Was There More Than One Lazarus? - Father Simon Says - March 17, 2026 [ENCORE]

0:00Well, let 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 called the Church. Father Simon Says on Relevant Radio. Oh, hello. It's Tuesday. That's right. All day. The man with the bell day, the man with the finger on the pulse of events, it's Tuesday. So let's pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and 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 renew the face of the Lord. Lord, you taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit.

1:03Grant us by that same Spirit that write judgment in all things. And never more to rejoice in His comfort through Christ, O Lord. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed are Thou most woman. Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and in the hour of our death amen. Say, Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God review, can we humbly pray, and do thou our prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast him down, Satan, and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world, seeking the root of souls. Amen. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right. Well, let's go to the big book on the coffee table. And today, for the first reading, we have a Zeke you'll the 47th chapter, the first to the ninth verse, and then on to the 12th verse. Well, isn't that interesting? I wonder why they take those three verses out? No good reason, but let me look.

2:03Yes, it's nothing big. It's just comments along about, let me see, it just makes the comment. The river teams, they're kind of living creature. Fisherman will stand along and show up and get it to Angaleem and Egliam, let me punch on that. That's halfway down the western shore of the Dead Sea, and Egliam probably was at its northern. I'm sure you all want to know all this important stuff, but those are the three verses that were taken out. Nothing controversial. However, every month along both, well, let me go to the top of the reading. You can tell it's me jumping around like a madman. All right, the angel brought me Ezekiel back to the entrance of the temple of the Lord. Now, Ezekiel's vision of the temple is a perfect temple, but it's very interesting.

3:06There is a fellow named Lee and Ritmeyer, who's an archaeologist from Holland. I think he's working in Wales now. He never got his stuff peer-reviewed, but he's a real scholar. Gosh, what I want to say. He found something very interesting in Jerusalem. You know, it used to be that it was easy to have access to the temple mount. Since all of the unpleasantness has really taken off, it's not nearly as easy to get on the temple mount. You can do it, but I don't know if you can get inside the dome of the rock. When I was young, I would often, when I was traveling, go to Jerusalem and go to the temple mount, and it was fascinating. I remember praying in the dome of the rock and getting kicked out of it because I was praying. I was praying in the wrong direction, apparently, but that's a long ago.

4:08So, this temple mount, it was a threshing floor. Let's go over the history of it. I think it's quite important for us as Christians. It was a threshing floor. And David had a vision of an angel when a plague was striking Jerusalem. And the vision of the angel on this mount, Mariah, this summit of a very large hill, a mount. And a big flat rock has come to be called the foundation stone. And on it, he built the Holy of Holy, apparently. Now, this is according to this fellow, Lee and Ritmeyer, who is, I think, a real scholar. That's L-E-E-N, then I think it's R-E-T-M-E-Y-E-R. Or maybe M-E-I-E-R, I'm not sure. But, very interesting stuff.

5:11And he makes the point that there is a... People go to Jerusalem now, and they see this huge, huge area, 10-foot ball fields, that hered the great built, this platform, held in by retaining walls. The Western wall, actually, isn't part of the temple. It's part of the retaining wall that hered built. And the Temple of Solomon, upon which was built the second temple, when the Maccabees, or when the Jews returned from exile, it should really be called the Temple of Zarubah, all that period of it. But, it was much smaller. And I think that the Mishnah, I don't know, I'm probably getting my sources confused. But it was 500 Royal Cubits Square, this retaining wall, on which was created the platform to build the Temple of Solomon.

6:14And it's a successor, the Return of the Exiles Temple, built by Zarubah Bell, the Prince of the House of Judah. I think that's all correct, but not it's close. So, it was Square. And the Plaza, that you'll see now, is not square. It's an irregular, almost rectangle, and it's huge. Now, inside the Temple of Herod, inside that big, big plaza, held up by the great retaining walls, of which the Western wall is part, there was a square area. And that probably followed the inventions of the Old Temple, and no one who was not in the Covenant could go into that area. There were actual signs, one of which has been recovered. And I believe it's in the Turkish Museum in Istanbul.

7:18The signs said, if you go past this wall, we can't be responsible for your safety. You'll be torn limb from limb, basically. Very interestingly, Lee, back to lean writmire. I mentioned in a moment, while he was roaming about the Temple, in one of the stairways that led up to what is called the Dome of the Rock, which is not a mosque, it's a shrine. The Dome of the Rock, there was a stone that was clearly a beveled ashlar. And ashlar is one of these huge stones that you see in the Wailing Wall. It was beveled. And with that lean writmire could figure out the distance to the eastern wall, and to the southern, it was 500, I think, 500 Royal Cubits. And that, since lean writmire's suggestion that that was part of the old retaining wall

8:21of the Solomonic Temple, it has since been covered up very interestingly. So, why are you telling us this stuff? Because the Temple, one of the Messianic requirements, one of the Messianic expectations, was that the Messiah would rebuild the Temple. And let's get back to the reading eventually, you know I would. This is one of the great water themes, and the Gospel of John is full of the themes of water. The Temple Mount was then and is now riddled with cisterns. There's a huge capacity for the storage of rainwater, and water brought by aqueducts at the time of Christ. A huge capacity for storing it, because you needed a lot of water when you had a lot of sacrifices to wash the blood away. The Temple was a huge, now this is going to sound offensive, but it's still true. The Temple was a huge butcher shop.

9:22There were tables and tables full of animals being slaughtered and dissected, and parts given to the priests and parts burned on the altar, and you know this was a huge altar. The altar itself was a large platform that it would have fires burning on it. You'd burn the offerings on those. At a time like Passover, there were rivers of blood flowing in the temple. And what happened was that water would be brought up from these reservoirs, and the temple court of the priests could actually be flooded apparently, and it would all go down a drain on the west side of the west side. It would have been the south side of the temple of the priests, and it flowed into a subterranean sewer around the edge of the temple, and then in the south eastern corner of the temple mount, there was a drain that led to the Kidrenbrook,

10:24and you would see all this blood flowing out of it, and then you would see water. Blood and water would flow from the side of the temple, and we read in the Gospel of John. We read that John saw this, or the author of that Gospel, who I believe was John, the beloved disciple, saw this, his witness is true, all that sort of thing, and this vision of Ezekiel, I saw water flowing from the temple. This points to Christ, water, blood, and water flowed from the side of Christ, just as blood and water flowed from the side of the temple. And when John, who I suspect was from the tribe of Levi, from a priestly family, possibly, when he saw this, he realized what Jesus had been saying about the temple of his body. Jesus' body was the new temple, and so far as we are the body of Christ, we are the new temple, and the Messianic expectation was fulfilled by Christ

11:24in a way that no one expected. He rebuilt the temple in his own body, and we are incorporating that body by the Holy Eucharist. We become what we eat, and as we consume the body of Christ, we become the body of Christ. We are that body crucified and risen, and water, and blood and water flowed from its side. So I know this is a little convoluted, but this is a powerful symbol. But to me, one of the important things is God fulfills this in a way that we don't understand. Now let's go to the gospel, because this too was fulfilled in a way we don't understand. This is the pool of Bethesda, and it was a healing shrine, but they had a really kind of a superstition that an angel would come down and trouble the waters. He would stir up the waters, and the first one in would get healed. Well, that's why he says, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water stirred up,

12:25while I'm on the way. So when else gets down there before me? Jesus said, rise, take up your mantin' walk. The man became well, took up his mantin' walk. Now, first of all, there's the pool in the Hebrew called Bethesda. And my word today is going to be Bethesda, because it's kind of an interesting word. With five portacos, scholars used to protest loudly that, well, that's ridiculous. That's clear that this is not written contemporary to Christ, because of the gospel of John, because at that time there was no pentagon structure in the ancient world. The ancients did not build pentagonal structures. That is a structure with five sides. So this couldn't have been accurate. It must be a mistake of some kind. Well, then they dug up the five portacos. They dug up the pool, and it had four porches going down the four sides of the pool,

13:26and one going down the middle, five portacos. In other words, when you read the scriptures and you expect your own vision of them to be reflected, you may be wrong. I always joke about everyone knows there was a Persian rug at the last supper, because it's in the Da Vinci painting. Well, the Da Vinci painting was 1,500 years after Christ, and there's no Persian rug at the Da Vinci painting either, as far as I know. But I saw it. I saw it in a book. Or I saw it on television. The voice manager said, Dan Brown told me in his book, what was that? What's the idiotic book? Oh, the Da Vinci code, yeah. I get the basically out of the people who say Da Vinci painted the shroud of tour, and we have clear historical records from centuries before Da Vinci. People want to see what they want to see, and part of reading the scripture is to allow yourself to see what's actually there. So, well, let's go on.

14:26Now, let me just explain this last stichola, which means hunk. Now, that day was a Sabbath, so the Jews. Now, read Judeans here. Said to the man who was cured, it is the Sabbath. It's not lawful for you to carry your mat. He answered, the man who made me well told me to take up your mat and walk. Who was the man who told you? The man was healed. He didn't know what it was. Jesus slipped away since there was a crowd. After this, Jesus found him in the temple and said, look, you're well. Don't sin anymore. That nothing worse may happen to you. In other words, God's going to curse him and give him a worse disease. I don't believe that's true. Sin is worse than sickness. I think that's what's going on here. The something worse would be to live in sin. Go your way. You're well. Sin no more. That nothing worse. Sin itself happened. The man went and told the Jews. They told the Judeans. And these are the Judean authorities.

15:27Jesus was the one who made him well. Therefore, the Judeans began to persecute Jesus because he did this on his Sabbath. What's the deal? You could save a life on the Sabbath, but you couldn't heal on the Sabbath. For instance, if you found a man bleeding to death, you could tie up the wound so he didn't bleed to death. But you couldn't put any medicine on the wound to make it better because that was the work of a doctor. So Jesus was doing the work of a doctor on the Sabbath. They couldn't see past their own interpretation to something more profound that Jesus had in fact saved this man's life by restoring him to health. I think this is a huge problem in the reading the scripture. You know, I really enjoy the series The Chosen. It's really good. I just do not like the sermon on the Mount. It was really bad. Jesus was nervous about the sermon.

16:28He was asking, how did I do? I don't think Jesus did that. The only person who was interested in whose opinion he was really interested was the fathers. But then you get to something like the walking on the water. And that scene is, it's a goose bumper. I mean, it is profound. So I would say The Chosen is, is, you know, when weighed out the good, he's the bad in it. But what's going to happen, I fear, is going to say, well, everybody knows that Matthew was autistic. He was an eye-functioning autistic. He was? Yeah, it's in the Bible. No, it's not. I remember meeting some Roma who actually a person who was a friend of mine had lived with the Roma. It's not easy to do. The Roma are very private. People call them the gypsies. The proper name is the Roma people. And I will never forget being invited to dinner in a Roma house.

17:28And one of the brothers in law of my host said that the Roma have the right to steal. And I said, they do? Yeah, because there were four nails that Jesus was going to be crucified with. And one of us, the snuck up Calvary stole the, one of them was gold, and we snuck up the hill and stole the gold spike, the gold nail. God was so grateful to us that he gave us the right to, to commandeer certain things. And he said, it's in the Bible. I said, I read it and I didn't see that. Read it again, it's in there. You may think that funny. And I hope I'm not offending anyone. The Roma, I've met, are wonderful people. But they are very private. Well, the, you may think that's humorous, but we do that all the time. We put the Persian rug at the last supper. Or if somebody, you know, people called it, someone called it in the other day and said,

18:28well, Jesus said he was going to give everybody all the 12 disciples kingdoms of their own. No, he didn't. He said he'd give them thrones to, to render justice and judgment to the, to the, to the 12 tribes. Um, it was one of the messianic expectations of, of the scenes, I believe. So we read things into the Bible, because that's what our grandmother told us. And to really read the scriptures, you almost have to read it with absolutely fresh eyes. And now in the Gospel of John, I believe that was written to, to tell the followers of John the Baptist, John the disciple wrote it to, tell the followers of John the Baptist that, that, um, Jesus was the Messiah. John had said that he was not the Messiah, that Jesus was. These things have been written so that you might know that Jesus is the Christ, is the Messiah. And one of the evidence is to me is that,

19:28is the constant theme of water. These people, the, the Dead Sea uh, uh, sectaries who, uh, you know, the Dead Sea squirrels who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, they were obsessed with cleanliness, ritual cleanliness and bathing. Uh, uh, the constant theme of water in the Gospel of John, I think is an indication of that. But that's just one of my hairbrain theories. All right, we're gonna go to a break and we'll come back with letters. And, um, you can call in at 888-9149-149 888-9149-149 in the succession with bathing and water. It doesn't mean we should bathe more often. Some of us maybe. With flexible premium life insurance by sponsor Catholic Order of Foresters, a 40-year-old can get a million dollar coverage for under $19 monthly.

20:28Go to relevantradio.com slash forester. That's relevantradio.com slash forester. An Illinois Life Insurance Society not available in all states. He's the q-sol-the-wee. He's the q-sol-the-wee. We win in the middle of the air. He's the q-sol-the-wee. He's the q-sol-the-wee. In the middle of the air. He's the q-sol-the-wee. He's the q-sol-the-wee. He's the q-sol-the-wee. I know another version of it, but it's close. And, um, people say clearly that was a UFO. No it wasn't. Keep it a rest. All right, moving along. The letters. All right, I want to read this letter again. Just in case there were people who didn't hear me. I got to mention it. And it's, uh, uh, uh, uh, what you call a disclaimer, uh, an apology. This is from Mary. In Georgia. You said that Polycarp.

21:28St. Polycarp was one of the early Christian fathers. You said that Polycarp was the disciple of John the Baptist. It was really John the Apostle. She's absolutely right. I get excited sometimes when I get into the tirade. And I, I say things that I don't want to say. All right. No, let's, let's, let's go to the top of the stack here. Okay, I've got this long list. Okay. All right. Oh, bother. I, this is Rosemary, who's asking me to recommend a Bible. And the one I would most recommend is the Catholic study Bible. It's the, um, oh. Dear voice of my head. What was the translation we're using at the, the, the, the NS? Why can't I never remember this? The, the, the N.I.B. The New International. Is that it? No, the New American Bible. The N.I.B.

22:28Yeah. I got a problem. I don't know what to do. But I know that some of you have not yet learned Biblical. And I joke about that. But I really do mean it. You can learn enough Biblical Greek easily. Uh, to, to be able to look things up at a site like, I don't tell anyone, I use, I use Bible hub and, uh, uh, it's instant scholarship. Are you kidding me? That's just, no, no, no. I wouldn't kid you about that. You know, I, I look impressive when I sound like I know a Greek verb, Hebrew, Hebrew noun. But I'm really cheating. So, but you can learn enough Greek to do that. To use Greek lexicon, which is fancy, fancy word for dictionary. You learn the alphabet and, and it, it's not as hard as you think. So, uh, but until you learn Greek, um, the, uh, the NA, uh, the new American is a good translation.

23:30That's when the Catholic study Bible has, and it's pretty good notes. So, that's the one I would recommend. I will put a link in the show notes too. Good. Thank you. Those are the, those are the readings that we use at Mass, uh, uh, on Sundays and weekdays. Okay. Okay. This is another one, uh, uh, uh, who's asking, uh, for that information. So, I, again, I recommend that. Okay. Let me. Click away. Click away. Okay. Okay. Let's see here. Okay. This is someone who wrote in, uh, that she's not planning on listening to the show. Well, thank you for that information. Okay. I thought there was a disturbance in the forest. All right. Okay. Um, this is a good children's Bible. You know, my knees and nephews are all under the age of six. My mother would like to find a Bible that's appropriate to introduce them to scripture.

24:34You know, they are not being raised by my siblings in any church. So, he found, uh, little books about Bible characters around and have asked her to read to them. Now, they've been asking more questions. You know, pretty much, um, oh gosh, what would be a good one? I love the, um, I call it the, uh, the cartoon Bible. That's not it. I can't seem to get that name out of my head. Okay. It's the, uh, actually the picture Bible, the picture Bible. It's probably for people a little older than, than, um, six-year-olds. They're under the age of six. But it's, it's, it's a cartoon Bible. And I have, I have some dear friends who, um, one of them went to, um, uh, Wheaton College. And it was resolutely Catholic. Wheaton, they call it the, the Baptist Vatican in, in, uh, in Wheaton Illinois.

25:36And, um, he had grown up on this picture Bible. And, um, he always confounded his, his very evangelical Protestant classmates because, of course, Catholics don't know the Bible. Well, he knew it better than they did. This is a very good way to introduce kids to the Bible. Um, that's the, what I would recommend. Now, they're probably younger, but it's got cartoons. And if the, if mom is, is willing to, to, um, to read it to them, they'll be fascinated by it. So, um, that's what I would recommend first. But, um, let me see what else we got here. Let me look. Okay. Okay, let's see here. There's a, um, there also is a Catholic children's Bibles.

26:36You can get, um, um, uh, on the web, uh, you can get Catholic children's Bible, um, uh, just do a web search for that. And, and, you know, that might be also a good thing. But I, I give them both, you know, given that, that cartoon Bible because eventually they will find it and, and they will love it. So, um, there you go. All right. I can think of nothing else. Um, I, I, you know, I, I, you know, I, I, I, I, I have no children. So, anyway, okay. Moving along, um, let's see here. Okay. Let's see. Um, we got one more letter here that, that's a good one. If you want to send me a letter, it's very important that you, you make it short and ask a question.

27:37A lot of people want to kind of comment on stuff. And I, I do look at them, but it's just too long to really get into. I get a lot of letters. And if I don't, I, there's only a limited number of letters I can answer. Uh, so if, if you really want your question answered, be, be brief and be persistent. All right. This is one that's brief, from grace. I wanted to ask you a question about Lazarus. Was there more than one Lazarus that's referred to in the Bible? I was just curious if Lazarus the leper was the same Lazarus that was Mary and Martha's brother. If so, why was he a beggar and not taken care of by his sisters? No, that was a parable, but it's very interesting that it precedes. And the gospel, it precedes the, uh, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Because Jesus says even if someone were raised from the dead, um, they would not believe. And this parable of Lazarus precedes that, that miracle.

28:42So it's kind of interesting, but no, it's a, it's, the Lazarus in the parable is an imaginary Lazarus. Um, Lazarus was just kind of the Jewish version of Joe Smith, very common name. Uh, he was a good old boy, a good old boy named Lazarus. Uh, so, uh, he was, it was a parable. So no, it was, it was different. So well, with that said, let us go to, um, let us go to, um, a break and we'll come back with our word of the day. Is that where we are? Yes, word of the day. And then we'll open the, well, the phones are open at 8889149149. A lot of phones open. 8889149149. This hour is sponsored by Ave Maria Mutual Funds, where financial goals are aligned with pro-life values. And fund decisions are based on investment fundamentals designed to preserve and grow wealth without violating moral beliefs.

29:42More information at Ave Maria Funds.com. Welcome back. That's what the reverend know it all. Fire baptized gospel hour, which is of course what I would have called the show, but, well, Sainer heads prevailed. All right, moving along. Let's go to, well, no, before we go to the word of the day, I think that's it. Well, that's the word of the day, but there's the going. But I'm still going to talk about this. It's interesting that the, the parable of Lazarus is in the Lazarus and Dives.

30:46We used to call it Dives because Dives means a rich man in Latin. So it was, they gave him that name, a rich man, but I maintained that this was a very funny story. It was Jesus, it's just in the high priestly family with its five sons. Its son-in-law, K.F.S. and Ananya, the dad, Anus. So they were running things and I think it would have been pretty funny. But that's just me. But that story is in Luke, the 16th chapter, and he talks about poor man Lazarus. And then the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead, the friend of Jesus, is only in the gospel of John. And well, why wouldn't they have mentioned the raising of Lazarus and all the other gospels? Because it was not quite pertinent to the theme that they were, for instance, the gospel of Luke, I really believe was a legal defense of Jesus. And, you know, that there are certain things that Lazarus or that Luke thought appropriate.

31:54Of course, the dissing of the high priestly family, I think probably runs counter to my theory. But I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud. But it is very interesting that the man in the parable is Lazarus. And Jesus, dear friend, was Lazarus. Whom he raised from the dead. That was, would have been very problematic. Because that's where the Sadducee government decided that they were going to kill Jesus and Lazarus. Because, well, this is Nazi. Raises is one of his best friends from the dead. Yeah, right. All right. Well, let's move on to the word of the day. Oh, we did. We played the gong already. We were moving on. I'm sure all of you have. The word Bethesda is very interesting. It means the house of Hezzet. Well, what does Hezzet mean? You tell me.

32:54I've been sharing with you the past few days how it is people always want an exact translation of the Bible. And it's impossible, I believe, to translate the Bible exactly into English. Because English is such a complex language. And the house of Hezzet, Bethesda. The Bethesda house and Hezzet is Hezzet. Well, it's translated loving kindness, grace, mercy. Rabbi, left of its decided, defined it for me, that Hezzet is more than the law requires. You know, those are four different things that the word Hezzet can mean. You know what Hezzet means when a Hebrew speaker hears Hezzet? It means Hezzet. Now, I know this is very hard to get your wrap your mind around. The complexity of the English language and the simplicity of other languages. The simplest translation is usually the best.

33:55Word like Hezzet doesn't fit into any of the categories, even the simple categories. I think the best one, the best translation for it is, oh gosh, how would I translate Hezzet? Great love. That's, isn't the sound for His great love is without end. That is my favorite translation. But it means great love, kindness, and mercy all at once. So, you know, I hate to say this because that means why am I bothered to read the Bible? Bother to read the Bible because you're going to get some of it. And then when you're done with one Bible, put that one on the shelf and read another translation. But that's my favorite Bible. Good, you can put it on the shelf and stare it lovingly now. And then when you go to a prayer meeting, you can bring it to impress people because it's big and black with red letters and gold edging. But read is many different translations. I think one of the most interesting translations in the New Testament is Lanamore's translation.

34:58Is it Richard Lanamore? He has no Richmond Lanamore, that's it. He has no line or verse. I don't remember if he has chapter in it. But, you know, we divide the Bible up into snippets with the verses. And the verses weren't part of the Bible till, like, 1550 in the Geneva Bible. Chapters came into the second or third century, possibly, fairly early. There were no verses. Verses are not part of the Bible. And we sort of cut it up into snippets. That's why we don't read, we don't say a reading from chapter 12, verse 13. It may ask because we're older than the chapter in verse. We go way back. And it's a very interesting experience to read Richmond Lanamore's translation in the New Testament. It's a good translation. The interesting thing is, it reads like a story because it is a story, a beautiful true story. All right.

35:58Let's go to phone calls. There is something that met Olivia Finn. I'm sure it's fine. Gina, what can I do for you from San Diego, California? Hello, good morning, father. So, my friend, her daughter died at 22 of cancer. And she was saying, why do I have this? Am I being punished? Is God punishing me? And of course, we all think no. But in today's reading, Jesus said to that crippled man, look, you are well. They're not sin anymore so that nothing worse may happen to you. Does he move your soul and go to hell or does he mean that he was responsible for what happened to him in the first place? No, I think it is the spiritual soul and go to hell. I've known people who have been miraculously healed of conditions that limited them. And instead of giving the glory and thanks to God, they immediately went and got into trouble. In other words, they couldn't sin because they were physically limited.

37:00But after they were healed, they said, oh boy, I can, you know, God, when God heals you, he owns you. You know that we forget that. Oh Lord, please cure my arthritis so I can go back to my bowling league. That's not why he's going to heal your arthritis. And I think it's important to remember that everyone that Jesus healed eventually got sick again and died. Even Lazarus, Lazarus was dead again. That sounds odd. Yeah, the purpose of his healing miracles were to save the soul more than to save the body. And I think that's an important thing for us to remember that the goal is even an illness to put yourself into the hands of the Lord. Does that help a little, Gina? Yes, that does. I just want to, but when I saw that, I thought, oh no, that sounds like a guilty of things. I don't know. Like your explanation. There are some sins that are the result or some illnesses that are the result of sin.

38:04Like if I chase around drinking heavily and my liver is shot, well, I'm not going to blame God for that one. So it is, but generally speaking, illness and sin are, they are related but not causative one of the other. The sin of Adam and Eve is the cause of the weakness of the human condition. So I hope that helps, Gina. Yeah. Can I ask one more? Do you have people waiting? Sure. Sure. Okay. So the sin of Adam and Eve, and so then after that, childbirth was going to be painful. But our blessed mother was born without sin. Did she have a painful? Oh, this is everybody argues, everybody argues about this that because if you look closely at this scripture, Eve's pains would be multiplied. Didn't say she would not have pains. In this sad world, pain is the price of love, suffering is the price of love.

39:05And I am of the theory that our blessed mother's immaculate conception meant that she suffered. She, a sword pierced her heart. She suffered emotionally and I would say physically by free will. I don't get it. I don't get asked if I want to suffer. I just suffer. Our blessed mother, you know, Jesus, her also immaculate conceived divine son, suffered real physical human pain. And I believe that in solid, it would not surprise me if in solidarity, in union with her divine son, she accepted the physical suffering of humanity. So, you know, that the Bible doesn't say that Eve didn't have pains, but the repayments would be increased in childbirth. So that is a question that is really unanswerable that we're going to have to ask her. I'm planning on going down with a few questions the day after the general resurrection provided I make it through judgment. I am planning on going down to her mansion on the street of gold and asking.

40:05And you may join me. All right, God bless Gina. Thanks for calling it. Tom from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. What can I do for you? Okay. I've never heard this question asked before. So I'm going to throw it to you. See if you can answer it. Sure. So I understand that through the incarnation, Jesus was fully God and fully man. So then when he was resurrected and now in heaven. Does he still have both of those attributes or is he just fully God again? And no, he is fully, fully divine and fully human. He's a divine person with a fully human nature and a fully divine nature. That's why he ascended into heaven. He took his humanity with him in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Humanity and divinity are married and there will never be a divorce. So he brought his humanity into heaven.

41:06And I hope that I will buy God's grace and mercy and the forgiveness of my many sins. I will bring my humanity into heaven. So no, he's so fully God and fully man. Does that help? Yeah, but can I ask you then the second part of this? Then our resurrected bodies will be that same thing. We will want to announce that we'll be adopted and then. Well, I don't know. I don't know what being divine will be adopted into that into that relationship, which is God. God wants to adopt us. So we will be the sons and daughters of God by adoption. I don't know that we can go for so far as they divine. We'll be divinized. That's the word that they use. Yeah. Kind of George is fond of that word. Divinized. So yeah. Well, I hope that helps Tom. All right. Here you go. All right. All right. Let us go to Jill from Joey at Illinois. Hi. I just wondered why today's gospel. Jesus didn't want him to tell anybody.

42:09And I know different times when he healed other people, he's always said, like, don't tell anybody. Why? Yeah. That's called the Messianic secret. Because when Jesus worked a miracle, everyone say the Messiah has come and they'd run home and get their swords whenever anybody declared themselves Messiah. People will run home, get their swords and kill a Roman in the streets with a rumble of blood. Jesus was saying, if that's what you're expecting, I'm not, I'm not your man. I'm not, that's not who I am. And so he didn't, he worked those miracles out of obedience to his father and for love of the person whom he was healing. And they weren't advertising. You know, he was not, he was not a carnival barker. And, you know, he did not want himself, you know, his Messiah ship was divinity revealed until the proper moment. And that's why. Does that answer the question? Yes, very good. Thank you so much.

43:09Well, thank you, John. Thanks for listening. Let's go to Melissa. Melissa from Philadelphia. What can I do for you? Hi, father. Thank you for taking my call. I just had a question. I recently went to a family funeral and it was at an SSPX church. Yes. And I wasn't quite sure what, like, the rules are regarding communion. I googled it and, of course, sound every answer imaginable. I want to be here, what your opinion or what, you know, what the rules are. My opinion is that I have a clue. It's just so confusing that most people would say they're not in SISM. They're in an irregular relationship to the Holy See. Whatever that may mean. Now, Pope Francis has given them certain perks. I think the confessions are, you know, I don't even know.

44:10I mean, I look this up too. And it's almost impossible to find because there is no precise statement about it. Let me, let me click away here. Hold on. And I'm just going to get confused as you are. And that SSPX is the Princeton Society of Pius the 10th. That's what that stands for. Okay. I know that attending the Pius the 10th Mass would fulfill. Would fulfill the Sunday obligation if you were unable to go to a Mass that was in perfect communion with the Holy Father. There was a, let's see, there's just endless, endless stuff on this.

45:13The person, oh gosh, let me look, let me see. Okay. There's the 2009 declaration that there's no canonical status and no administrative ministry under Pope Benedict the 16th. Then you have absolutionary sins and assistance at marriage that they can receive those faculties from the local bishop. It depends on the local bishop. Let's see here. In the Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015, Pope Francis established that those people who approached the Precise Society of Pius the 10th for confession shall validly and listenly receive the absolution of sins. And then in November 2016, in Ms. Recordi at Misera, Pope Francis announced he decided to extend the faculty beyond the Jubilee Year until further provisions are made.

46:20Lest anyone ever be deprived of the sacramental sign of reconciliation. And it's just absolutely confusing. And you know, I'm going to get 20 people calling in who are saying, no, that's wrong. These were all different declarations and it's just, I was, had I been at that funeral out of respect for the deceased. I don't think, I don't think I would have gone to Holy Communion because there is a lack of communion with the wider church. But on the other hand, as I said, if there is no possibility, I mean, this is validly and genuinely the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. And one may fulfill one Sunday obligation. And as I understand it, it applies the 10th Mass if there is no possibility to go to a Mass in Communion with the Holy Father.

47:24You know, I am going to get a lot of calls and mail about this. And there is no, there is no clarity on it as far as I can tell. And so you make the best decision of conscience that you can. I remember Cardinal George from whom I have such great love and respect. He treated the society, it applies the 10th with great respect. But he had an absolute horror of sism. He thought sism was one of the most dangerous and dangerous things and offensive to God. Then people say, well, pious the 10th is an in-sism, depending on how you define sism. No, they're not. It's just absolutely, these are very strange times. And I wish I had an answer, but I have to honestly say, I don't. I've known some pious the 10th folks who are just wonderful saintly people. But then again, I've known some who were not.

48:28But that's true of every religious group. So I think the best we can do is pray for unity. But I don't know if that sheds any light on it at all, but that's the thing that I found. Yeah, exactly. It's yes, you found the right answer. Nobody knows. At least there's not been a clarity about it. Somebody must know, and if they know, I'd love to hear it, but not somebody's opinion on it. Speaking of knowing stuff and no opinions, well, he's got opinions, but they're pretty good ones. Drew's coming up.