Was Abraham a Jew? -October 9, 2026

0:00Who 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 and I hope you were tuned in for the broadcasts and video of the Feast the Selimony of our Lady of Champion and it was really beautiful and our own Father Rocky preached. I was just thinking as I watched that liturgy, of course there was no assortment on the current ordinary form of the Mass and it was very beautiful and very dignified.

1:05I don't want to grand that axe right away but it was beautiful and dignified and I think that there would be a lot less. What do we say in German? German drang which means storm and fury. If we the clergy respected the liturgy the way it was done today it was beautiful. It was beautiful and solemn and inspiring. So that's just my thought. It was a worthy celebration of our Blessed Mother. So that said let us pray in the name of Owen, that's she's the same today. Sir, we've got a Del Brice and our Lady of Champion. It also was the Feast of St. Dennis, Risticus and Allutherius. The most famous of him is St. Dennis or Sunday knee who is one of the great patrons of France and the tradition is that he was beheaded and he I think where he walked for a good

2:06long way with his head carrying his head I don't know about that. The three of them were beheaded with soared in their bodies with thrown into the river. St. Dennis body was retrieved from the sand by his converts and buried and I don't know where he walked with his head but that's an old story that I'm not sure really is good at our galaxy. That said let's pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in the fire of your love. Send with your spirit they shall be created and you shall be the face of the earth. Lord, you taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us by that same spirit that bright judgment in all things and evermore to rejoice in this 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.

3:09St. Michael the Archangel, venison battle be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil may God repute can we humbly pray and do thou a 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 root of souls. And St. St. Dennis, rustic as in all the thearius pray for us in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen especially, pray for poor France who is suffering greatly and we pray for the renewal of the faith in France. All right, well let's do it. Let's open the big book on the coffee table. And that was a very impressive celebration and I'm grateful to all the people at relevant radio who allow us to watch it. So well let's get to the text here. Okay, today let me click on this. I got to move my clicker. Okay. The first reading is taken from St. Paul's letter to the Galatians and this is a huge reading

4:15that causes a great deal of controversy. And forgive me if I'm repeating myself in a few places but I'm going to do that. First of all, it is interesting to me and I've mentioned this a couple times I think in the past few days that Peter is not called Peter in this epistle. He's called Kefas which is Aramaic with a little S at the end to greecify it. But Kefa, that was what Jesus called Peter. It means the rock and it is just ridiculous the way people want to say, well Peter Petros is masculine and petrion is feminine and greec therefore it means a chip off the old block or a little stone or a pebble. No, Jesus said it in Aramaic and St. Paul repeats it in Aramaic. And for those people who think that Peter and Paul were at odds with each other, that

5:18justice not so. Paul was extremely aware of and close to the authority of St. Peter. That's just so clear in the letter to the Galatians and in first Corinthians. And it is very interesting to me that in St. Paul's letter to the Galatians and St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, the word Kefa is used I think is it eight times? In other words, for some reason Paul wants to say in these two letters, he wants to say the name of the leader of the church, the way Jesus said it or I think really the title. I don't think Kefa was a name, it was a title. He's the rock. His name was Simon Barjona but his title was Kefa, the rock. And this is a very important title. You see, the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem was built on a large rock, the threshing floor

6:20of a round of the Jebusite. And when Jesus said to Peter, the rock of the church, he was looking at another immense rock, the size of a dirigible hanger. It was huge. And it's still there today. It's in Banias in southern Lebanon and it is controlled by these really government at the moment and you can make go there. I've been there and tour bus. I don't know if it's open these days because of the unpleasantness. He said euphemistically. But it was considered one of the entrances to the underworld. There was a spring that came from a cave and it was thought to be a bottomless well which was the entrance to the underworld, the world of the dead. And the Jordan River flowed out from that, it was one of the sources of the Jordan that

7:21flowed out from that rock. This is something most people don't realize but the rock on which the temple was founded was also considered one of the entrances to the underworld. The great rock on which the Holy of Holies was built was thought to have been sort of a cork in the entrance to the underworld. And so this idea of Peter being the rock, he's the foundation of the church in that sense. Of course Christ is the foundation of the church. Peter participates in that founding work by being kind of the rock on which the temple of the Lord is built. Now the temple of the Lord is the church, not just buildings but living stones. We the members of the church are that temple. And this is all backdrop to that. Now Paul went to places like Corinth or Galatia and he said you know we no longer have

8:29to follow kosher law and you need not be circumcised. I'll call it operated on for the sake of the leers who may be listening. We don't have to have that operation because the Messiah has come. And the law was, he says elsewhere, our babysitter until faith in God came. So Jesus sacrificed himself that operation. It was a shedding of blood which is sacrificial. We don't need to do it anymore because Jesus did it for us. He fulfilled the law in his own flesh. So that's what's going on here. And people are coming from Jerusalem from the church that is overseen by James the relative of Jesus, the brother of the Lord is his title was. And they're saying don't pay any attention to Paul, he's not really an apostle.

9:32So in first Corinthians the 9th chapter, the first verse we read am I not an apostle? Am I not seen Jesus our Lord? And he's saying the same thing, he's defending his apostleship. Now remember to be an apostle didn't mean you were one of the twelve. Paul was never one of the twelve. But he was a missionary delegated by Christ in a supernatural way but delegated on the less sorry, I just keep repeating this background because I think we need to know it. Well, let's go into today's letter. Realize that those who have faith, being being faith, what do I always tell you to put in this place when you see it? But those who have trust were the children of Abraham. Scripture which saw in advance that God would justify the non-Jews, the nations by trust for told the good news to Abraham saying through you shall all the nations be blessed.

10:33Now everyone take a deep breath, I told us to a friend of mine who really became angry about it. But strictly speaking, now become what I say this, Abraham was not a Jew. What? No. Abraham was the father of Isaac, was the father of Jacob, who was the father of the twelve tribes, one of which was Judah. And eventually the tribe of Judah became the dominant tribe. And kind of the only game in town. Judah was the inheritor of Abraham's blessing, Abraham blessed Isaac, who blessed Jacob by mistake. Jacob stole the blessing but it was the blessing of the first born nonetheless. And Judah was the fourth born of Jacob. But Ruben, Levy and Simeon lost their blessing because of transgressions.

11:36So the blessing of the first born went to Judah and hence the blessing of Abraham, the first born blessing descended to Jacob, Slash, Israel and to Judah. So what does that all mean? Well we don't think in terms of blessings and curses but they certainly did as we see in this reading through you all nations shall be blessed. And what does it mean to bless means to favor, to wish favor on someone. Now Abraham couldn't have been Jewish because to be a Jew you have to keep kosher, you have to follow the kosher law. And Sineh was centuries in the future. There was no law. I remember I left with it saying but God gave Abraham a special grace by which he knew the law in advance and followed it. I said, where's that in the Torah? He said in the story of the three strangers who came to Abraham.

12:37Well I said yes and he gave them meat and milk which is not kosher. Yes, I said, Rabbi Levyfkowitz but it doesn't say that he ate it. I really said, the Rabbi Levyfkowitz did not convince me on this point. I really do believe that Abraham did not keep kosher and he couldn't have. So this idea that Abraham was not Jewish. He was not Jewish in that sense though the blessing of God transferred to Judah. One of the great grants on of Abraham. To us this isn't real important but it certainly was in the ancient world. The Roman Empire was almost 10% Jewish, maybe not quite. It was much more Jewish than the world is today. They could be very difficult and they really felt that they were superior to the Romans.

13:41The Romans did not like this because the Romans thought they were superior. Paul is in this situation where he's trying to say nobody's superior were all loved by God. Abraham was the father of many nations according to the promise. The edomites and the descendants of Esau and the 12 tribes of Ishmael removed the Arabs are descended. They all claim Abraham and justly as their ancestor. So moving on that. There's a second dimension here. Early on in the very first chapter, when did we read that a few days ago. Was Christ not portrayed to you as crucified? Oh, Galatians. People who said you have to follow kosher law to be saved, to be a follower of Jesus. They're forgetting about the crucifixion because the crucifixion

14:41turned the law upside down. The book, I believe it's in the book of Leviticus. It says that those who die hanging on a tree are cursed. Jesus bore the curse for us and Paul comes back to that thing. Back to that idea. It says the Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. If you were just regular following the kosher law, Jesus couldn't have been the Messiah because of course he died hanging on a tree. I believe the sad you see is God Jesus crucified for exactly that reason. If they could get him crucified, it would prove that he wasn't the Messiah. Why would God curse his own Messiah? The crucifixion was not a Jewish penalty. Jesus, according to kosher law, should have been stoned to death. But the sad you see, he didn't worry about those fine points. They wanted to get him crucified.

15:44The Pharisees didn't. The ancestors, the theological ancestors of days Jews did not crucify Jesus. The sad you see did, the priestly class because he was bad for business. He was ruining the temple, etc. They knew if they could get the Romans to crucify him, that it would prove he wasn't the Messiah. Well, guess what? It did quite the opposite. But Jesus took the curse by being hung on a tree. I don't know if this means anything to you, but this is what Saint Paul was reasoning about. And so we're justified by trust. The law has been cancelled by the cross because the curse became a blessing. I think that's what he's saying here. It might not make a lot of sense to us, but consequently, those who have trust are blessed, along with Abraham who had trust.

16:45All who depend on the works of the law are under a curse because you can never repeat or say that in the Acts of Apostles. He said, we couldn't fulfill the law nor could our ancestors. And unless you follow the law perfectly, you're cursed. No one is justified before God, by God, before God, by the law is clear. For the one who's righteous will live by trust. The law does not depend that, but the law does not depend on trust. In other words, you do that. You do A, B happens, C happens. That's it. If something you can control. You know, I was thinking today during the celebration of our Lady of Champion, I quoted you the other day, the text that says there will come a day when people have a form of religion, but not will not have the power of religion. Well, that's in the second time, the third chapter, the fifth verse.

17:51If your religion is just, these are the rules, I'm following the rules, and this is a good thing. I don't want anything I'm saying you don't have to follow the rules you do. But is there power in your spiritual life? I mean, Adele Bryce was the very demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. I mean, that pastigo fire thing, that was miraculous. You see, we in the Catholic Church, we still believe in miracles. A lot of theologians, I know, who really don't, practically don't, but ours is a miraculous faith. It has power. We live in the Spirit, not simply in the flesh. And that St. Paul is saying this, that the law, you can perform the law with your flesh, the works of the law, all these ritual prescriptions, like breaking clay bowls that are unclean, making sure you bathe a certain way, and all those little rituals that kind of keep life going. But say, Paul is saying that that's only the kind of beginning of the spiritual life,

18:55and that has been abended by Christ's cross, cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree at the end of this passage. The blessing of Abraham might be extended to the nations through the Messiah Jesus. Paul is saying something absolutely radically. Saying the Messiah isn't just the Messiah for Jews. He's the Messiah for everyone, because God loves everyone. And Abraham is in a certain sense the father of the nations. So I don't know if this makes any sense to you, but there's a lot of people who, say, who in fact aren't functioning in the Spirit. I would say this in a way that is helpful. You know, we the clergy have a saying, we like it when people pay pray and obey, but those are good things. However, there's a whole lot more to it. There is really being able to hear God and witness the power of His Holy Spirit in our life. I don't know where else to go with this.

19:57Well, let's go to the gospel. Jesus was driving out of demons. Some of the crowd said, by the power of bellesable Prince of demons, he drives out demons. What's going on there? Well, there was a standard when all rabbis were considered exorcists. And there were people who were professional exorcists. It was big business. We see this in the X of the Apostles when people burn their amulets and their magic books in Ephesus. Big business. They really believe that all human ills were caused by demons. Well, we believe that no human ills are caused by demons. It's somewhere in the middle. Many are most aren't. Or I don't know if most aren't, but the devil enjoys all human ills and ills. But we managed to make life a mess for ourselves without the help of the devil. But I'm moving, let me move along. Bellesable is kind of an interesting name. This is a kind of pun.

20:58Baal Zabov was, I think that's how he pronounced the name, was the god of one of the Philistine cities. He was, let's see, what city was he? He was, I can't see what city he was. One of the Philistine cities. Oh, Ekran. He was the main god of Ekran. And his name was Baal Zabov. Zabov, I guess. Well, Baal Zabov was a pun on that name, a play on that name that meant Lord of the Flies. In other words, he was the master of that kind of piled up fertilizer that attracts flies, trying to be deft. So it was, it was also the Lord of the Flies. That was kind of one of the things that, that the flies hovered about corpses. And as I said, piles of fertilizer. So this is who Bellesable was.

22:01However, what they would do, actually, is they would have long lists of demon names and nonsense words, words that may or may not have been demon names. And the idea was that when you spoke, no, don't do this at home. But when you spoke the name of a demon bigger than the demon that was infesting your patient, well, then that would scare the smaller demon and how he would go. It's nonsense. But that's what he's saying. You know, you have exorcists who do this. If I drive out demons by Bellesable, by whom do your own people drive them out? In other words, you're doing this nonsense, I'm quoting demon names. And you're believing that the kingdom of Satan is divided. You're nuts. Then he goes on to say, but it is, if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, that's fascinating. The finger of God is mentioned in two other places. And Exodus, the eighth

23:06chapter, the 19th verse, the magicians of Pharaoh acknowledge that the the plagues are coming from God. They can't duplicate. In other words, they're saying, this is being done by the finger of God. And then it exited us 31 18. This is interesting. The term describes God writing the 10 commandments with his finger. In other words, Jesus is and then we read Luke and in Matthew. He cast out demons by the finger of God. He is calling himself divine. He is capable of doing things by God's finger. And who's the finger of God? I suppose we can say that's the Holy Spirit. But to me, that's very interesting. The finger of God, if it's by the finger of God,

24:06that I drive out demons, then God's royal natures are always like translated. The kingdom of God has come upon you. Then he talks about a strong man, arming his, guarding his palace. And when one's stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away his armor. And whoever's not with Jesus will scatter. So I think that's very important. All right. But let's see. One more thought I've gone very long on this. I'm sorry. But one more thought about it. You know, you have a great religious experience, a great conversion. And then you don't pursue the spiritual life. That's an invitation to the devil to come back. When you undergo a spiritual experience or a conversion, you really need to keep filling your life with the things of God. I have known people who've had a

25:07great healing, a great experience of God, a great conversion. Then they go back to their old way of life and their worse off. That's what Jesus is saying. If your house is empty, if the devil's been cast out, well, you need to fill it with what? With God's Holy Spirit. You need to change what you're watching. Change what you're, you're, you're changed the people you're hanging around with perhaps. That sort of thing. So I think that's an important thing to understand that that it is our responsibility to cooperate with God's grace by doing the best we can to live godly lives. Was it Blaze Pascale who's talking to someone about faith? Well, you can't come to faith. You want to come to faith. Do what people who believe do. Pray. Go to Mass. Read the scriptures. Read spiritual literature. And you know what? Eventually you fill yourself with good stuff. You're going to come to know Christ. I'm kind of loosely paraphrasing Blaze Pascale, but

26:09fill your life with good things. Remember, garbage in garbage out, blessing in, blessing out. All right, we're going to take a break. We'll come back. The phones will be open at 888-9149-149-888-9149 We'll be right back. This is an obscure passage. Oh, 888-9149-149-devois in my hand. So I should say it one more time. So I say it one more time. 888-9149-149. That's four times. In the sweet by and by. All right, well, let's set again. The phones are open at 888-9149-149. The voice

27:12of my head worried I messed that up again, which I tend to do. All right, let's go to letters. Okay, I got a letter from I lost the letter. I think I can quote it. I think it was from Claudine. It's about purgatory. Where is purgatory in the Bible? It's there in a number of places. We read Jesus saying that the sin against the spirit, which now don't panic anyone. The sin against the spirit is the refusal to accept grace. I really believe. And it's to say, I don't need God's forgiveness. God needs my forgiveness. After all, he caused the Holocaust. He caused this. He won't let me do that. I don't need that. You put yourself beyond the forgiveness of God. But in that sense, he will, he will not, if you refuse to ask for his forgiveness, he respects your wishes. That's the sin against the spirit. It has two, two dimensions,

28:12two sides to the coin. One is presumption. I don't need God's forgiveness. That's that's the sin of our age. The other one is my sin is too big for God to forgive, to spare presumption, to spare the two dimensions of the sin against the spirit. That said, Jesus says that this sin cannot be let go. If I insist on holding on to it, God will not make me let it go. And he says, in this world or in the world to come. So there is spiritual growth in the world to come. That's one reference to purgatory. But far more interesting, I think, is first Corinthians the third chapter. I think does it start at 11th verse of 12? Yes. No one can lay a foundation on the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hair, straw, his workmanship will be evident because the day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire and fire will prove the quality of each man's work. If anyone builds on this

29:19foundation, his workmanship will be evident because that day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire and fire will prove the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through flames. That's fascinating. It certainly sounds like our description of purgatory. And, you know, everyone gets, oh, dear, fire and purgatory, it sounds like hell. Well, it's not like hell. And hell, there is no hope in purgatory. There is great hope because you are already in the grace of God. You know, you'll be saved when what is used is burned up. C.S. Lewis, purgatory purgatory is so beautifully in the last chapter of the screw tape letters, in which he says that we will stand before God, who is light and love. And everything, this light and love will be burned away by the fire of God's love. And I think that's a beautiful

30:21thing. But first Corinthians, the third chapter, the 15th verse talks about purgatory. And then when Jesus says, talks about the sin against the spirit, he talks about purgatory. So it's a very biblical thing. And I have a theory that purgatory and judgment really are the same. You know, this is just my theory. It is not Catholic doctrine, necessarily. Take it with a big grain of salt. However, the idea of judgment is not condemned or acquitted. It's not up or down. In the ancient world, a judge was also a counselor who reconstructed or rebuilt, reestablished what had been torn down. So judgment is where we get things straightened out and do it right. It isn't simply up or down. That's our kind of Anglo-Saxon forensic idea of judgment. But for Jews, judgment, when someone was a judge of Israel, they also were counselors to Israel. So the final

31:26judgment, there is an upper-down kind of nation for those who rejected the Lord. But you know, I've known so many people who died to live to tell about it. They talk about experiencing all the pain they caused. And I think the judgment which the scripture is full of is the same thing as purgatory. Now that's just me. So take it with a great grain of salt. Let's see. Let me look at the time. Okay. All right. Let's see here. This is an interesting one that this is from Jeanne. And she talks about when I was a teenager in the 80s, I attended a youth group with the charismatic prayer meeting and her parents were charismatic. And let's see here. She got away from the Lord and she's coming back to the Lord bit by bit. So she's no longer

32:28interested in that kind of new age spirituality. And she's looking for a Catholic charismatic group. You know, they're not as easy to find as they used to be. So let me see. I don't know where she's at, which means I don't know where to recommend that she look. But get involved with a good parish genie. And oh, you live in the Detroit metro area. I'm sorry. If you live close to Ann Arbor, there's a wonderful community in Ann Arbor, which is easy to find. Oh, you live on the east side of Detroit. No. Well, that's quite a, quite a trip to Ann Arbor, but talk to Ann Arbor people. So she's saying that she had shingles in her left eye. And now the left eye kind of rolls when, you know, when she's trying to control her expression. And I have no control over it. Is this a good or bad thing? I have no idea if it's a good or bad thing. It's an honest thing,

33:30though. You want to roll your eyes when someone says something ridiculous or your eye rolls on its own. I wish I had better advice for you, but there are many mysteries in the world. And speaking of mysteries in the world, let us go to a break. We will come back with our word of the day, which will be very obscure. I promise. And the phones are open at 8889149149. Calypso. That sounds like Calypso. I think it is. All right. Well, moving along here, let us now go to the word of the day. Where to the day? Is there a gong? There's the gong. All right. Don't want to miss the gong. All right. First Corinthians,

34:31the 18th chapter, there is an interesting word that usually, you say, was named Paul's again defending his, his, I confused the voice in my head a little when I started talking about St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians at the very beginning. Well, because the reading today's Galatians, the USS CB readings, the Bishop's readings. But I really think that Corinthians and Galatians are grinding the same acts at least in part about Paul's apostolic credentials. Well, Paul's as in first Corinthians, I think it's the 18th chapter. After three years, I went up to Jerusalem and they usually translated to meet Peter. It's an interesting word. It's historic, from which we get the word history. And it means to make inquiry. In other words, Peter went up to make inquiry of, of Kefa of St. Peter. This wasn't just a nice visit and we'll have tea

35:38and you'll show me the sights. No, I got questions. I got questions. I want to know about this stuff. And that's, according to great scholars like Dr. Habermas, that's where Peter and James and John, who were eyewitnesses to the resurrection, told Paul, this is what happened. He was crucified for our sins and rose according to the scriptures and was seen by us and by 500. This is an early gospel and it's maybe six years after the fact. So historians call that historical gold. It's a very early account of the resurrection. So moving on a wonderful book. Again, I often recommend them. Dr. Strobels fascinating book on case for the case for Easter. It's very good book. All right, let's go. I'm cough. Sorry. I'm losing the cough, but it's just in case.

36:40Over way over there. All right, let us go now to phones. Hello, you talk. I'll listen. Well, John, I can't guarantee that, but you can start talking. John, what can I do for you for Minnesota? I have a quick question to ask about a situation we've been invited to a wedding where a a family member has, that's not a practicing Catholic, received a, you know, a minister like license to perform a wedding for two other people who are not Catholics that are, but we're wondering we're feeling like that probably a serious sin for us to attend the wedding ceremony versus well, maybe it's certainly. Yeah, I would just go to the reception. It certainly is. Now, to Penn, is he a justice of the peace or minister of some other made up religion? If he's a minister

37:45of some other made up religion, he's denied his faith. He's not only not practicing the Catholic faith, he's denying it. And I would not participate in anything like that. I've known people who have done that unaware of the seriousness of the sin, but yeah, it's to deny the faith. I'm getting myself ordained in another religion. Oh, I'm, yes, I know just got a legal license or training on well, if it's, if it's joining, if it's joining another, those are usually, you know, male or a minister, ordinations. You know, if he's a justice of the peace, for instance, a judge, a Catholic judge can do non-Catholic weddings or even weddings between Catholics who are not practicing and he doesn't incur any guilt because he's a, a, a function or the state and he's a justice of the peace, not purporting to be a religious minister. So if you can find out, if this is just justice of the peace, but I, I bet it's becoming a minister in the non-Catholic

38:50denomination. So yeah, just go to the reception and that's what I would do and enjoy that. It's, these are difficult times and people say, what's the difference? Well, it's a big difference and, you know, that, you know, we, as I've been saying, you know, we're not saved by the law, but that doesn't mean laws are not important. So I would, I would look at that. All right, I hope that answers your question, John. I wish I had an easier answer, but hey, all right, thanks for calling in. And by the way, we do have a lot of phone room and I started a little earlier today, 8889149149, 8889149. By the way, I will be on Monday. I will be starting at 12.30. So we'll have lots of time for phone calls. I hope that's a time for me to, to talk about obscure things in the Bible that people find fascinating and, well, confusing. All right, let's go to Jay from New Jersey. What can I do for you? Hi, Father. Thank you so much for taking

39:54my call. So very good to have you back on the air and enjoy your insight and your sensitivity. Thank you very much. Now, I got to, you know, test your father, no, it all seems to be right by the end of the day. So the big picture of trying to get the rest of this is that in Revelation talks about God-Casting and the month of the four angels out of heaven and to hell. I mean, it's good to be to earth. If you haven't already on earth then and you got to knew that that was going to lead to bad consequences. Why did he do it anyway? And said it was just, you know, sunny, the Mars or some other place. Well, no, two to moon, Alice. Remember the good old Jackie Gleason show? Two to moon, Alice. Now, the, the, again, I've shared this a lot. I'll share it again that, that we read in Romans the eighth chapter that God created made the creation in futility with, it was subject to futility by him

41:03who subjected it. In other words, God allowed the possibility of evil to remain in the world. And, and I shared this, I learned this from Rev. Alive Caviz years ago, that if you look at the story of creation in Genesis, the six days of creation, the God says it was evening, it was morning and God saw that it was very good. Every day except the second day, the second day is not good because we see in the second day the separation of the waters in heaven from the waters on earth. And Jesus defines the waters of heaven and the gospel of John when he says he was referring to the Holy Spirit, but there was no Holy Spirit as of yet because he Christ had up and crucified. So God allowed the possibility of evil in the world so that we might choose good. If we didn't have the ability to decide for evil, we couldn't decide for good. So God made a very

42:10imperfect world. And the reason that it is so imperfect and we suffer and God seems even to be unjust is so that we can choose love instead of choosing ourselves. That's why. And the demonic presence in the world that God allows the devil to roam about the world is part of that. Does that make sense to you, Jay? Yeah, yeah, it doesn't. Now the way it explained, I hadn't heard it before. And it just seems like that there was going to have the beauty to be the sacrificial land before creation of everything. You know, even though you knew it was going to really turn out badly for it's all about freedom. Everything's about freedom. Without freedom, there can be no love. If I if I force you to love me, well, that's not love. And we have names for that. So I think that that's

43:10the reason. Well, I hope that answers the question, Jay. All right. God bless you. Let's go to Susanna from Modesto, California. What can I do for you? Hi, how are you? I'm so happy that you're back. Well, thank you. I'm having fun. I have a question. So my husband, I've been kind of looking through the Bible. We wanted to know about the angels that he created that have like four faces and wings. And what was their purpose? Why did God create them? I mean, I'm not saying they're ugly creatures, but kind of very creatures if you kind of read the Bible a little bit. Yes. But why was the purpose? Well, he didn't create them. He created the angels, of course. But we read in 1 Corinthians, the 2nd chapter, the 9th verse, what no eye has seen, what no ears heard, what no human mind is

44:11conceived, the things that God has prepared for those who love him. In other words, the spiritual dimension, they, they, when, when I close my eyes in death and God willing, I die at a state of grace. I will look and try to perceive what this is and it will be like nothing I've ever seen before. It'll be, it'll be this creation, but more wonderfully made and renewed. God didn't make angels with wings. We perceive them with wings because they move as if they had wings. It's our perception of these things. You know, I don't know if you've ever looked and seen a face or something and then you look closer just to smudge on the wall, that we're, our physicality is trained to see certain things. And so these angels with wings, I love the book, Heaven is for real. It's about a little boy who was the minister's son who had one of these beyond back experiences. He talks about

45:14the angels and their wings and all that. Well, how is a little kid or even an old kid like myself going to describe the spiritual reality? It was like wings and it's interesting when you look at the prophecies and scriptures, it's always, it was as if it was like it was that sort of thing. So it isn't that he created these these these beings with, you're seeing a cartoon, there's a guy and Heaven's saying another guy and heaven, you know, I was expecting the wings, but the webbed feet came as a surprise. You know, we, I think that's funny, never mind. But the the wings, all that sort of thing, there are perception of these virtues, qualities and abilities of these celestial, non-physical spirits. Does that make any sense to you? Yes, yes, good. I so rarely make sense. Thank you. All right. Let's go to, oh, thanks, I'm honored that you listen. Let's go to Craig. What can I do for you?

46:20Hi, nice. Well, I was just a quick question if I can get a comment from you. Um, sure. Document called Memorally Dominion. It's by Pope Paul the six on communion in the hands. And he says that the communion on the tongue is tremendously, recommended and traditional. And I don't know, I guess I wanted to hear you comment on it. I'll hang up and hear you comment. Okay. Well, you know, yes, communion in the in the hand is, it isn't an innovation. Um, it, you know, I will get grief for this, but it seems in the early church. Let me see if I can pull this up. Same, Cyprian, I think it was. And receiving communion, you can hear my clicking, clicking away. All right, let's see here.

47:21Cyprian of Carthage. Let's see here. Let me see here. Okay. Okay. Let me see. Cyprian's guide to the reception of communion. I think it was Cyprian of Carthage who said that, um, one should make a throne with one's left hand to receive the Eucharist with one's right hand. Let me see if I can pull. I'm sorry to be just looking this up, but this is a, this is a big deal because you get so many arguments about it. Okay, hold on. Excuse me, this is Lausier radio. Okay, let me see. Okay, it's, it's, um, it's, okay. All right. Um, let me see, um,

48:23Saint Cyprian, Tertullian and St. Augustine, they refer to the custom of the lay that he receiving the sacred host in their hands. Saint, it's not Saint Cyprian, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, talked about believers should make their left hand a throne for the right hand before receiving the body of Christ. So in the early church for centuries, they did receive in the hand, but to avoid abuse, which was happening in superstition, people would take the, the sacrament home. And I think we're still in that position. We need to be very careful of people recede, where what people do with those I've had to chase people down the aisle to retrieve the blessed sacrament. I will never forget what were winning a person who from their ethnicity was most probably Catholic, putting the host in the, uh, breast pocket of their rented tuxedo. That was going to go to a pride cleaner. And I went back and I said, I said, you know, give me that.

49:24So I don't know that we have the proper enough education right now. You'll see little kids run up and grab the lucky chip and run back to the pew. And that's not relevant. We need to stress eucharistic reverence. I do not think the tongue is necessarily more sacred than the hand, but, um, you know, who said, well, a priest hands are consecrated. They're consecrated for the act of consecrating. But, you know, that, that, uh, I, you know, Jesus touched people physically. So there's that. Now, on the other hand, it is, uh, person is allowed to receive on the tongue that, that, right? I don't believe it's been taken away. Um, and if people are more comfortable, we priest should respect that. I've heard the horror stories of priests becoming very difficult when someone wants to receive on the tongue. Um, the point is reverence. It isn't the body part.

50:26It's reverence. And I think we need to do a lot of that. And today we celebrate, uh, um, the Feast of our native champion who wanted us to educate children. I think we especially have to educate them in reverence for the blessed sacrament. So I think all the six was reminding us of the reverence of receiving on the tongue. And who received in the hand, we should receive with equal reverence. And speaking of equal reverence, upcoming is true.