Miracles of Jesus – Meditations Ep. 1

Meditations #1 – Miracles of Jesus

[00:00:00] Hello. Thank you for joining me. I am the Catholic adventurer, and this is the premier episode of meditations meditating today on the miracles of Jesus Christ. And in particular, we’re going to talk about one that stands out from the others. I’ll bet. I’ll bet you don’t even know which one it is. We’re going to talk about that.

[00:00:29] We’re going to dive into a little bit of the scriptures from two, maybe three specific miracles that are really worth pointing out. At the top of the episode I’m going to give you a tip. Every episode of meditation is going to start with a tip. Something that will help you to meditate better. Something that will aid you in your meditation.

[00:00:49] And for each episode, in each episode, we’re going to talk about either something in scripture or something from Thomas Akempis Uh, Masterful Work, The Imitation of Christ. So what we’re going to do tonight is, I want to review a couple of miracles from the scriptures. Right, when, I mean, there are about 37 miracles in the scriptures.

[00:01:10] We’re only going to do two, maybe three. Okay, I’m going to review some from the scriptures themselves. Because the narratives of those miracles kind of show us, Uh, they show us more than meets the eye. When you look at the narrative, when you actually read it, You see more than the obvious in there, if you’re looking.

[00:01:29] Again, that’s what meditation is all about. It’s seeing beyond the obvious. And the narratives may inform your own meditation, and that’s the most important thing. But it, at least, what we do here, even if it doesn’t inform your own meditation, because every person is different, what the narratives will at least do is serve as an example of how such things can be meditated on.

[00:01:53] Okay. Some of you may not be used to meditating. Okay. This will at least give you an example of how things like this can be meditated on. So we’re going to go through a couple of miracles from the scriptures. Then I’m going to string the miracles together and I’m going to explain what they have in common.

[00:02:07] And it’s, it’s, it’s not going to go over your head, but it’s probably going to be something you were not expecting. What these miracles all have in common. And then finally, I’m going to point to one specific miracle that stands out from all the rest of them. Something that breaks the mold entirely. Maybe you can take that to your own meditation.

[00:02:29] So Jesus performed, in case you didn’t know, Jesus performed a lot of miracles in scripture. And they weren’t random, and they weren’t for entertainment. Jesus performed miracles basically to validate his claim that he is the Son of God. And also to demonstrate his authority. Right? Because if you’re going to claim that you’re God, and people are going to say, people say prove it, the only way you could really prove that, beyond question, beyond doubt, is to perform miracles, to show that you have power, number one, and authority, number two, over creation itself.

[00:03:08] You have to show power and authority over creation itself. And Jesus did that in many, many miracles. As I said, they weren’t random. The miracles were not random. He didn’t just say, oh, okay, I’ll turn a rock into a bird. He didn’t do anything like that, and they weren’t random, okay? And again, he did this to prove that he was the son of God.

[00:03:34] Another thing that stands out with Jesus miracles is now you might remember the prophets were able to perform miracles. So was Moses, except neither Moses nor the prophets performed miracles of their own power. Jesus did. Moses and the prophets also performed miracles to, I guess, verify or confirm that they were sent by God.

[00:03:57] That they speak what God speaks. Right? That they are coming, speaking with God’s authority. They have no authority. They are speaking with God’s authority. And they were able to perform miracles. In accord with God’s will, and only when He allowed it. It’s not like they were able to just randomly do magic tricks.

[00:04:15] But they were able to perform miracles to confirm and verify that they are sent from God. With Jesus, it was different, because He did it of His own power, and of His own authority. Now, I’ve been talking a lot about truth lately. In case you haven’t heard, find my podcast on Spotify and iTunes and everywhere else.

[00:04:37] The podcast is called The Catholic experience, or go to my website at catholicadventure. com. But I’ve been talking a lot about truth lately, the subject of truth. It’s the life force of all reality. And what we see in the miracles of Jesus is love, yes it is. It is compassion, yes, absolutely. It’s [00:05:00] mercy, and all of that.

[00:05:01] Those, but, those are all manifestations of truth. God is love, yes he is. But before He is love, it’s weird to make this hierarchical when we’re talking about an eternal God. But I only break it down this way because it’s easier for human beings of a finite nature to comprehend it, okay? Before God is love, He is truth.

[00:05:27] Before God is mercy and justice, He is truth. In God, it’s not really hierarchical. Don’t get me wrong. I’m only breaking it down that way so that it’s easier for us to understand. So the miracles of Jesus were acts of love, compassion, mercy, and so on. But they were those things because Jesus is truth himself.

[00:05:51] They are manifestations of truth. What we see in the miracles of Jesus is truth acting on reality. That’s important to understand. We’re affecting reality within these miracles. We’re seeing truth restore and make whole keep that in your pocket because that’s going to be necessary as we Proceed. Okay, since we’re going to be discussing the word Oh, by the way, also toward the bottom of the show I’m gonna be inviting people to chime in and share their own thoughts So before we begin because we’re talking about scripture, we’re gonna be discussing or maybe even a little bit meditating on the Word of God I’m going to open with a prayer.

[00:06:28] You can either say this with me or you can just close your eyes and just listen to what I’m saying and offer that as your prayer too. It’s up to you. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Lord Jesus Christ, please send forth the Holy Spirit to be with me and to be with the audience that we can know and comprehend the truth fundamentally, the truth.

[00:06:54] of your word in the sacred scriptures. Send the Holy Spirit to enable and empower us beyond our natural limitations as finite human beings. Enable and empower me, Lord, to speak truth in power, but to speak it the way you want me to speak it. Help me not to say what shouldn’t be said. Help me to say the things that should be said, even beyond my own limitations.

[00:07:17] Let your blessings descend upon me and the audience. In our families and everyone we care about, and I thank you for this day and for this opportunity to serve your Holy Word. Most precious blood of Jesus Christ, save us and the whole world. Dear Holy Spirit, please descend upon me and the audience.

[00:07:34] Please come into our minds and come into our hearts and change us from the inside out. Come Holy Spirit, by the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse. And in the name of Jesus Christ, the name above all names, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

[00:07:50] Blessed art thou amongst women, and 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 Anthony of Padua, pray for us. St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us all.

[00:08:12] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. First, a little, quick little tip to help you to meditate. That’s number one. This is going, most of these tips, you’re gonna, you might think, well, that’s obvious, or that’s not a tip, that’s common sense. Really? Then why don’t you do it?

[00:08:32] Some of these things are Are, might look like pebbles, but they’re actually boulders. And the first thing I’m going to share with you, only one per episode, so the one thing I’m going to share with you today. Is concentration, calm, and stillness. We’ll just call it concentration, okay? If you are not in a state of interior calm and stillness, you will not be able to concentrate.

[00:08:57] I tell people, give yourself 15 minutes minimum. Of silence and stillness. It doesn’t mean you have to sit for fi I mean, it could, it could mean sit down for 15 minutes in a quiet room. It could mean that, but it doesn’t just have to mean that. Turn off the music half an hour or so before you, uh, before you know you’re gonna be meditating.

[00:09:20] Um, try to have some stillness. It doesn’t mean you have to be perfectly still. Maybe you’re finishing the dishes. I don’t know. Okay, finish the dishes. But slow down as you do them. I know it’s, it’s this, it looks like a pebble, but it’s a boulder. Slow down. Shhh. Slow down. Because the pace, the pace that you leave off with when you’re about to start meditating is the pace that you will have when you meditate.

[00:09:44] So if you’re rushing to do this, you say, I gotta finish this, let me just sweep the floor real quick, and then I’ll go upstairs and meditate. You see that pace? That manic pace? You’re taking that to meditation with you, and you will not be able to concentrate. Another reason I point it out Oh, let me point this one out too.[00:10:00]

[00:10:00] You have to have super, super, super discipline of the mind. Two things are going to be engaged before you enter meditation. One will be your reason, the other will be your imagination. Your reason usually chews on what the imagination throws into it. The enemy does not have much influence over your reason, believe it or not.

[00:10:25] The enemy can influence your perception, right? Your perceptual faculty, the enemy can influence. But he cannot influence your reason. That’s all you, your perceptual faculty can be influenced. Your imagination absolutely can be influenced. That doesn’t just mean temptations to sin and things like that. I mean, things like, Oh my God, I have to make that phone call.

[00:10:48] What’s going to happen if I don’t make that phone call or I have to do this? Oh, what might happen if I do that? Your imagination gets rolling. It feeds into your, your, your, uh, rational faculty. And now you’re thinking about it. You’re not just imagining the worst, but now you’re thinking about it and you’re planning for.

[00:11:06] I’m telling you, the devil does not want you to meditate, because once you get good at meditating, he has lost you. And he knows that. So he pulls out all the stops to stop you from meditating. And the easiest way for him to do that is he prevents you from focusing. Meditation requires focus. It’s a skill.

[00:11:27] It’s a skill. And it requires focus and discipline of the mind, primarily. So stillness and quiet, very important. But also a stillness and quiet of your mind. You have to have super control over your mind that takes practice. It doesn’t happen overnight. It happens through habit, through habitual acts of having discipline over your mind.

[00:11:50] Something, you know, just before, I mean, really, the best way to do this is to practice, exercise this discipline all day leading up to when you meditate. But at the very least, for half an hour to an hour, have super strict discipline over your thoughts. Because honestly, no matter what’s going on in your life, if you stop thinking about it for an hour, the sky is not going to fall.

[00:12:14] I don’t care what’s going on in your life. You can stop thinking about it for an hour. You’ll be okay. So half an hour to an hour, take it easy on yourself. Throw negative thinking out of your imagination. Try not to think about things that you don’t have to think of then and there. Try, just, just focus on what you’re doing, you’re doing the dishes, whatever you’re doing, and have a calm pace as you’re doing it.

[00:12:41] Okay? The pace of your mind becomes the pace of your body and vice versa. And the pace of your spirit, I guess your mind and your body, the pace of your spirit that you, that you have before meditation, is the pace you will have during meditation, and you will not be able to meditate effectively. Okay?

[00:12:59] We’re not, this is not the realm of magic where you say magic words. And the result just happens. This is the realm of grace. And we have to be prepared to receive the graces necessary for meditation. Okay? We can have greater and lesser receptivity of any grace, but especially the grace to pray and meditate.

[00:13:18] So you want to heighten, increase, enhance your receptivity of these graces. Stillness, quiet, focus, strict, careful, careful discipline of the mind, your, your reason and your imagination. You understand? I tell you, start there, start there with your practice of meditation, with what I just told you, and instantly you’re going to see that your meditation is different.

[00:13:43] And I have many, many, many, many, many, many, many tips to give you, but just that one is going to take you far. Okay? Let’s get started! So Jesus is usually saying something with his miracles. They are not random, they are not parlor tricks. Miracles usually point to something else. They usually point to something else.

[00:14:03] It’s not just, look at this miracle that I did, wow. Usually they point to something else. Often we don’t know what they point to until after the fact. So they might point to the kingdom of God. They might point to Jesus liberating us from sin. Or images of the resurrection. Usually the elements of a miracle mean something more.

[00:14:24] than just the elements themselves. The signs of the, of the miracle point to the wonders that are yet unseen. And that’s true for even modern day miracles. The signs point to something unseen. So keeping in mind that the miracles aren’t random and that they say something or represent other truths, let’s talk about some of them.

[00:14:47] So, the miracles we mostly, we mostly recall are gonna be the miracles of healing, right? He healed a leper, he healed a blind. But let’s not [00:15:00] forget that he also calmed storms, right? He showed his power and authority over nature that way. He walked on water. Probably the most amazing miracle is that he raised people from the dead.

[00:15:11] In this first miracle, I know I just mentioned Lazarus, but we’re going to get to him next. But the first one I want to go over with you is the widow with the dead son. This is found in Luke chapter 7, verses 11 through 17. If you don’t have pencil and paper handy, and you’re like, Wait, what was that? I will be including these in show notes.

[00:15:31] These scripture references, I will be including them in show notes on my website, like, tomorrow. Because I’m going to put a clean copy. Uh, of this recording on my website. I’ll publish it tomorrow and it will be shown, shown on there. Luke 7, the widow’s son raised from the dead. Here we go. And listen carefully, my friends, because there, there’s going to be some words here that, that are not insignificant at all.

[00:15:58] Okay, I’m going to read it through so that you can listen to it peacefully and then I’m going to point out some things about it. It happened one day that soon afterwards, Jesus went to a town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a great number of people. Now, when he was near the gate of the town, there was a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she herself was a widow.

[00:16:33] And a considerable number of the townspeople was with her. When the Lord saw her, He felt sorry for her and he said to her, don’t cry. Then he went up and he touched the beer and the bearers stood still. And he said, young man, I tell you, get up. And the dead man sat up and he began to talk. And Jesus gave him to his mother.

[00:17:06] Everyone was filled with awe and glorified God. Man, there is so much in there. I mean, there is so, so, so much in there. First thing, it’s probably obvious, right, now when he was near the gate of the town, there was a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother. What does that sound like? Sounds like Jesus himself, the only son of the Holy Virgin Mary, who traditions, well, it’s not authoritative, but it’s commonly believed from tradition.

[00:17:40] That the Holy Virgin Mary was a widow at the time of the crucifixion. That’s probably true. That’s probably true, but this is an interesting foreshadowing. The only son of a woman who is now a widow when the Lord saw her. Now, let me pause there. When this narrative starts, Jesus is referred to as Jesus until this moment here, when the Lord saw her.

[00:18:08] That’s very interesting change. Because now, Now, we’re getting into the primacy, the lordship of Jesus of Nazareth. We’re talking about his authority. The author is saying, now you’re going to see something. Because we didn’t cover it, this is earlier on in this chapter, he’s talking about him as Jesus. Now, he switches.

[00:18:33] When the Lord saw her, now get this, he felt sorry for her. He felt sorry for her. I don’t like that translation. Sometimes, let me see if I have it here, but sometimes it’s translated as. He was moved with pity for her. Even that’s a limitation. Let me, let me just get this because my Latin is not great. And I want to make sure I’m giving you.

[00:18:57] Yeah, I don’t have it in front of me, but I have a copy of the Vulgate, but I don’t, don’t have it handy. But in the Vulgate, he doesn’t say, it doesn’t say he felt sorry for her. It doesn’t even say he was moved with pity for her. It says Jesus had a pity of the heart for her. You know what pity of the heart is?

[00:19:14] Misericordia. Do you know what that means? Mercy. Mercy. Mercy is a conjunction of two words. Uh, I think it’s, uh, miserie, or miseria, and corda, or cordia, which means heart. Pity of the heart. That’s what mercy means. So, in the Vulgate, translated by Saint Jerome, it says Jesus was moved by a pity of the heart for her, which is much, much more profound than just he felt sorry for her.

[00:19:52] It is feeling sorry for her, but it’s much deeper, right? Imagine Jesus was taken [00:20:00]by a pity of the heart for this widow, and he said to her, don’t cry. It changes things a little bit when you see it that way. It, because now you envision Jesus not just saying, don’t cry, but you envision him like with his hands on her shoulders saying, oh, sweetheart, don’t cry.

[00:20:17] Don’t cry, my love. Don’t cry. It’s different, right? When he’s moved with a pity of the heart. Then he went up and touched the beer. I don’t know what that is. B I E R. Don’t know what it is. And didn’t feel, didn’t feel like googling it. He touched, I guess it’s, maybe it’s a thing that the body was covered with.

[00:20:38] And the bearers stood still. Because apparently the bearers knew something was going to happen. They stood still. They didn’t try and stop him. They didn’t move away from him. They stood still. Often, my friends, Jesus wants to touch us to perform a work of mercy in us, but we never stand still. He can’t, because we never stand still.

[00:21:02] We busy ourselves in the mind, we busy ourselves in the heart, we busy ourselves in the body. When was the last time you just stood still? You want to know what’s something really challenging? Go to Holy Hour, or if there’s no Holy Hour where the Eucharist is exposed, And pray in front of the tabernacle.

[00:21:22] But you know what your prayer should be? Nothing. Sit there in total silence and just listen. That’s another pebble that’s actually a boulder. Do you know how hard it is to sit there and listen? To sit there and be? Not talk, just be. Be still, be quiet. Always Jesus reaches out his hand to touch us. To perform some act, some work in us.

[00:21:52] Um, but sometimes he can’t because we’re always moving. Last line in that narrative. Everyone was filled with awe. Some translations say everyone was filled with fear and glorified God. But the word for fear there is um, I forget now what it is. It’s a Latin word and it’s also a Greek word. It means like a deep respect.

[00:22:16] It does mean, it does mean an awe. But it doesn’t mean fear as in I’m afraid of you. It’s a deep, deep, awesome respect. Right? It’s that kind of fear. We don’t have a word for that in English. I think most, most modern languages do not. But it’s not just awe, and it’s not fear as in afraid. It’s something much, much deeper than that.

[00:22:37] So this is a very moving moment for the people who witnessed it. Now, this is going a little longer than I expected. I wanted to talk a little bit about the, the, bringing Lazarus back to life. But maybe I’ll do that in an after show or something. But there was something I wanted to point out, and I’ll just go straight to that.

[00:22:56] Jesus comes to raise Lazarus, Lazarus from the dead. He’s been there in the tomb for a few days. Jesus knows this. Jesus also knows that Lazarus is sick and dying, and Jesus Stays where he’s at for two days before he starts going to visit Lazarus. So it’s like, Jesus, you know he’s dying, right? Yeah, I know he’s dying, but he’s not going to die.

[00:23:20] But he did die, didn’t he? Well, Jesus, you just told us he wasn’t going to die. Aha. Jesus meant he wasn’t going to ultimately die, right? In some translations it says he’s not going, he’s only going to sleep. He’s only going to sleep. In fact, I think in all translations it says he’s only going to sleep. And the, and the, the disciples think he’s talking about natural sleep, but he wasn’t.

[00:23:45] He was talking about death. He’s only going to sleep, which is temporary. Then, Jesus weeps. His heart is moved with pity for his friend who has died. His heart is moved with pity for the people who are mourning him. And Jesus himself weeps. He says to roll. Now this is also, you can think of this as a prefigurement of his own resurrection.

[00:24:09] Although Lazarus was not resurrected. But he says roll the stone away from the tomb. And then he reaches out and he shouts, Lazarus, come out! Lazarus, come out. And Lazarus rose and hobbled his way out of the tomb. And then Jesus says, now Lazarus was bound up in burial rags, right? And his face was covered, so Jesus says, Unbind him and take him home.

[00:24:43] We can imagine when he shouts into the deep dark of that tomb, where Lazarus was buried, you can imagine as he shouts, Lazarus, come out! Maybe we see him shouting to us, in the darkness of our own hearts, in the darkness of our sadness, in the [00:25:00] darkness of our brokenness, shouting for us to come out, calling you by name.

[00:25:06] Jonathan, come out! Whatever the name is. Anthony, come out! Calling by name. Come out of the darkness. Come out of the tomb of your heart. Your broken heart. Maybe your corrupted heart.

[00:25:24] He tells, he calls us to come out of the tombs of our darker selves. And he says, I’m here. I’m waiting for you. By my authority, I call you out. Because I have power over it all. I even have power over your limitations. And I call you to come out. Hmm. And then he removes the things that bind us. The things that, that block our view of the world.

[00:25:56] The things that bind us and prevent us from moving. I don’t mean physically, I mean spiritually. You know, from really being who God made us to be. Remove his bindings and take him home. We are all Lazarus when you think of it that way. That whole narrative of raising Lazarus from the dead is really, really heavy.

[00:26:23] It’s really very heavy, and I really wanted to go over it, but I know that’s going to take me a long time. That’s John chapter 11, verses 1 through 45. I strongly recommend you check that out. I might do that in an after show, but not tonight. Welcome to Patrick Malone, practicing Catholic, joining me, the Catholic Adventurer.

[00:26:45] Got my own name wrong. Joining me on this Twitter space, thank you for joining us. We’re talking about the miracles of Jesus. Now, let’s turn to the miracles of healing for a moment. We’re not going to go over these ones. Well, I might go over one because it’s important. Alright, we’re familiar with the healing miracles.

[00:27:02] He makes a blind person see. He makes a deaf person hear. He makes a mute able to speak. He makes the lame able to walk. Did that numerous times, right? Let me cleanses the leper because it’s It’s short and damn powerful. Matthew chapter 8 verse 1. And verse 1, etc. When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.

[00:27:27] And then a leper approached him, did him homage, and said, Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean. And pausing for effect. Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said, I will do it.

[00:27:48] I’m going to tell you a translation I’m more familiar with that I think is more powerful and more, and I don’t want to say more correct, but more, a little more accurate to the tone. And it doesn’t change the substance of what we’re seeing, okay? I’ll just modify a couple things, but it does not change the substance of what we’re seeing.

[00:28:06] This is a real translation. In fact, I think I’ve heard this at mass. And the leper approached him, did him homage, and said, Lord, if you will it, you can make me clean. You know why that’s important? Because he’s acknowledging his authority. By saying, if you will it. If it’s in accord with your will, you can make me clean.

[00:28:29] He’s acknowledging his authority and his power. If you will it, you can make me clean. And you know what Jesus says? I do will it. I do will it. Can you imagine? Lord, if you will it. You can make me whole again. If you will it, you can make me clean again. Whether it’s spiritual clean, mentally clean, whatever.

[00:28:56] Or whole from my brokenness, from my injury of a heart. Lord, if you will it, you can do it. Imagine Jesus looks at you and he says, I do will it. That’s exactly what I want for you. I do will it. And I will do it. Maybe he says, but not now. Or maybe he says, but it’s gonna take time. But you know what you gotta focus on?

[00:29:22] I do will it. I do will it. And it will be. I will do it. But hold on. Hmm? Hold on. Imagine the Lord Jesus Christ, truth Himself, all things made through Him, and for Him, and so, and so on. Imagine Him looking you in the face, saying, I do will it. I truly do. Imagine him looking you in the face and saying, Don’t cry, sweetheart.

[00:29:52] Don’t cry. Like he said to the widow. You know, the heart of Jesus [00:30:00] is the heart of God, the tenderness, the heart of Jesus is the heart of God. It’s expressed, it’s expressed in human form here because he takes the form of man, but it is the heart of God. Sweetheart, don’t cry. Don’t cry. I’ll make it right.

[00:30:23] Lord, if you will it, you can make all of this better. I do will it. I’m not indifferent. I don’t not care. I do will it. And I will make it happen. Phew, man, oh man. Thank you, Lord Jesus. This is why you really have to practice meditation, man. You really do. You might find one sentence that you can meditate on for an hour.

[00:30:53] Alright, enough said about that one. Again, I will include these scripture passages in the show notes when I publish this to my website catholicadventurer. com tomorrow. I’ll be posting a clean sounding copy there and I’ll damn I was just about to shout out somebody who just left with spaces Oh, well your loss And I’ll be putting in the show notes these scripture passages if you if you want to look them up yourself, okay?

[00:31:19] Now what do all of the healing healing miracles have in common? He makes the blind see the lame walk Makes the deaf hear Right? He makes me go from ugly to handsome, which is a real miracle. If you can make me handsome instead of ugly, that’s a bigger miracle than raising Lazarus from the dead. What do all of these miracles have in common?

[00:31:45] Does anybody know? Does anybody think they know what they all have in common? If you would like to speak, this is a good time to make yourselves known. No pressure. You don’t have to. God knows I can talk and talk and talk. But I’m inviting you, and if you, if you do participate, I would ask that you kind of keep it brief unless I egg you on.

[00:32:07] Let’s keep it down to a minute or two, so that I’m not here to the wee hours of the night and I can go back and hang out with my family and also so that other people can have a chance to speak. I’ll tell you what they have in common. Every miracle is logical. Now, I’m not making it too brainiac, just give me a second.

[00:32:25] First thing to point out is in every miracle we see what happens when truth is brought to bear. Jesus Christ is truth himself. He is the Son of God who is truth itself. When Jesus acts, On the natural. It is the truth acting on the natural order. It is the truth acting on reality. And this is what happens when the truth acts on reality.

[00:32:52] It makes all things whole. It restores the nature. It restores all things to their nature. It makes everything as it ought to be. It makes everything right again. You see, Jesus didn’t go to the blind man and say, Man, that really sucks about your eyes. Here’s a new pair of eyes for you. We’ll glue them to the, we’ll glue them on your forehead, just above your, your messed up eyes, and you’ll be able to see with those ones.

[00:33:20] He doesn’t go to the lame and say, Ah, man, that leg, I’m so sorry for that. Uh, here’s some wings. Now, your legs may be broken. But here’s some wings, now you can fly! Which, actually, that would be pretty cool. But, now you can fly. He doesn’t do that. He makes those legs work again! He makes those eyes work again!

[00:33:45] The truth acting on reality, acting on nature, restores those eyes to what they’re supposed to be! The truth acting on nature restores the skin and flesh of a leopard to what it’s supposed to be. All of these miracles make sense. Your leg doesn’t work? Boom, now it does. Your hand is shriveled? Well, I could give you three more arms and hands to make up for it, but that wouldn’t make sense.

[00:34:09] I’m going to restore that hand that doesn’t work. The truth applied makes things whole again. Restores things to their nature. And folks, when we remove the truth from, in this case, the human order, you know what that is? That’s a perfectly working hand becoming shriveled. Those are perfectly working eyes that go blind.

[00:34:32] When you remove truth, you remove life. I’ve been saying this over the past several episodes. When you remove truth, you remove life. You remove being ness. I’ll explain that in another episode. You remove being ness. You remove a thing from its nature. Why do you think the world is so crazy right now? It’s crazy on a whole nother level crazy.

[00:34:54] Crazier than it ever was when we were kids. When you remove truth, you remove being ness. The nature of [00:35:00] the being of a thing. Whether it’s a person, or a dog, or the nature of the being of a couple. Whatever. You remove it from its nature. You, it, it, it ceases to be in accord with its nature. It becomes a lie.

[00:35:16] It becomes something untrue. It becomes something that is lifeless. Necessarily so. It becomes something that is lifeless. Because we’ve removed truth from it and only truth brings life. It’s the reason why Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. It’s the reason why he says the devil is a liar.

[00:35:33] And a murderer all of these miracles make sense perfectly logical sense All of jesus miracles make sense. They’re all logical You don’t get a new head because the eyes inside your current head don’t work when you restore a shriveled hand to truth When you restore it to its truth, what do you have? You have a hand that functions.

[00:35:55] When you restore blind eyes to the truth of their being, you have eyes that see. My friends, when Jesus Christ restores you to the truth of your being, you know what that is called? A saint. I’ll say it again. And if this is the only thing you take from this show, Take this one with you to your grave when Jesus Christ restores you to the truth of your being when he Converts your nature above this fallen thing when he converts you to the truth of your nature We call that a saint and I don’t mean when you die.

[00:36:32] That’s another story. That’s a whole nother story When you die and go to heaven, that’s another story. Oh my God, I could do a whole series of shows on that one. When He restores you to the truth of your being progressively over the course of your life, that’s called becoming a saint. Saints are not superhuman.

[00:36:48] You know what saints are? Saints are exactly what God had in mind when He thought you up. Exactly what He had in mind. When he thought you up before he placed you in your mother’s womb. Isn’t that something else? When truth is applied to something that God created, it is restored to the truth of its being.

[00:37:10] All of Jesus miracles make sense. They’re all logical. But there’s one miracle that breaks this mold. There’s one miracle that, mm, kind of doesn’t make sense. Do you know what it is? Anybody? You know something that breaks the mold though? Here it is. The wedding feast at Cana. The miracle of the wedding feast at Cana.

[00:37:33] is something that breaks the mold because it doesn’t quite make sense. Do you know why? Well, what’s the miracle? He changed water into wine, right? But water isn’t wine blind eyes that can see it’s the same eyes, but changing water into wine is the one miracle. Where Jesus makes something completely new out of what he’s been given.

[00:37:57] Something completely new. The reason why this doesn’t disturb my faith. Like, something’s wrong here. This miracle doesn’t make sense, so this must be fraudulent. No, no. I mean, wine requires water. Right? It’s the form of, it’s, it’s liquid form. It’s the same form. It’s part of its essence. Water is part of the essence of wine, the substance of wine.

[00:38:22] But it’s different. Fulton Sheen said, when the servants filled up the jars with water and they brought them to Jesus and they uncovered the jars, Fulton Sheen said, the waters looked up at its, at their creator, and they blushed. I thought that was so beautiful. The waters beheld the face of their creator and blushed.

[00:38:44] Turned into wine. The Miracle of Cana is the only, it’s the first miracle that, well, it’s the first recorded miracle. And it’s the only miracle where Jesus does something out of character. He takes water and he turns it into something else. Wine. Not only is it wine, but it’s the best wine. It’s the best wine.

[00:39:10] And what does scripture say? The attendants take it to the master of the feast and he says, Boy, you saved the best wine for last. You saved the best wine for last. My friends, as we close this episode, I want you to take this with you. Maybe sometimes you need to pray and ask the Lord Jesus, Lord, make something completely new of me.

[00:39:34] Now, he’s not gonna turn you into He Man or She Ra. But sometimes that, that should be our prayer. Make something completely new of me. He’s not literally gonna make you different, but he’s going to make you, I guess, I don’t know, not different, but different, right? Like St. Augustine was made different from his pagan years to his Christian years, right?

[00:39:59] That’s a [00:40:00] very different St. Augustine, but it’s still St. Augustine. It’s still Augustine of Hippo, son of Monica, right? Sometimes that maybe that has to be our prayer. Your mileage may vary. I’m not saying this ought to be your prayer, but consider. Lord, make something completely new of me like you made the water into wine.

[00:40:23] And sometimes, my friends, whether you make something completely new of you or you just does incremental changes to your being, your nature, your character, whatever. Sometimes it takes time. But Jesus likes to save the best for last. He likes to save the best for last. It’s fascinating to me that in this miracle, the Holy Virgin says to him, you know, we’re out, they’re out of wine.

[00:40:52] Clearly she wants him to do something about it. How does she even know he can perform a miracle? You ever think about that? How does she, she clearly knows he can do something about it. How? How does she know that? And Jesus is like, well, it’s none of my business. And then the Holy Virgin says to the attendants, do whatever he tells you.

[00:41:15] I find that interesting, too, because she doesn’t appeal, at least it’s not recorded, she doesn’t pressure him. She only turns to the servants and says, do whatever he tells you. If he tells you nothing, then do nothing. He’s not going to perform a miracle. It’s up to him. I’m not his boss. I’m his mother. If he tells you to fill water into those jugs, do that.

[00:41:40] Do whatever he tells you. You see, the miracles of Jesus The work of Jesus, the work of grace, often requires that we do something. In the story of the widow of Naim, the attendants carrying the body had to be still. The widow had to no longer cry. Why? Because he wants her to have hope. Express your hope and don’t cry.

[00:42:16] Sometimes God’s grace in us requires our participation. Sometimes small, be still. Sometimes great, do whatever he tells you. I hope she doesn’t say that to me, man. If the Holy Virgin turns to me and says, do whatever he tells you, I’m gonna be like, oh man, is this gonna be a bad one, mama? I’m afraid of what he’s gonna tell me to do.

[00:42:37] Can you tell me what he’s gonna do first? Before I agree to this transaction. I’m really a weak servant. I’m really very bad, but I’m trying to be better. It’s interesting, again, in closing, that Jesus makes something completely different out of the, from the water, turning it into wine. It’s the one miracle that breaks the mold.

[00:42:55] Every other miracle makes sense. That one really does not. The thing that holds on by a thread is the fact that, that wine Is liquid, so if he turned the water into a brick, I’m gonna have a problem with that. I’m serious. If he turned water into anything that was not fluid, I would have a problem with that.

[00:43:16] I’m at peace with that miracle because he turned water into wine, not water into a brick. Or not a table into wine, right? So it does make sense, but it doesn’t because he turned it into something completely wholly different. May I suggest you take either that, and I can tell you, because I’ve meditated on the wedding piece at Cana a number of times, I can tell you there’s a lot to get out of that.

[00:43:41] I invite you to take that to your meditation, or take one of the other ones that we mentioned. The widow of Naim, the resurrection, the, I almost committed a heresy, I almost said the resurrection of Lazarus, the restoration of Lazarus, Lazarus to life. I can tell you that one is loaded, loaded. There’s a lot to get out of that one.

[00:44:05] Go read it, you’ll see. When you read these things, something will stand out for you. It might seem something ridiculous or tiny, but for some reason it stands out, you’re intrigued by it. You better take that to your meditation because that’s the Holy Spirit telling you, that’s the one I want you to meditate on.

[00:44:23] That’s the one. So I encourage you to take some of these to your meditation. We’re going to get to one request to speak. So this is the Holy Father, Pope Francis wants to speak. Okay, but Holy Father, I want to talk to you about some concerns I have about the mass. Okay. Just kidding. The Holy Father just hung up, man.

[00:44:45] All right. Patrick Malone. Let’s go to Patrick Malone, who’s a request to speak. Hey, Patrick, let’s keep it to a minute or two, unless you’re super interesting, or you have winning lottery numbers that take 10 minutes to tell me about. Thanks for joining me. That’s good. I have not, I have not those [00:45:00] numbers.

[00:45:00] Okay. But thank you very much. You’re welcome. I enjoyed this. This is safe. I’m glad. Thank you for joining me. Yeah. What you just said there at the end about the inspiration, it came to me as you were describing the miracles and then you went to the wedding at Cana that, you know, that it’s different and something changes.

[00:45:16] I, in my head, I just thought, well, ontologically something changes for all of us at baptism and it’s, we are fallen and then we are restarted. We restored her, and I don’t know if it’s connected, it just hit me, like, well, we’re, we’re in enmity with God prior to that, and then we’re in communion with God in fullness and all those other things.

[00:45:35] I don’t know, there just seemed to be a connection there. No, I have to say, that’s, that’s heavy, that’s heavy. That could mirror the ontological change that takes place at baptism. Um, I had never considered that. Yeah, that’s, that’s great, man. Me either, it just, it just hit me. Yeah. I don’t know, you know how that works.

[00:45:52] Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the Holy Spirit is funny, is funny that way. I mean, there are things that I’ve meditated on, um, like when I say like for years, I don’t mean every day for an hour for years, but you know, here and there. Where I’ve meditated on, meditated, meditated, and then one day, something just hits me.

[00:46:07] Like, it’s so obvious. Why didn’t I see that? I’ve met, you know, it just hits you because meditation is really beyond one’s own mind or imagination. It really is the Holy Spirit, you know. Well, you’re, you’re pointing out that, asking the question, which I didn’t know the answer when you said, well, what’s, there’s one miracle, this one’s different.

[00:46:28] And I’m like, okay, I knew it was a wedding piece of cane. I’m like, well, what’s different about it? What is it? But that got me kind of my juices flowing. And then as you talked, I said, well, wait, that’s, what’s different, right? At Baptist. So I think it all worked together in that regard. Yeah. Moved that way.

[00:46:42] Yeah. It seems to work. That’s very interesting. It was good. And the thing is, by contributing this, the people who hear this. See, you’re not just telling it to me, you’re telling it to anyone who hears this on demand, you know, and that’s really great, you know, it’s just funny the things that pop up into your head when you’re, when you’re, you know, giving them a thought and you’re giving your mind to the Holy Spirit, you know.

[00:47:00] And it may all be connected with the ability back to the eyes and having the vision. I mean, if we’re born in enmity with God in the fall, then we’re never going to see clearly. We know this by what we learn eventually. And then all of a sudden we see, and we’re like, how can you not see that? Well, I don’t know the reason.

[00:47:19] Some people I know that are baptized that can’t see, but that’s a different issue because of sin. Um, But I think it’s all connected with everything you’ve said tonight. That’s how I’ve heard it. It’s all the vision and the balance and all. Yeah, cool. Yeah, thank you very much, brother. I appreciate you saying that.

[00:47:35] And thank you so much for participating because I’m very boring. This is a lot more interesting when people participate. So thanks. Thanks for not being shy. All right. If there are no other requests to speak, I think I’m going to start wrapping this up. And I want to state again, this has been episode one of meditations.

[00:47:53] Going to be doing these once a week, probably every Friday. Either in a Twitter spaces. Or an x spaces thing. Um, but x is really a technical nightmare. I may just do it on my own broadcast infrastructure Which means it’ll still go live to twitter and everywhere else and on my website that’ll still happen It just won’t be in a spaces environment and i’ll be taking interaction over a phone line.

[00:48:20] Okay. You can call my switchboard and participate that way. I’ll, I’ll see, I’ll see what I’m going to do. But anyway, this will be at least once a week, probably Friday evenings. Uh, I’m doing my main broadcasts. Ideally. I have a family folks and I have everything going on. So sometimes it’s a little hard to do the same time and day, but ideally I’m shooting for Sundays at 2 PM.

[00:48:43] Okay. Sometimes it has to be more or less than an hour, an hour from there, but about Sundays at 2 PM on demand version, usually available the very next day. Thank you for joining me in this Twitter spaces. I hope you learned something. Please tell a friend about what I do It’s very hard to build an audience and I have to tell you the most important thing really is Not that the audience finds the content, but that the content finds the audience I’m on a mission to help the Lord to form Saints and I take it very very seriously But the devil works against things that people like me are doing Uh, the algorithms work against things that people like me are doing.

[00:49:31] It’s unbelievably predictable. Um, it’s, it’s not surprising it’s predictable. It’s not random, but it’s still very frustrating. Uh, so you can help by, um, getting my stuff out there, sharing it with a friend or share a friend with the stuff. I really appreciate it. Check me out at catholicadventurer. com and sign up for my newsletter because my newsletter helps me to outsmart the algorithm.

[00:49:57] There’s no algorithm in between you and that [00:50:00] comes between you and me with that newsletter. And you stay up to date on special announcements, special episodes, schedule changes if there’s a schedule change. Um, and you get updates on my latest, most recent content. I mean, most of the stuff I, I produce, my followers on social media have no idea that it’s there because they only see maybe, maybe a third of what I post.

[00:50:23] So the newsletter helps me to get around that. I don’t flood your inbox. You’ll get one a week. Sometimes I skip a week. Sometimes I do two in a week at most, which I think I’ve only ever done two in a week once. So I don’t flood your inbox. I know that can be annoying. So sign up for my newsletter. You’ll find the link in my bio.

[00:50:40] at, uh, in, in my social network or go to catholicadventurer. com. You’ll see a form at the top of the website. Just throw your email address in there and you’re signed up. Ain’t that fun? Ain’t that sweet? Let’s get up out of here. This has been the premier episode of meditations. I am the Catholic adventurer.

[00:51:02] Follow me on Exit for the Queen BVM. I’m on Facebook, but it doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about it. Forget about it. Just follow me on X for the Queen BVM, visit my website@catholicadventurer.com. Say a prayer for me and for my family we are in need. Please say a prayer for me. Sign up for the newsletter.

[00:51:19] Consider becoming a paid subscriber for five bucks a month. God bless you, God be with you all. Thank you so much for joining me tonight, guys later. See you soon. Bye-Bye.