Transcription
Thanks for tuning in to Everything Catholic again. And it's been quite a while since I shared a compilation of clips with you here. Here's the table of contents for your reference. And let's jump right in with this one on excommunication.
>> The act, the act of excommunication is a disciplinary action of the church, not a doctrinal action. That means that the church uses this as a deterrent to stop people from following this bad example of an individual. So let's suppose you have a group that preaches something heretical like the, um, like the Montinists in the early centuries of the church. The church has the duty to intervene and say, "This is a heretical teaching. Do not follow it." The church will not excommunicate immediately. It did that centuries ago. Now, it first seeks to clarify, and this is the right approach, to make sure that the person is aware that what they said is wrong. Sometimes people say things with a good intention and it comes out wrong, and they didn't mean to say something wrong. So the church gives them the benefit of the doubt and says, "You know, this is not contrary to church teaching. Can you correct it?" And if the person persists and says, "No," now they reveal their intention, which is to not conform to church teaching. Then the church can give them a warning: "Unless you change, we will excommunicate." And if they persist, then they do the excommunication.
There's another type of excommunication. One is called ferendae sententiae. The other one is called, um, latae sententiae, and that's automatic. Latae sententiae. Okay. The latae sententiae is, uh, automatic, and that happens with an abortion. For example, a woman deliberately, knowing that this is a human being, terminates the birth before the child is viable. She's automatically excommunicated. There are certain things that incur an automatic excommunication, and the person, the church does not have to formally state it.
Now, suppose a person falls into one of these two categories: from automatic excommunication latae sententiae, or through the church's process of informing them, warning them, finally excommunicating, known as ferendae sententiae. Cut off from salvation. Remember, it's a disciplinary action, not a doctrinal action. Um, because the church uses that as both a deterrent to avoid other people following that bad example, and a wake-up call to the individual to get back in line with the church. And if that person, after that excommunication, privately gets back in touch with the church, though still excommunicated, they can be saved. And even if they're excommunicated, it doesn't mean that they're going to hell. Okay? 'Cause God alone sees the person's intention, sees what the person, um, in their education, uh, experienced to lead them to come to this conclusion, and they could have, in their education, been misinformed with bad books that made them draw that conclusion, which impacts their intentionality. So God sees that. Excommunication doesn't necessarily mean you're cut off from heaven. No, it's a disciplinary, disciplinary action on earth.
>> And for the second clip, I'd like to share with you will be this one on the levels in purgatory. Listen to this.
>> Purgatory is the experience. There are three levels. The lowest level is close to hell, according to the writings of this promoter work of a nun in the late 1800s in France, where there is torture that corresponds to the different sins. So if you used your hands to sin, whether it's stealing or violence, your hands will feel more pain than other parts of your body. Same with your tongue from gossiping or lying, etc. Then there's the one above hell, close. It's one is look, close to hell. The other, the ones closer to heaven, and that's where there's not as much pain or suffering, fire or coal, but there's both. And then there's the one that's right on the threshold of heaven, where there's no physical pain. And the body, even though the body is not present in purgatory, just the soul. The soul experiences the same five senses as the body. Because the senses the body experiences don't come from the body, they come from the soul. So the soul can experience everything the body experiences. That's why in hell there's torture, even though the bodies are not yet there. In purgatory, there's torture, or not torture, but purification. But the difference between hell and purgatory: there's hope and there's gratitude. In hell, there's no hope. There's no gratitude. So that's a huge difference. And Louisa describes the suffering as a liquid interior fire. That's how she describes it. A liquid interior fire, which seems to corroborate the 19th chapter of the, the 20th chapter of the book of Revelation, where the false prophet and the beast are thrown into the fiery lake. That's liquid fire. So that's how Louisa describes purgatory.
And the following clip will be on praying for people who have already died, but we're not sure whether they're in hell, purgatory, or heaven. Listen to this for our reflection together this time.
>> Okay. The difference between praying for a soul before they die for a happy death, whose destiny, or I should say, whose plot destiny you're sure of, as opposed to one you're not sure of, is this. Padre Pio prayed for his grandfather's death on the assumption that he's not in hell. And he knew that because he had gifts that we don't have. He saw where people would go, many times, not all the time. And where people were going, where they could have be, um, distracted from going. Let's say they're going to hell, but with prayers and fasting, that could be averted. Father knew that. He didn't know everything, but only that which the Lord permitted. But he did know that his dad did make it because he said that he is in heaven. And I prayed for him before, even though he died. He said, um, the prayers I offered now have already been considered by God before he died. So that's assuming that he's saved.
Now, with a person we know is in hell, we cannot pray for. But here's the thing: how do we know that this or that person is in hell? We don't. So we err always on the side of charity and pray for them anyway. Here's the next question: What if they are in hell and we're praying for them? Those prayers are applied to other souls. Here's another question: What if we pray for a soul in purgatory who's already in heaven? The answer is found in that book I quoted earlier, the unpublished manuscript on purgatory, where the sister in purgatory tells the nun on earth in France, in the convent, that if you pray for a soul in purgatory and they're in heaven, the soul in heaven applies them as they wish for people on earth. So if I pray for someone like my mother or my father that died, and they're already in heaven, I'm thinking they're in purgatory, they receive my prayers and apply them as they wish. So God never lets any prayers go wasted. Even if we accidentally pray for a soul in hell in good faith, thinking they could be saved, they will still be used by God and the Blessed Mother for other individuals.
>> And the next clip will be on something very important. And Father Ianuzi has touched on this many times in the past, actually, and it's on intentionality.
>> Focus more on your intention than the results. And then it becomes very simple. Now, why do I say that? Because virtue is found in, first and foremost, intention, not in the results. Although the results are the intended desire, the intended result, if we don't meet that result, don't fluster about it. Don't worry. I'm going to go back to what I've done, I've shared with other people before, and that is the importance of intentionality. And it's found in entry 800 of the diary of St. Faustina Kowalska. And here, St. Faustina says, "If one does not know what is the better thing to do, one must reflect, consider, and seek advice." That's important. What is she saying here? Before you wish to accomplish something, you have to seek advice. What does that mean? Inform your conscience of what the church teaches in this regard. So you know that you're doing what is the will of God. Number two, reflect. Is this the right time to do this? Number three, pray, consider. Then she adds, "Because one must not act, one must not act with an uncertain conscience." When you are uncertain, say to yourself, "Whatever I do will be good because I have the intention of doing good." See the intention. The Lord God accepts what we consider good, and the Lord God also accepts and considers it as good. If one, sorry, one should not worry if after some time one sees that what it is done is not good. God looks at the intention with which we begin to operate and will reward us accordingly. This is the principle which we ought to follow.
So what the good Lord is saying here is, don't focus so much on the result you intend to achieve, though you must give it attention, but on your intention, because that is what God rewards. So let's suppose my intention is to give God glory, praise, thanksgiving on behalf of all creatures throughout the day. Now, Louisa did this in many ways in the realms. You may say it's very complicated to place my "I love you, God. I thank you. I praise you," or offer satisfaction, reparation for everything. You know, I have to go through all the cosmos and identify and enumerate every human being I ever met, every other thing I ever experienced with the five senses. Then it becomes very complicated. But with the intention of doing it all in one broad sweep, you do it. It's very simple.
>> Okay?
>> Why? Because you're not doing the rounds. God is doing them in you. And because God is omnipresent, with one fiat, he impacts all things at once. So when you place my "I love you" in all things, it's done. Now, if you should have the time or any desire to spend more time on this particular group of creatures, whether it's humans, angels, saints, trees, suns, stars, whatever, that's up to you. God gives you that liberty. Okay? So don't feel like you're always pressured to enumerate every little thing. Okay? That's called scrupulosity. And we must avoid that. The Little Flower, St. Thérèse, suffered from this spiritual plague. That's what she called it, a spiritual plague. Scrupulosity, where the devil was playing with her mind, obviously distracting her from love and focusing always on the results. And she could never wrap her brain around that. She's always struggling with that as a child, but she overcame it in her later teen years.
>> And here's the last clip in this compilation. And I hope all of you have learned a lot from the video so far.
>> God is attracted to the loneliness of those who acknowledge their own ineptitude. You see, there's nothing more than a rude awakening than acknowledging themselves for what we really are: dust. I mean, let's call it as it is. Our bodies came from nothing. The church, in the early ecumenical councils and in other, in the post-ecumenical councils, refer to God's creation of mankind as "ex nihilo" in Latin, meaning "out of nothing" we came. And that's pertaining to our bodies. Our soul did not exist. We were nothing. But God, at one point in human time, in the material order, decided to infuse within this clay that came from the earth, called the human body, a rational, volitional soul. And in so doing, infused within us a spark of his own divine essence. St. Augustine says that God, when he created us, put a little piece of his love within each and every one of our hearts. But our hearts are never totally complete unless they are rejoined to the full heart of God, of which we are only at peace. And therefore, God sent us into the world where we would try to gather up all the love we could, but where we never could be totally happy, totally in love, unless we went back to him who had given us a piece of his heart and received the full portion of that in eternity. So really, our mission here on earth is to be tested in order to passing the test, merit heaven. Heaven is not given free to anyone. Our life is given free to us. We didn't ask to be born or conceived. That's freely given. But what is not freely given is eternal life. Therefore, our purpose, our primary purpose of being here on earth, is to pass a test. Everyone has to pass a test. We know from the writings of St. Irenaeus and St. Polycarp. We know that St. John the Evangelist taught Polycarp, a second-century church father, who in turn taught Irenaeus, a fourth-century church father doctor, that the reason why Lucifer and a third of the angels fell from heaven is because God the Father revealed to Lucifer, while yet a good angel, that the Son of God, not yet incarnate, would become incarnate not in an angelic, but a human nature. Lucifer's response was, "This is illogical. We angels far surpass human beings in intellectual prowess. Why would you decide to incarnate yourself in the lowest form of rational life in the universe? Why not incarnate yourself in us?" So Lucifer said, "I will not serve this plan of serving humans because if you decide to incarnate in human nature, then we have to serve human nature." In fact, the letter to the Hebrews says that angels serve us. We thank them, we're grateful to them, but they serve us. So Lucifer said, "No way am I serving this plan." And therefore, he took a third of the angels to try to pull rank and declare mutiny. And God, who can with the blink of his eye defeat all angels, said, "No, that's too easy. I'll choose a lower angel to defeat you." See, Lucifer was a seraph, the highest of the nine choirs. Michael was an archangel. He was like the fifth one down in the choirs of angels. So God said, "I'll choose him. I'll choose, um, Michael to defeat you." And that's how the story of the fall of the angels began, which was a preamble of the fall of man. Because that angel who fell became the cause of the fall of Adam and Eve, our parents, who infected the human DNA with original sin. And therefore, the Beatitudes that Matthew relates are really promises of a future blessing, not of a blessing on this earth. In part, it's a blessing. But Jesus, when he says, "Blessed are the pure of heart, they will see God. Blessed are the merciful, they will receive mercy." It's always in the future tense. And, um, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for my name's sake. Rejoice and be happy, for your reward will be great in heaven, not on earth, in heaven." So the Beatitudes are a promise, a pledge of the future.
Well then, that will be all for the video this time. And as always, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us. And hopefully, all of you have learned so much from this video. And remember, if you ever have any feedback or suggestions, please let us know in the comments below. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for your continuous support, contributions, and prayers. And until the next one, thanks again for watching, and may God bless you.