Beelzebul - Father Simon Says - March 12, 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... Father Simon Says on Relevant Radio. Welcome, welcome. Happy Saint, I'll kill the day. Again, the obscure saint of the day. And, you know, you may wonder why I'm doing this, because there's just so many neat saints. I mean, I think of the saints as the third testament. You got the Old Testament, you got the New Testament, and you have the saints who are the gospels in living flesh. Have you ever thought about it? You may be the only Bible that some people ever read,

1:02so you better be rather legible. Well, this is the piece of saint Al-Qelder, who was an Anglo-Saxon princess around the year 800, who was strangled by a pair of Danish women. Of course, back then, the Danes were invading England and were bloodthirsty Vikings. Now, mostly, they're quite nice people. There's a church dedicated to a memory in England, and the name of the town is Giggleswick. I'm not making any of this stuff up. Giggleswick, yep, that's Giggleswick. And there's a holy well whose water. The water is supposed to cure eye diseases. So, season-voked against eye diseases. So, Al-Qsans Saint, I'll kill the... Well, that said, 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 kindling them, the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit. They shall be created. You shall renew the face of the earth.

2:02Lord, you taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit. Grant us by that same spirit to have right judgment in all things and evermore to 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 and at the hour of our death amen. Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke and we humbly pray. And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into Hell's Satan. All the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen. And Saint Al-Qsans, pray for us and we ask healing for all of those who are suffering from diseases of the eye. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, let's open the big book on the coffee table. Okay, where did it go? Where did it go? Okay.

3:02Oh, this computer number two. That's where I got it. I got lots of little computers. Today we read from Jeremiah. The 7th verse, the 7th chapter, the 23rd verse, and on. And essentially it's the message of the prophets that, you know, this is what I command my people. Listen to my voice. Then I will be your God. You shall be my people. Walk in the ways that I command you that you may prosper. And they didn't. They didn't obey. They didn't pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts. From the day that your Father's left the land of Egypt even to this day. And that's, that's about, oh, let's see. That's, I put the date of the, the exits are on 1450. I'm an early date or for the exit is because of the script, to me, the scriptural evidence from 1400 to 600 BC. That's a long time to disobey God. They stiffen their necks and did worse than their fathers.

4:06This is the voice that does not listen. The voice of the Lord. It's God. There's the nation that does not listen to the voice of the Lord. It's God. Hmm. I know other nations that are not listening to the voice of the Lord. And their courting disaster. Faithfulness has disappeared. That word is, I'm not, our word for, our word, I'm men comes from the word. I'm not in Hebrew. It means faithfulness, trustworthiness. The word itself is banned, the word faithfulness. I'm when I was banished from their speech. So when you go up and you say, Amen. When you receive the blessed sacrament, you're saying, I believe. And I'm going to, I wasn't going to talk about this, but I will. To believe is, is to be in Hebrew and in Greek and the biblical languages. And in reality is a lot more than we mean by it. We will say, I believe it will reign today because that's what the weather said, of course. You can trust the weather, I don't know. I believe it means to have the opinion that. And when you come up for the blessed sacrament, to receive Holy Communion,

5:14you might have a hard time thinking, does bread and wine really become flesh and blood? All this transubstantiation stuff is, is this no longer bread? This is no longer wine. Really? Well, if by believing you mean I am of the opinion that, well, that's secondary. But if by believing you mean I trust that, there's some days you feel it and there are some days you don't. But Jesus said it, the Bible says it. I believe it, that settles it. You can trust Jesus if he said this is my body. And if he threw away his popularity and most of his followers when he said, unless you eat my flesh and the word he uses there later on is chew my flesh is real food, unless you chew my flesh. Very vivid word, traugain. Well, when you come up and you say, I'm in, you're saying, I'm trusting that what Jesus said is true.

6:20And you know what? You can. And if you make that act of trust pretty soon you will begin, at least for me, to feel it and to be of that opinion. I am genuinely of the opinion that bread and wine become flesh and blood in the Holy Eucharist. But that's because I trust it. So I urge you to understand what you're saying. When you come up for a community say, I'm in, I trust, I trust, I believe. Not just I'm of the opinion that, but I'm trusting God. All right, let's get back to readings now. Boy, there's so much in this, there's always so much in this. This is, this is very difficult gospel reading. Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. The mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed. And then some of them said, by the power of Belzebel. And Belzebel is going to be our word of the day. Is it Belzebel or Belzebub? I will explain. It's both.

7:21But I want to jump down and talk about, this is a very strange thing that, that they asked him for a sign from heaven. I just cured a man who was mute. You want another sign? That's not enough of a sign. I'm reminded of a story of a priest who was a great, he was a Jesuit and a great intellectual and a great thinker. And he was on a retreat, a British mechanic, sister British mechanic tells the story. And she is a wonderful sister from Ireland who has a great ministry to priests. And she, she was conducting a retreat. And one of the priests came early, this particular priest I'm mentioning, because he just really had doubts about his priesthood and the faith and about the Eucharist. And so he came early to talk to her and pray with her to counsel with her. And he said, if only I could see a sign and now you see it, now you don't sign.

8:25And I would, I would believe, I would have no trouble. Well, the rest of the clergy showed up at the retreat later and some priest brought his father who, who had a gangrenous toe and the doctors had wanted him in the hospital. He said, I'm not going in the hospital now, I'm going on a retreat with my son, the priest. And I know God's going to heal me. So they said, well, the minute that you come back, not heal, get to the hospital, that toes got to come off. And well, they had the first night of the retreat, the first session they prayed. And then before going to bed, they gather on a prayed for this older gentleman with his bad toe. And in the morning, they were all awakened with this old fellow running down the stairs, shouting, I've been healed. I'm, I'm healed, I'm cured. And they looked at the toe and the flesh was as fresh as a baby's. The toe was completely healed. The priest who had asked for the sign said, did anyone see the medical records? Has, did anyone see X-rays?

9:26Um, are there some doctors notate? In other words, he, he got what he'd asked for. He had got an incontrovertible sign that God is alive. And he didn't accept it. For those who believe, no miracle is necessary. For those who do not believe, no miracle is sufficient. Think about the resurrection of Lazarus. I mean, the series that chosen does a pretty good job on the story of Lazarus. Clearly, it was a, it was a setup. I mean, this is one of Jesus' best friends. So he goes in a cave for three days, and he comes out. What is this proof? I mean, I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that again. For those who believe, no miracle is necessary. For three days, and he comes out. What is this proof? He was my friend. He was dead. We knew him. We sat shiver for him. He, he was dead.

10:27Sitting shiver is kind of the wake, but it's after the burial for Jews. Um, but of course they, the sadducees and many of the Pharisees, the sadducees didn't believe in a resurrection period. And this was ridiculous. For those who believe, no miracle is necessary. For those who do not believe, or worse put, those who refuse to believe, no miracle is sufficient. You know, I've heard the saying that faith makes miracles. Miracles don't make faith. Miracles speak to the person who has faith. They're signs for the person who trusts God, but for the person who doesn't trust God. No miracles sufficient. Oh, it's just a coincidence. That sort of thing. So they ask for a sign when they just see a sign. And then Jesus launches into something that is very obscure. Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste. What is he talking about? He's talking, well, remember, the Baselia is, is, is,

11:29I translate it strangely, royal nature, kingship. In this sense, it means government. Every government divided against itself will be laid waste. In other words, they were claiming to be on God's side, but they were not on God's side. That they had divided God's royalness. They were, they were, thought they were speaking for God. And they were doing the opposite. So if Satan is divided against himself, how will his royal nature stand? How will his government stand? Well, you say it's biblesable that I drive out demons. If then I drive out demons biblesable by whom do your own people drive them out? Exorcism at the time of Christ was big business. There was a saying that there were 10 parts of, of witchcraft, of evil thrown into the world, and nine tents of it went to Egypt.

12:30And people said, well, Jesus God is healing powers when He was a child in Egypt, He consorted with demons. That was a belief that some had about Christ. The demons caused everything. There was a thousand parts of the human being, and every part could be infested with a thousand demons. They took it a little too far. The pagans had exorcists. The Jews had exorcists. Every rabbi was supposed to be an exorcist. And so it was big business. We read in the Acts of the Apostles, the sons of Sceva, a ranking priest. They call them a high priest. But I don't know that they meant one of the family of anus, one of those who had served as high priest. But these were sons of a high priest of Sceva. And they cast out demons. They've said by the, by the, by the Jesus whom Paul preaches. We tell you to come out. And the demon turned on them and said, Paul, I know. And Jesus, I recognize.

13:31But who are you? And he beat them and sent them bruised and naked, running away out of the house. That's in the Acts of the Apostles. As chapter 19, I have to look it up. But the trick was this. You had all sorts of potions and incantations and rattles and noise. But one of the big ways to cast out demons, and don't try this at home, it's stupid. But the idea was that if you could find the name of a bigger demon, then the demon that was infesting your patient. And you mentioned that bigger demons name, you'd scare your patient and that little demon would flee. That's why they say, by the power of Belzible, Prince of Demons, you know, Prince of Demons, the, he cast out demons. He's, he's using a big name. And this, what Jesus is saying, that your entire theory is nuts,

14:31that the demons aren't war with each other. And that's true. The C.S. Lewis is screw tape letters. It's just a wonderful treat. A friend of mine who's an extra said that it is Sparani. He wonders where C.S. Lewis got all that knowledge about these things. And I always recommend, don't just read it, but it's wonderful to listen to you. You can get it on YouTube. Absolutely free. Just read by John Cleese of Monty Python in a fish called Wanda fame. Just type in the screw tape letters. John Cleese, chapter one, it'll come up on YouTube. It's, it's easy to find. So this is, it's, it's, the point he makes is that demons aren't war with one another. And their kingdom has been broken. So that's what's going on here. But he says, if I drive out demons by this powerful demon, by whom your own people drive them out, let them be your judges. Now we get to the heart of the matter,

15:31but if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Well, the kingdom of God, again, God's royal nature. I like to translate it. You know, you got the Saul checker, take it with a grain of salt. But I think that's really what it means, the kingship of God. But the word come upon you is a fascinating word, which I have here. Let me wear it. I put it. It's a good grief. It's a fasten. And it's, I think that's what it is, a fasten. And it means to surprise, to suddenly come upon you. The kingdom of God has come upon you before you expected it. The word effasin means it has arrived unexpectedly. It's arrived early. And this is an interesting thing, this idea of effasin. So Jesus is saying that you weren't expecting it.

16:38And this isn't what you're expecting, but guess what? This is the kingdom, the God's royalness. No, no, no, that's going to kick out the Romans. And it's going to create this wonderful, we're on top government. And no, the kingdom of God has come upon you. And the finger of God is fascinating. I'm a little late, I always am. But this idea of the finger of God, we see it in the scriptures, about four or five times. For instance, in the book of Exodus, the eighth chapter, we read that the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your staff, strike the dust of the earth and it would become nats. Well, the Magicians tried to produce nats by their secret as they couldn't. And the Magicians said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. And then next time we read about the finger of God, he gave Moses, after he had communed with him on Mount Sinai,

17:42the tablets of the testimony, written with the finger of God, the finger of God, writes the law. And then the third time we see it in Deuteronomy, the ninth chapter, the Lord Moses says that the Lord gave me these tablets that were written by his, with the finger of God. And then we see it a fourth time in the book of Daniel, the fifth chapter, in Belshazzar's feast. The fingers of a man's hand wrote on the wall, many, many, Teckeloparson. In other words, you have been weighed in the balance and you have been found wanting. And in the New Testament, we see this text in today's gospel, which is, of course, let's see where they put the gospel. We see it in the gospel of Luke, but we see it also referred to where they put it, where they put it here.

18:42We see it referred to in the gospel of Matthew, instead of the finger of God, the spirit of God. So there are equivalent phrases in a way. The finger of God is the Holy Spirit. And then we see Jesus writing in the dust with his finger, and the story of the woman taken in adultery. And Pope Benedict XVI refers to St. Augustine, that this finger of Christ, writing in the dust, says that Christ is the divine log ever. This idea, you know, we have this quibble with the Orthodox that does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father and the Son, and well, it's the finger of God on the hand of Christ. So I would say this is evidence for the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, but that's just me.

19:42But this idea of the finger of God, that this is an important biblical idea that the Holy Spirit, given by Christ, writes his law in our hearts, and has the power to cast out demons, and the power to free people from the slavery, from Egyptian slavery, where all those demons were. So it all goes nicely together, and it's just a beautiful idea that Egypt was famous for its sorcery and its witchcraft, and Jesus is saying, no, this isn't sorcery, witchcraft, this is the finger of God that delivered us from the power of the devil in Egypt. And, oh, I've got to talk a little more, sorry. And the law, the Ten Commandments, the Mishpatim, the judgments of God, the Ten Commandments which are, give us, I've talked a lot about this, that the law is grace. Those Ten warnings don't touch this or you will die. That's God's grace to us.

20:43He's warning us with love. And I always say the Ten Commandments are like the sticky, yucky faces that you put on the bottle of bleach under the sink so the kids don't drink it. This is, I think, a very, very important idea, very central that law and grace are not opposed to each other. That law is grace when it is these judgments of God that teach us how to walk in the world, and they're written by the Holy Spirit, the finger of God, they deliver you from the power of the devil, just as the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God. On Mount Sinai, delivered the Hebrews from the, oh, I'm going to, I've got to, this is too good. I've got to go along. The Ten Commandments delivered the people of Israel from their bondage, their slavery to the demons

21:44and the demonic gods of Egypt. That's what delivers us from the power of the devil. Obeying God delivers us from the power of the devil. I remember Moses up the mountain for 40 days, and people are saying he's dead, and they wanted Aaron to make them a God who would lead them back to Egypt. They wanted to go back to slavery. But then Moses came down with the Ten Commandments. He came down the mountain with freedom. Written by the finger of God. And that woman caught an adultery. She was freed from her adultery, freed from the power of sin by the finger of God. So don't reject law. Oh, Lord, I love your laws. Love the law, because it's wonderful gift of God to you. I should talk more about the law. There are three different guys, but it's getting late, so we'll take a break. And we'll come back. I'm all flustered.

22:45888-914-914-988-914-9149. I just think this is, I really like the Bible. It makes so much sense. Sponsor, the University of Dallas, the Catholic University for independent thinkers, invites high school juniors, seniors, and recent graduates to study the great books this summer at UD's Two Week Long Arrate Program while learning three hours of college credit. InfoItRelevantRadio.com slash Udellus. It's InfoItRelevantRadio.com slash Udellus. That's a Greek word, by the way. Means excellence. This is Adonulam, which is a song from the Jewish Liturgy.

23:47Eternal Master who reigns supreme before any creation was created. When it was finished according to his will, then King, his name, was proclaimed to be, when this our world shall be no more in majesty, he still shall reign. He was, he is, he will be in glory. That's quoted in the New Testament, isn't it? That the Lord is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Without beginning without end, Tim is power and sovereignty. Okay, it's beautiful song, the Adonulam. The reason that we played that was I got a letter from Alice. Oh yeah, go to letters, the trumpet. Where's the trumpet? I forgot the trumpet. The song Adonulam is theologically fascinating, she says. Never thought about how until creation God ruled alone. How only after creation could he be worshiped? Never thought of that before. Please comment. Well, I don't know that I totally, oh, we played a version.

24:47Was that the Ellie Schwartz version? Aussie Schwartz, which was that? Oh, well, she mentioned the Aussie Schwartz. We'll try and find Aussie Schwartz's version for you, Alice. But the, I've shared this idea of worship. Then what the God's got to think? He's got this issue. He's got got issues, worship me, worship me. And that always seemed odd to me that God wanted to be worshiped. Until I had an interesting experience. There were some volunteers, older, older young men, but older working with us in our community. And one of the Puerto Rican girls and a terrible crush on one of them. And I don't think he knew that she existed. But oh, she had a crush on him. And it was 4th of July. And all of the neighborhood kids are throwing fireworks, sitting on the church steps, throwing fireworks, throwing firecrackers. And this girl lit a firecracker and handed it to this young man

25:51as if it were a precious rose. And it was, you know, we were sitting there going, ah, this firecracker's water. He threw it just in the nick of time before he blew his hand off. And I think I still am ringing in my right ear because of that. But I realized what worship was. To worship is to fall in love. The problem with our human falling in love, we end up worshiping people who we shouldn't worship. They're not worth worship. They are worth love. And falling in love is a wonderful thing. It provided you understand the limits. You've heard me say that to expect from a human being what you can only get from God is an idolatry. To expect your sweetheart to be perfect, or your parents to be perfect, or your children to be perfect. That's idolatry. So we don't fully worship the people with whom we fall in love. But I think that this is a good definition for worship. That's why God is a Trinity because God is love. Who is God going to love? Well, us, of course.

26:52No. And in a funny way of thinking, God wants us to worship Him. That is He wants us to fall in love with Him because He has fallen in love with us. That in a certain sense, I'll take this really with a grain of salt, in a certain sense, we are the objects. Thank you. We are the objects of His worship. You follow? That He has fallen in love with us. And that's why He made us. Because He had fallen in love with us and wants us to fall in love with Him. But He who is love from all times, the Father loved the Son and the Son loved the Father. If you believe that God is sacrificial love, perfect love, then the Trinity makes perfect sense. The Father and the Son love one another infinitely and perfectly and that infinite and perfect love, being so perfect is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. That's why we believe in a Trinity because God is love.

27:52So if you accept the secret, the mystery, that God is love. So God, in a sense, was worshipped before creation, but Jewish friends didn't know, and those who remain in the old covenant, they don't know that Jesus is the object of the Father's love and the Father is the object of God's love. So just some thoughts on that. But it's a beautiful idea that God created creation. That He might be worshipped, and He wants to be worshipped because He's fallen in love with us, and He wants us to fall in love with Him. So, very interesting. So thank you so much, Allah's God bless. Okay, we'll work on finding the aziz shorts version of this. All right, let's see here. This is... Let's see here. Okay. All right.

28:53Let's go. Okay. Oh, what do I think of the TV series The Chosen? Let me see if this is it for him. In the latest season, Jesus raises... Okay, this is from Carol. Spoiler, yes. What do you think of the TV series The Chosen? In the latest season, Jesus raises Lazarus. Then Jesus says this is it for him. Is that in the Bible? No, it isn't. But it was, in fact, that was it for him. That was the last straw. That and the purifying of the temple that they'd had it. Jesus had to go. When he's pretending to raise people from the dead, and I mentioned that earlier, they didn't believe it. They thought it was a setup. It wasn't. Lazarus really died. The chosen in general is very good. There are problems with the chosen. For me, the big problem, two big problems. One is a problem of every Bible epic.

29:54Because you see, we want history. And all the detail, I believe, the Bible is historical. And I believe that these things that are said are essentially what they call in scholarship, the Ipsissimovere by the very words of Jesus. He really said things like, he who joins with me is not scattered. That kind of thing. He said it. Sometimes repeated a little differently by the disciples, as they wrote it down or remembered it. But essentially, these are the very words of Jesus. And it was common for disciples to write down what they're read by said. And it seems that the disciples wrote them things, these things down in Greek, so that they could share them with the Greek speakers of the Holy Land and the Greek speaking community of Jews in general. Because they spoke a lot of Greek. For these, they spoke Arabic. But Egypt and in certain parts of the Holy Land, like the decapolis 10 Greek speaking cities, they spoke Greek. So these things were written down during the life of Christ most probably.

30:56And then put together when it was appropriate. So these are the very words of Jesus, I believe. But the gospels are not meant to be histories. They're meant to emphasize certain points, I think. I think the first gospel, the gospel of Matthew, really emphasizes that Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy. The second mark, I really think, is written to show that Jesus is divine. He's the Son of God. The high point of the gospel is not the resurrection. It's the crucifixion when the centurion says, truly, this man was the Son of God. And then I think Luke and Acts were written as a sort of legal document to get the accuser, theophilus, who may have been the high priest son, to get the accuser to withdraw the charge he lodged against Jesus. And then the gospel of John, I believe, from the second to the last chapter was written, to show that Jesus is the Messiah, not John the Baptist.

31:57John the Baptist said it was addressed to the followers of John the Baptist, of whom John beloved disciple once was one. So that's my theory on it. I'm still on that from smarter people than me, so there's a good chance that it's true. All that said, we want history. We want to know what Jesus did on a Friday night, what his favorite food was, what color his eyes were, and all that sort of thing. God doesn't send us that. It's not necessary for a salvation. But we're always trying to make it up. And so these Bible movies add a lot of detail that is not necessarily so. And the problem with that is not, you know, these are interesting meditations on how maybe this happened. And they're useful. And I found nothing objectionable except for one thing. I found nothing objectionable in the chosen, and I've watched it pretty faithfully. However, you're going to get people saying, clearly Matthew was autistic.

33:01He was high functioning autistic. It's in the Bible. No, it's not. It was in the movie. But why would they put it in the movie if it wasn't about? Because they were trying to make the details into a kind of history. That's the problem. You're going to say, well, Peter's wife had a miscarriage. It's in the Bible. No, it's not. It was in the movie. That's a problem with any Bible movie. So you got to take those things with grains of salt. Yeah. Paul falling off the voice of my head just reminded Paul falling off his horse. There's a beautiful picture. I think is it by Peter Paul Rubens or Erzy Caravaggio. It's one of these old artists. Beautiful picture. Paul falling off the horse. There's no horse in the Bible. Well, yes, there is because Paul fell off it. No, it's no. He might have just fallen to the ground. It doesn't say there was a horse. So there probably was. There may well have been, but the Bible doesn't say it. That's the first problem. The second problem which I found a little offensive actually

34:01in the chosen was the sermon on the mount. I'm always telling you the sermon on the mount was delivered to the disciples. And Jesus sat down to give it and sitting down. He opened his mouth and said that's in the gospel of Matthew. I think the fifth chapter. Jesus in the chosen is so nervous about the sermon. And he spends days preparing and Matthew helps him writes a few things out. He's just, oh, he's just nervous about how it's going to go. And then they set up this big stage, you know, and with curtains and everything. And then after the sermon, Jesus, Jesus is asking, how did you like it? Did you think you had to go? That's nonsense. That's utter nonsense to the point of overhumanizing Jesus. Jesus had a full human nature, but it was the perfect nature of Adam before the fall. The only person who Jesus was trying to please was his father in heaven.

35:02He didn't care what people thought of his remarks or whether they thought the sermon was good. And I found that quite frankly offensive. And it seemed to me pure mega-church with the stage and the curtains and all that sort of thing. And the crowd control, it was a bit much. Other than that, I think the series is fine. You know, it's not bad. I find nothing contradictory to scripture in it. And so there, that's my opinion. Well, my opinion given, we're going to go to a break. We'll come back with our word of the day. And you can call in 888-914-9149. That's 888-914-9149. Today, we'd like to thank Kevin, who is listening

36:06in Pennsylvania for donating his 1951 Chevrolet Classic. That was a car, believe me. You can join thousands of other listeners in donating old vehicles, trucks, boats, and RVs by visiting relevantradio.com slash car. That's relevantradio.com slash car. There's something, something not Jewish. All right, moving along. All right, let's go to the word of the day. Okay, is it, you see, the voice in my head tries. He does a good job. I've got a very nice voice in my head. Moving along. The word of the day is, is it bell's a bull. What's all the hubbub? That's a...

37:07Not to have your bucks money. All right, moving along. The word bow means lord. And bow zebul means the lord of zebul means lord of the heavenly realms and he was one of the gods of the Canaanites. And he was thought of as a demon. You see, in the scriptures, we read that the gods are real, but in fact, they're demons, and one should avoid them. So, bell zebul means lord of the heavenly realms, this finition god, and they pond on it by calling him bell zebul, which means lord of the fly. In other words, flies are attracted to garbage, he said, obliquely, because children are listening, like flies to garbage. How's that sound?

38:07And the implication was that the gods of the Canaanites were garbage and those who were drawn, were like the flies that are drawn to garbage. So, that's the idea. And in certain mystic works, bell's above, but bell's above are interchangeable. But bow means lord, and zebul means the heavenly region of the Canaanite language, which is close to Hebrew. I think it was. And I don't know any Canaanite. But zebul... is the bell zebul, bell zebul, ob. See, I don't pronounce it well. Thank god. It was lord of the flies implying garbage. All right, that's our word for the day, but again, another thing, don't do this at home. Let's move on to phone calls. And what's up, doc? Steve, what can I do for you from Duncanon, Pennsylvania? Hey, father.

39:07I always heard, like Zachariah, when he was his turn, or he was drawn to go into the Holy of Holy. Yeah. And that he would have bells on his tassels, and then they would tie a rope around his ankles in case he died. Yes. And then when he was talking, I think it was Monday. And you said that the only time, the holy name of God is mentioned, is by that priest, on that day, once a year, three times in the Holy of Holy. Yes. Okay, so I was wondering why they were worried that somebody was going to die in there. Well, if he's saying that, if he's saying that, if he's forbidden word, three times, is that the reason? Well, for fear, for fear of God, yeah, fear of God. And actually, Zachariah went into offer incense in the Holy Place, not in the Holy of Holies. He wasn't a high priest. Only the great priest, the high priest, went in.

40:08And once a year. So, Zachariah doesn't go into the Holy of Holies, but he goes into the area of the shrine right in front of the Holy of Holies, the Holy Place. So, if it was a Yom Kippur, we'd be able to date the birth of Christ much more easily, but doesn't say when Zachariah went in. So, it has a vague reference. He was in the... Oh, I think he was in the... was a 12 different groups of priests each cycle. They were named for someone in history like Abiyatha, the troop of Abiyatha. This is the troop of such and such. And I forget which one, Zachariah was in. But the scripture doesn't mention that. However, yeah, they put the rope around his feet and they had bells around the hem of the high priest garment. And as long as they heard the bells, they knew he was communing with God. When they didn't hear bells anymore, it was, uh-oh. I don't know if there's any record of any high priest dying of fear, but that's, you know, that's one of the traditions.

41:10I'd have to research it more fully. I'm sure some scholars think that that's just a tradition, something. That's a tradition. I don't know if that answers your question, Steve. Well, okay. So, they're afraid he would die of fear for being injured, but not because he would say the name of God three times. No, of sheer fear of God. The fact is, the, the, um, well, it was a fear of something to do that. I mean, it's some in God's presence. And God was some, the word, nobody quite knows when Jews started wearing those little skullcaps they wear. They probably didn't wear them at the time of Christ. They might have been covering of the head was a sign of mourning. In general, you didn't pray with your head covered, unless you were giving a blessing, then you wore the, the prayer shawl, apparently. But nobody is quite sure. At least, according to Rabbi Lefkowitz, when they started wearing that, that skullcap, which is called the Yamoka.

42:10And they think that the word Yamoka comes from the phrase, Yeramela, which means the fear of the king. In other words, fear of God, the king of everything. They call it a kippa covering more commonly than Yamoka. But the word Yamoka may, may come from the Hebrew word, fear of, of the king. So it's all kind of interesting and lots of different traditions, which are great fun. So I hope that helps a little. So thanks, Steve for calling. God bless you. Okay. Let's go to Todd from Madison, Wisconsin. What can I do for you, Todd? Rather, Evan, talk to you. Mr. Morley, don't scream. Oh, my wonderful, wonderful man. Wow. He was a great guy. Oh, yeah. I wish I could have got to know him better. I just started working for that year. But anyway, yeah, I stuck up in line when we were, you're saying you're ready and got to talk to you for about a minute, because it was a long line to talk to you.

43:10So. Yes, because I talk too much, but go on. What can I do for you, Todd? The chosen. Yes. My consensus is that it's all way to hyper casual these relationships in the chosen. Hmm. They may be. I don't know because, of course, as I always say, I wasn't there. To me, the interesting part is the relationship between the disciples. That they really were. I think that's an interesting portrayal. The relationship that disciples have with one another, which was not always friendly. It was rather competitive in some ways. And I wonder, you know, I think you got to take all these Bible pages as kind of meditations on maybe it was this way. And that's my worry is that they'll say this is the way it was. I enjoy the idea that Jesus has some humor. But on the other hand, you may be right that there's just a little. It's, you know, because Jews at the time of Christ and still

44:12have a great reverence for their rabbis. And for instance, they would fuss about dressing him and tying his shoes and that sort of thing. No Jew would ever wash the feet of another Jew unless it was his rabbi. I've been told that. I don't know if it's true, but interesting. And then, of course, Jesus the rabbi washed their feet. So you may have a point there, Todd. So let's go to hear your voice after 10 years. So there you go. And good luck in working for the diocese. You've got a great bishop in Bishop Hying. He really is a delightful person. Yeah, we felt we really lucked out with that. But I sure do miss Bishop Hiring. Oh, he was, he had such a sense of humor. I didn't enjoy more. You know, he was just, but you know, Bishop Hying is, he's a very good man. I knew him when through Archbishop Lestecchi, who has great respect for him. And so yeah, Bishop Hying will be a blessing for Madison.

45:13I have no doubt about it. Well, God bless Todd and good to talk to you. And I hope to see you again. Maybe I will. God bless. Let's go to Pat from Brooklyn, New York. What can I do for you? Well, Father, I was really shocked. One Saturday. I went to my church and I went to try to, I thought I was going to confession. When I walk, when I walked in, he says, what are you doing here? You just came here last Saturday. And then he said something else, which I'm not going to say, because you're not going to believe it. And I, I was really, is, is this normal? No, weekly confession is a very fine thing. He must be taking himself too seriously or way, way overworked. But no, weekly confession. When I was a kid, that was the custom. I, I don't go weekly. I try to make sure I go monthly and I probably should go weekly.

46:13But no, it's just, you know, weekly confession is a very fine thing. I would say personal and I would like to go every week. That's my priority. Yeah, it is. It is. It's, it's a, you know, when I was a kid, that was what was recommended. You know, but and I think it's a fine, fine devotional practice. And if I ever get the energy, I, I think I should go every week. So no, hang in there and maybe you need to find another confessor or go to him one week and then someone else the other week. So God bless you. God bless you. Let's go to Henry from Lincoln Park, Michigan. What can I do for you? Yes, I have a couple verses. I read the Bible in 86, three months. But haste makes waste. I don't know where it's at. I don't know what it means. And victorious troop leap over wall in psalms. I don't know what symbol for that means that you can tell me. Say that again with that last thing.

47:14Victorious troop leap over the wall. That's in psalms. Mm-hmm. And haste makes waste. I don't know where that's at. Well, I can tell you I can tell you where haste makes waste comes from. It's from John raised in 1678 collection of Proverbs. It's not in the Bible. It's that's not in the Bible. Haste makes waste. Also God helps them who help themselves. That's Andrew Carnegie. That's not in the Bible either. But the victorious. Now, which is the other one? I'll find that the victorious troops leap over the wall. Leap over the wall. That's in psalms. Yes. Well, that makes a great deal more sense when you won the battle. You know, it's kind of dangerous to leap over a wall until you won the battle. So that's what that means. Well, let me find it up. It's Psalm 1829. Ah, that's what it is.

48:16It's with your help I can advance against a troop. With my God, I can scale a wall. In other words, this is a dangerous thing to do. But I can do it if God is with me. So that's the meaning. If God is with me, I can leap over the wall. I can scale a wall. But it's Psalm 18 verse 29. So I hope that helps a little Henry. Oh, speaking of helping a little. Oh, there's a question about Reverend most Reverend. And very Reverend, I don't feel very Reverend at all. But Drew is coming up. And though he's not a Reverend strictly speaking, he's reverable. Is that a word? I don't know. Well, stay tuned and let me know. That's all, folks.