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(0:00) Hello, and welcome to the Catholic Torch Podcast, Episode 6.
(0:05) We will start out with The Memorare.
In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of Virgins and Mother. To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.
In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
(0:45) Today’s episode is brought to you by Juan’s Mobile Welding LLC. (0:50) Thank you again, my dear friend for all your support!
(0:54) Anything that I say that is true, and good, and beautiful, belongs to the honor and glory (1:00) of Our Lord and Our Lady, and anything that I say that is erroneous is purely my own fault.
(1:07) And now we continue with the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena.
(1:11) I wish also that thou shouldest know that every virtue is obtained by means of thy neighbor, (1:18) and likewise every defect.(1:20) He, therefore, who stands in hatred of Me, does an injury to his neighbor, and to himself, (1:27) who is his own chief neighbor, and this injury is both general and particular. (1:33) It is general because you are obliged to love your neighbor as yourself, (1:37) and loving him, you ought to help him spiritually with prayer, counseling him with words, (1:43) and assisting him both spiritually and temporally, according to the need in which he may be, (1:50) at least with your goodwill if you have nothing else. (1:54) A man, therefore, who does not love, does not help him, and thereby does himself an injury, (2:02) for he cuts off from himself grace, and injures his neighbor by depriving him of the benefit (2:07) of the prayers and of the sweet desires that he is bound to offer for him to Me.(2:14) Thus every act of help that he performs should proceed from the charity which he has through (2:20) love of Me. And every evil also is done by means of his neighbor, for if he does not love Me, (2:27) he cannot be in charity with his neighbor, and thus all evils derive from the soul’s (2:33) deprivation of love of Me and her neighbor. Whence inasmuch as such a man does no good, (2:39) it follows that he must do evil. To whom does he evil? First of all to himself, and then to (2:46) his neighbor. Not against me, for no evil can touch Me, except insofar as I count done to
Me (2:53) that which he does to himself. To himself he does the injury of sin, which deprives him of grace, (3:00) and worse than this he cannot do to his neighbor. Him he injures in not paying him the debt, (3:06) which he owes him of love, with which he ought to help him by means of prayer and holy desire (3:13) offered to Me for him. This is an assistance which is owed in general to every rational creature, (3:20) but its usefulness is more particular when it is done to those who are close at hand (3:26) under your eyes, as to whom I say, you are all obliged to help one another by word and doctrine, (3:33) and the example of good works, in every other respect, in which your neighbor may be seen to (3:39) be in need; counseling him exactly as you would yourselves, without any passion of self-love; (3:46) and he (a man not loving God)
does not do this, because he has no love toward his neighbor, (3:53) and, by not doing it, he does him, as thou seest, a special injury. And he does him evil, (4:00) not only by not doing the good that he might do him, but by doing him a positive injury, (4:06) and a constant evil. In this way sin causes a physical and mental injury. The mental injury (4:13) is already done when the sinner has conceived pleasure in the idea of sin, and hatred of virtue, (4:19) that is, pleasure from sensual self-love, which has deprived him of the affection of love, (4:26) which he ought to have towards Me, and his neighbor, as has been said. And, after he has (4:33) conceived, he brings forth one sin after another against his neighbor, according to the diverse (4:39) ways which may please his perverse sensual will. Sometimes it is seen that he brings forth cruelty, (4:47) and that both in general and in particular. (Reference 1)
So now we will go back through, and I will (4:54) start to break it down a few sentences at a time, and hopefully make some sense of it for anybody (4:59) who’s listening.
“I wish also that thou shouldest know that every virtue is obtained (5:06) by means of thy neighbor, and likewise every defect. He therefore who stands in hatred of Me (5:12) does an injury to his neighbor and to himself, who is his own chief neighbor, and this injury (5:18) is both general and particular. It is general because you are obliged to love your neighbor (5:23) as yourself, and loving him, you ought to help him spiritually with prayer, counseling him with (5:29) words, and assisting him both spiritually and temporally, according to the need in which he (5:35) may be, at least with your goodwill if you have nothing else.”
God is saying here that (5:43) every virtue is obtained by means of your neighbor, and also every defect. The soul that hates God (5:48) injures their neighbor, and also it injures itself, because you are your own chief neighbor.
(5:56) God says, He has commanded,
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole (6:03) soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and first commandment, and the second is like to (6:09) this.Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law (6:15) and the prophets.” (Matt. 22: 37-40) (DRB)
If a soul truly loved God, then they would naturally (6:23) want what God wants. God wants to be loved by all His creatures, and so this soul that wants what (6:29) God wants, because they love Him, will want to love all his creatures naturally. You do what (6:36) makes your spouse happy by sacrificing your wants and needs for the good of your spouse. In this (6:42) case, you would sacrifice your evil tendencies, and even some of the pleasures that are rightly (6:48) ordered at times to grow in virtue, and to try to destroy the vices that you are being faced with.(6:54) In this case, by loving your neighbor, even though he hates God, by praying for this neighbor, by (7:01) counseling your neighbor with words, (if it will not make the situation worse, or this neighbor (7:06) starts to hate God more) and also by assisting this neighbor both spiritually and temporally, (7:12) depending on what this neighbor needs. And at very least with your goodwill if you have nothing else. (7:19) Everyone is called to this, All races, Both sexes, Rich, Poor, Famous, and Unknown, All souls.
(7:27) Now next, God is going to explain why this soul that does not love, does injury to himself and (7:33) to his neighbor.
“A man therefore who does not love, does not help him, and thereby does (7:40) himself an injury. For he cuts off from himself grace, and injures his neighbor by depriving him (7:47) of the benefit of the prayers, and of the sweet desires that he is bound to offer for him to Me. (7:54) Thus every act of help that he performs should proceed from the charity which he has through (8:00) love of Me. And every evil also is done by means of his neighbor. For if he does not love Me, (8:08) he cannot be in charity with his neighbor. And thus all evils derive from the soul’s deprivation (8:14) of love of Me and her neighbor. Whence inasmuch as such a man does no good, it follows that he (8:21) must do evil.”
God says this soul does evil! The acts this soul performs should proceed (8:29) from the charity which the soul has received through love of God. The Douay-Rheims says,
“For who distinguisheth thee, or what hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? (1 Corinthians 4:7) (DRB)
(8:50) “To whom does he evil? First of all to himself, and then to his neighbor. Not against Me, (8:57) for no evil can touch Me, except insofar as I count done to Me that which he does to himself.”
This soul does no harm to God, because no evil can touch God, except that which God (9:12) counts as done to him by the soul’s mistreatment of themself, in not loving God back. Hence hatred (9:20) of his chief neighbor.
“To himself he does the injury of sin, which deprives him of grace, (9:28) and worse than this he cannot do to his neighbor.”
So what that just said was, (9:34) this soul injures himself by sinning and cutting himself off from grace. He cannot do any worse (9:41) than that to his own neighbor.
“Him he injures in not paying him the debt which he owes (9:47) him of love, with which he ought to help him by means of prayer and holy desire offered to Me for (9:54) him. This is an assistance which is owed in general to every rational creature. But its usefulness is (10:01) more particular when it is done to those who are close at hand, under your eyes, as to whom I say, (10:09) you are all obliged to help one another by word and doctrine, and the example of good works, (10:16) and in every other respect in which your neighbor may be seen to be in need; (10:22) counseling him exactly as you would yourselves, without any passion of self-love.”
(10:29) God says he injures his neighbor by not loving him, which he is indebted to do, by God’s command.(10:37) God says every rational creature is owed this debt of love by prayer and holy desire offered to God (10:43) for your neighbor. The usefulness of these actions are more if the proximity of the people (10:49) you are endeavoring to help are closer at hand, or even whom you can see. Then we are supposed (10:56) to be helping that hate-filled neighbor. God used the word obliged, meaning obligated, or morally (11:04) bound to action, by word and doctrine, the example of good works, and in every other respect in which (11:10) your neighbor may be seen to be in need. For example, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, (11:16) give drink to the thirsty. These also apply spiritually, not just temporally, and they are (11:24) needs, both spiritually and temporally.
Spiritually feeding the hungry, is sharing the word of God with (11:30) those that have never been taught the truth. They actually need this spiritual food.
Clothing the (11:36) naked refers to a kind word, comforting the afflicted, being compassionate to another’s (11:42) suffering, or by helping someone regain their reputation.
And lastly, by giving them to drink (11:48) means bringing them to the Wellspring of Life, The Living Water, Divine Grace, the Holy Ghost, (11:54) the Eucharist, Wisdom, and Love. Give them God. That can only be found in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
The Church,
The Holy Roman Catholic Church.
The only church with All Four Marks (12:06) of Apostolicity. There is no other. That is it.
And then God says, counseling him, (12:13) exactly as you would counsel yourself, without letting any of your own self-love taint this (12:18) counsel.
“And he (a man not loving God) does not do this, because he has no love towards (12:26) his neighbor. And, by not doing it, he does him, as thou seest, a special injury. And he does him (12:35) evil, not only by not doing him the good that he might do him, but by doing him a positive injury (12:42) and a constant evil. In this way sin causes a physical and a mental injury.”
(12:51) God says this hateful soul does a constant evil and positive injury to his neighbor!(12:57) God says that right here, and now we will find out why.
“The mental injury is already done (13:05) when the sinner has conceived pleasure in the idea of sin and hatred of virtue, that is, (13:13) pleasure from sensual self-love which has deprived him of the affection of love which he ought (13:20) to have towards Me and his neighbor, as has been said.”
The mental injury is done when (13:28) the hateful soul conceives the pleasure of the idea of sin in his own mind, to go against acting (13:34) in a virtuous manner, and acts from his own sensual self-love, which blinds him of the love (13:40) he ought to have for God and his neighbor. For what does he have that he has not been given, I ask? (13:46) God gave all of us everything we have. We did not reach out and earn it on our own.(13:51) There is no such thing as a self-made man. To say that one is a self-made man is sensual (13:59) self-love and nonsense, as 1 Corinthians 4 just told us earlier. But this soul goes much further, (14:08) as we will now see.
“And after he has conceived, he brings forth one sin after another (14:16) against his neighbor, according to the diverse ways which may please his perverse sensual will. (14:23) Sometimes it is seen that he brings forth cruelty, and that both in general and in particular.”
After this soul conceives the thought of sin, he acts on it like a brute beast, (14:37) and then brings more and more sin against his neighbor, according to the hateful soul’s own (14:42) perverse sensual will. In other words, whatever helps this soul to “feel” some sort of rush or (14:49) euphoria or dopamine hit, it gets out of the cruelty it is afflicting on its neighbor.(14:56) But this only worsens the hateful soul and keeps that diamond in front of its heart, (15:00) hardening it more and more each time. Only to be shattered by the Blood of Christ, (15:06) if he so chooses to apply this.
An example of this is when someone comes up to you and starts (15:12) telling you a sacrilegious “joke.” (It’s not at all a joke.) But this person comes up anyway, (15:20) knowing that the person they are telling the “joke” to, is a lover of God. And (15:27) even after the lover of God starts walking away, they continue their bad behavior by finishing said (15:33) “joke” loudly for more to hear so they can pull more people into their treacherous web because (15:40) misery loves company, and making more people erupt in laughter over blasphemy against God.(15:46) This situation would rightly make the soul who loves God righteously angry, because it’s an (15:52) offense against God, and the best way to battle it is to pray for that hateful soul immediately (15:57) and ask God to take on penance for that soul to keep them open to grace and continue on in virtue (16:04) when dealing with this person. If they start in on the very offensive stuff, there is absolutely no (16:10) harm in walking away so as to not hear these things being said sacrilegiously, so as to show (16:16) this poor soul that that kind of behavior and words are completely unacceptable. But we still have to (16:22) pray for them, and we are still going to hear them, and we’re still going to have to do penance (16:27) for it so that this person may still be open to the graces. But if we must have to handle this (16:34) situation because we’re stuck there, and we cannot just walk away, then there are ways to handle it (16:40) as I discussed in a previous episode.
On the next episode, we will continue on this same line, but (16:46) we will cover the general and physical cruelty and injury this hateful soul inflicts not only on (16:52) himself but also on his neighbor.
That will end our episode for today.
If you have any questions (16:58) or comments, you can find my email in the contact button below.
If you need a Catholic priest, (17:05) please reach out to me and I will help you find one.
And now we will end in prayer.
In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Ave Maria, gratia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in ora mortis nostrae. Amen.
In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
(17:35) Thank you for listening and I will see you on the next episode.
References
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