea of, I know more about God than God does. That's the flip side of the sin against the Spirit. But when you pour a monkey with your hand in a jar, let go of that attitude and say, you know, I don't care. I'm going to ask God to forgive me.

26:39We open ourselves up to the movement of God in our lives again. But there are certain doors in our heart and mind that will remain closed unless we open them. So the sin is unforgivable in the sense that it won't be forgiven unless I let go and ask God to forgive me. You see, there's no sin that God cannot heal. And the unpardonability of this sin is because I'm the only one who has to let go. So let go of your despair. If you think you've committed a sin too big for God, you haven't. Let go of your pride. If you keep tailor making God to fit your agenda, stop it. Don't be presumptuous. Don't despair. You're not bigger than God. So I hope that helps with that idea to say that there is a sin. I do something and I'm automatically damned that is not so. No way.

27:48Amen. This is an anonymous Catholic listener. On Ashwin's, my husband did not have a chance to attend. No, she's not anonymous. She's a wife. Ashwin did not serve us to the Catholic church. However, during his lunch break at work, he went with a coworker to an Episcopalian ash service. He got ashes, but did not take communion. Was this okay? Or does he need to confess this? It is most certainly okay. It is a sacramental. It's a medieval practice. If he had received communion, that would have been serious, but most certainly he did not commit sin in this. That is, we would allow non-Catholics to receive ashes from a Catholic priest. And so I suppose a Catholic receiving ashes from a Protestant. It's just ashes. It isn't communion. And I do not think that that is a sin. If there's a moral theologian listening, a real moral theologian, and I'm wrong, please, I would like to be, what's the word? I would like to be corrected.

28:52Okay, this is a note from Father Mike who sends the occasional letter. So he's just, he's retired and certain infirmities and you know, goes to mass when he's not saying mass. He says, I'm so tired of going to a mass where it sounds like you're a rock concert. Prior to mass where everyone does as they feel, I guess I should be happy that people are still attending mass. I feel out of place because I can't kneel anymore. But with all the commotion, I guess I shouldn't care. So he talks enough, enough, enough. I'm going to continue Beagle's wings. We, you know, in the business of religion, that's a required song and funerals. And we in the business call it Beagle's wings. But that's just me being cynical. It's a beautiful song that has been played far too often.

29:52Okay, there was a young priest at this parish he was going to, who's trying to instruct the congregation in the proper postures and responses. His pastor, who's from my era said, don't do that. I don't know what to tell you, Father Mike. You're just hanging there and, you know, I think that anybody, there's an old contemporary old contemporary. I says a contemporary Christian song that's rather, it's about 20 years old, but it says, don't bring water to the ocean, bring water to the desert. So sometimes by attending some place and doing it the right way, we can give good example to other people and show them how it's done. You know, so if you're in a church that doesn't suit you, don't just go immediately. Be 11 in the mass in the mass of dough or the mass itself. You know, don't, don't, don't, what's the word I'm looking for? Don't take water as the song says to the ocean, bring it to the desert.

30:59You know, God might want you there to be useful in his, in his love for that congregation. You see when a congregation is unruly and poorly instructed in the mass, God doesn't love them less. He loves them infinitely and would like us to love them too, not to succumb to any errors, especially any moral or doctrinal errors that might be preached, but to be a presence for the good. So this idea of, I'm going to go where the liturgy suits me. Well, that may be appropriate. If your spiritual and moral life are being damaged or the life of your children is being damaged by a certain style of church, then maybe you do need to go elsewhere, but pray first because God might want you right there for a perfectly good reason. So just a thought on that. Okay. Let's see here moving along. Okay. I'm going to do one more letter and then we will go to a break. Let's see here. Okay. Let's see. Did I, oh, this is, this is from Martha and I'm not quite sure.

32:17If I understand the question, but I'll give it a shot. Oh, by the way, there are plenty of lines open, eight, eight, eight, nine, one, four, nine, one, four, nine, eight, eight, nine, one, four, nine. My heart was heavy today and right before confession, verse nine of Jeremiah 17, eight to 10, confuses me. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately corrupt who can understand it. The word for corrupt here, it's related in Hebrew to the word for tracking an animal. In other words, if you're, the human heart is as hard to pin down as, as, you know, a fox at a fox hunt. That's what the word is related to. It means, it means it literally means twisty twisting trail and it's evidently true. The human heart, I don't know what's in my own heart. That's why God allows me to be tempted so that I can see what really is in my own heart and repent of it.

33:23You know, that that's the purpose of temptation so that I can see what's in my heart and repent of it. God knows what's in my heart. My neighbors and my family know what's in my heart. I'm the only one who doesn't know what's in my heart. God puts me in a situation where I can see that my heart is deceitful and I'm not all that. I'm not that good a person. Oh, Father, you're wondered. No, I'm not. Trust me. I know me fairly well. But I don't know myself perfectly and God allows me to be tempted. Doesn't force me into temptation. I managed to do that for myself with a little help from the devil, but God allows this so that I can see what's truly in my heart and repent of it. I hope that helps with this Martha and, you know, as it's saying, James, you just counted all joy when you encounter various trials. All right, we're going to go to a break. We'll come back with a word of the day in phone calls 8889149149. That's 888914914949

34:32. Our sponsor, the University of Dallas, provides a rigorous liberal arts education that forms the whole person for wisdom, truth and virtue. Learn more about the Catholic University for independent thinkers at relevantradio.com forward slash you, Dallas. We're calling Jesus, my rock, my rock, my rock, Mary's beaming my rock, beating lamb, my rock, where seeds are walking inside me, and it never really, never do my own. We are once more going to deal with a very pointless verse of scripture. I don't mean that they're all pointed in purposeful as our word of the day.

35:35I got a letter from Dan commenting on the festival garments yesterday in the translation. It said that there were 10 festival garments involved. Let me go back to that because it kind of struck me. I didn't know where they got that idea of festival garments. The prophet Elijah was given, was rather naman the Syrian, the gospel of naman the Syrian. Was that Mondays? I think it might have been Mondays, naman the Syrian. No, it was Sunday's gospel. The Sunday's gospel talked about naman the Syrian bringing gifts for the prophet who was going to heal him. Well, he had 10, he came with 10 festival garments. I don't know if that was Sunday or not, but trust me, it was in there.

36:43The word festival doesn't seem to appear in the text. Now, why am I grinding this axe? I got a letter from Dan that blocked Dechem, Mutatoria, Vistimintram, and he's 10 changes of clothes. Every version, the Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Greek standard text that we use now, the English text, not the translation we had, says changes of clothes, nothing festival. I looked it up in Greek, and the word is stola. He got 10 stole. This was an interesting garment that the stola for Romans was a floor length garment that women wore. But Greek men also wore a floor length garment that was variably called the Hiton, and I think sometimes the stola. Something that was floor length on a man was a formal, formal way. That must be where they got it from. But to me, why am I talking so much about festival garments? And the fact that the word festival isn't actually in the translation, isn't in the original text, except very obliquely.

37:52Because the idea that I want to get just the perfect translation of scripture, there's no such thing. That's one of the reasons God has given us a church, because there's a consistent interpretation over the course of 2000 years, and you can go back, and you can look at the Vulgate, you can look at what the fathers of the church said, you can look at the Septuagint. These are all part of the gift of God that is the history of the church. Again, a stupid people forgets his history. I don't like history. It's boring. No, it's not. It's more exciting than a soap opera. So learn to read history, and don't read one history. Read lots of histories. Read lots of translations, and then you'll get some idea of what actually may have happened. Because there is no historian without his own prejudice, and there is no translated without their own prejudice. Well, that's just very discouraging, Father. Why bother read the Bible? Because if you read it consistently enough, and study it with enough devotion, you will get the sense of what it's saying, with the help of the teaching power of the church.

39:06Alright, let's go to what's that thing called? The sin is ringing. Alright, let's go to Andre. Are you with this Andre from Fresno? Hi, Father. Yes, I'm with you. Hello. Good. Good. What can I do for you? Okay, so today's readings are all about God's law. Okay, and now in Christianity, we don't observe the totality of the mosaic law. How do we juke that with Christ's words today in the gospel saying he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. But to fulfill it, yes, he has fulfilled the law. In other words, things that were useful before the coming of the Messiah. You know, I know if you heard the beginning of the show, but I talked about that a great deal in the beginning of the show, that things that were important before the coming of the Messiah, the Messiah fulfills them. Moses said that in particular that the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him.

40:11So Moses is saying another prophet is coming and he will have the authority I have. You know, Jews say that the Messiah has no authority to change the law. Well, Moses said the Messiah who was coming, the prophet who was coming, would have the authority to change the law because he would be a prophet like Moses. So Jesus said very clearly in one of the things I quoted today that what comes into a man does not defile him. It passes through him and goes into the tree. Thus he made all foods clean. So Jesus was clearly not speaking about the, for instance, the dietary laws, but he was speaking about the ten commandments. We fulfill those. In other words, thou shalt not steal. Simply you fulfill that commandment simply by, or you obey that commandment simply by not taking things from another person. You fulfill it by being generous to the poor. The thou shalt not commit adultery by not cheating on your spouse. You obey that law by becoming your spouse's closest friend. You fulfill that law.

41:11So we're not about simply obeying the law, but fulfilling the law and we teach and obey those laws in their fulfillment. Does that help a little? Absolutely, Father. I need you to have a great answer. Thank you. Well, there you go. But I don't know. I can always make up. Thanks for listening. All right. God bless. All right. Let's go back to where are we now? Let's go to Chris. Are you with us, Chris? Yes. Father, what can I do for you? Yes. I have an acquaintance who is partially transgendered to a female. I gave him a rosary and a miraculous medal and prayed for him. And also one time I prayed to rosary with him. I also encouraged him to go back to his medical, you know, CNA practice. And his father, when his father died, he flipped out. Yeah, bad direction. Is there something else I can do to encourage him? I prayed to rosary one time with him.

42:12Well, no, I think you're doing as much as you can do. You're doing the right thing and just let him know that you're there for him. And, you know, that, that, and if you get the chance to speak to him, they don't do anything that cannot be undone. I would certainly use those words, but I will certainly be praying for you and for him. I mean, you've been valiant so far in your efforts. I mean, you may have, you may have already been the blessing that you're supposed to be. Go on. Go a beard, too. Again. Oh, he is, is this a woman becoming a man or a man becoming a woman? Man becoming a woman. But he's going to partially. He's going to beard. He sounds very, very confused. Just, just be honest with him and say, you know, I think you're really confused.

43:16And I'm here, I'm here if you want to talk to me, you know, but don't, don't hedge. Say I, I think that, you know, that you're a great person the way you are. You don't have to change to another, another gender or attempt to change another gender to be the person that, that you should be. So that's, that's how I would approach it. But I think you're doing a fine job and, you know, you don't want to, you don't want to be, you know, real heavy handed. But on the other hand, you want to do what St. Paul tells us is letter to the Ephesians, speak the truth and love. You know, and when you say something hard to him, say, you know, I'm only saying these things because I really care about you and your life. You're a friend of mine. You know, I would emphasize that and talk about in terms of friendship because of course this person might get the wrong idea. But, you know, so that's, that's what I would do. Just let him know that, you know, don't do anything that is, that you can't change, at least for a few years.

44:20Because, you know, you can, you can put this off. You can, you can, you can think about it because chances are this craze is going to end in a couple of years when there's so many people realizing they've done something irreparable and, and their lives are ruined. The lawsuits are coming in increasingly to the people, the educators and the medical people who have forced young people into this. So, that would be my approach. So, I hope that, you know, I congratulate you on your, your bravery and your genuine care for this person and just continue the way you're going, of course, and with prayer. All right, I hope that helps a little. Thank you, thank you, thank you. God bless you. It's, it's just, these are crazy times, crazy times. All right, let's go to Bill from, from shore. Is it, I can't, I don't have a glass that it's, it's, it's shore view Minnesota. What can I do for you, Bill? Hi, this is Dale, father. Oh, Dale, Bill, Dale.

45:20I'm, I noticed in a wedding day in the gospel. It struck me that is a phrase. Whoever breaks one of these leads to the commandment and teaches others to do this, this, will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. Yeah, and I was just struck. I was surprised that they would be in heaven. Well, you break the least, the least thing that shall not, well, yes, it does, because remember, I translate kingdom of heaven differently. When I see that in the text of scripture, I think of the royal nature of God, which is our inheritance. What we talk about is heaven, the Bible talks about is paradise, where we will walk in fellowship with God. The kingdom of heaven, I believe, is a kind of circumlocution for the royal nature of God. And we're, to be errors of the kingdom of heaven. The person who breaks the least of the commandments will be the least inheritor of this royal nature.

46:25It doesn't say that the person who breaks the most important these commandments going to heaven, but the person who breaks the least. The little white lie is not a mortal sin. Stealing a candy bar, though I don't recommend it, not a mortal sin. What's another one? There are other things that are not mortal sins, you know, having, when your mother said, take out the garbage and you didn't do it, probably not a mortal sin. So these are the least of the commandments, and those venial sins would not keep us from heaven. So it's interesting. He who breaks the least of these commandments is the least in the kingdom of heaven doesn't say who will break the worst. So even in the language of it, we can't come to that conclusion that one can commit adultery and go to heaven. No, you have to repent and seek forgiveness. However, I think what Jesus is really talking about is the transformation of the person, and not just the obedience of the law.

47:31He's saying that those people who do not treasure every commandment of God will never be like him. You know, Jesus, the whole goal of our life is Christians is to conform myself to the image of God, which we find in Christ. And that's God's nature, that obedient and loving sonship of Christ. And if we don't treasure the commandments and strive to obey them, we will never be like Christ. So this is not just, you know, obey the commandments and you go to heaven. I don't believe that's what Jesus is saying here is in the process of being transformed into the image of Christ, disregarding even the least of the laws of the Torah. You know, I don't, you know, I don't have to follow the rules. I don't have to worry about that. You know, I'm saved. You may be going to heaven, but you're not going to be, you're not going to be in this life or in the life to come, the full inheritor of the nature of God.

48:31Does that help a little? Yes, it does. Thank you. Good. God bless. John, from, let's go to John real quick. Oh, to John, just John. Did John hang up? Oh, dear. Oh, I hear music in my head. Okay. Well, that's music in my head, which means Drew is coming up. Think of Drew as music in your head. I do. All right. Talk to tomorrow. God willing. Thank you.