Endgame!

Endgame!

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the podcast today. I’m doing a little follow up, maybe not so little. Let’s see how it pans out to an article that I wrote a few weeks ago. The article was titled, beware This Catholic Snare. In the article I talk about a particular trap that the devil uses to ensnare to trap faithful practice in Catholics.

[00:00:23] Based on based on a tweet that I had written I guess about a month ago in the tweet, I said, do we still believe in the snares of the devil? If so, then understand that the devil has special snares engineered especially for faithful Catholics. And the tweet continues, he ensnares us not only through sin, but also through a disordering of the things we love, which are good.

[00:00:49] The things we love that are good. Good things can be made into bad things. And when they are good, we often fail to see that they have become an occasion for sin. And so I asked in the tweet, what do faithful Catholics have in, I’m sorry, what do faithful Catholics love in common? Think. What do faithful Catholics love in common that the devil disorders in order to lead us astray by it?

[00:01:18] Think and respond below. Of course, nobody responded below. Actually, no, I guess three people responded below. Thank you, three people. So what does, what do we love in common that the devil uses to ensnare us? He can’t get us with the same [00:01:30] traps with which he snags secular people. Those don’t work on us usually, right?

[00:01:37] So, well, what does he do use? What do we love in common? The Catholic faith itself. So, in the article, I talk about how the devil has used the Catholic faith, yes, the Catholic not the faith itself, but what the faith is to us. He uses it to form, to forge, to engineer, to craft a special snare to, to snag us.

[00:02:03] And to disable us, I gave a couple of examples of how he, his, engineering works. Examples from scripture, the temptation of Eve, the temptation of Jesus in the desert, and so forth. So if you’d like the foundation to that, I’m going to provide a link at the bottom of, or in the description here on my sub stack beneath this player.

[00:02:27] If you’re somehow listening to this outside of my sub stack, Please visit my substack@catholicadventurer.substack.com and look for the article. Beware this Catholic snare. If you wanna give that a read it, it’s really important because this is a follow up. That article was incomplete because we’re getting, it was getting quite long and here’s how I ended it.

[00:02:51] This is why it needed a follow up, and this is why checking out part, checking out that article is important. Here’s how I ended it. Why would the devil do this? [00:03:00] Why would the devil lure faithful Catholics to be what, on the surface, appears to be more Catholic or more devout? In other words, if the devil is using the Catholic faith to tempt us to be what looks to be more devout, right?

[00:03:15] Well, he should be tempting us to sin, not tempting us to be more devout. But he’s using the faith to tempt us to be, quote unquote, more devout. Why would he do that? Because, here’s the why. In warfare You don’t have to destroy an army in order to defeat it. You only need to disable it. You don’t have to destroy the army to defeat it.

[00:03:37] You only need to disable it. And that’s the devil’s endgame. To disable the army. He’s fine with us continuing to be Catholic, but he wants Catholic to be effectively meaningless and inert. That’s how I ended that that article. Why would the devil use Catholicism in To ensnare Catholics. If all he’s gonna do is make us more Catholic or make us appear to be more Catholic Well, why would he want to do that?

[00:04:08] And that’s today’s follow up. That’s today’s follow up. We’re talking about the endgame So the devil wants to disable Faithful Catholics. He doesn’t need to turn us into villains in order to do that. He doesn’t need to destroy the army He only needs to disable it. He does that in two ways, specifically.

[00:04:26] Number one, he wants to stunt our growth and holiness by [00:04:30] getting us to see orthodoxy as the same as holiness. What we’re seeing a lot in the church or in the culture of the church, the culture of the church faithful, is we’re seeing this, I don’t want to say growth, but we’re seeing Catholics take orthodoxy much, much more seriously.

[00:04:46] We’re seeing a prioritizing of orthodoxy. Well, I guess that’s good because you don’t want to be unorthodox. You don’t want to be loosey goosey. You don’t want to want liturgical dance, during the opening procession, stuff like that. You want people to genuflect when they go into the pews.

[00:05:03] You want orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is important, but it’s gotten to a point now where people place such an emphasis on orthodoxy that they seem to use it as a replacement for holiness. They confuse the two or they replace one with the other. They can they replace holiness with orthodoxy. I have encountered many such people who really place a strong emphasis on orthodoxy, and they’re some of the most unholy people I’ve ever met.

[00:05:29] Honestly, they are some of the most unholy. I’m not saying that’s all people who prioritize orthodoxy or who call themselves traditionalists. I’m not saying that’s all of them, but I’m saying that has been my example. And it’s not just the so called, traditionalists, or so called Orthodox Catholics.

[00:05:46] It’s not just them. It’s anyone who prioritizes Orthodoxy. It’s growing in the church culture that Orthodoxy has become a replacement for holiness. And that’s exactly what the devil wants. Because the name of the game in the Catholic life is [00:06:00] holiness. It’s living like Jesus. It’s getting rid of vices and growing, adding to and growing our virtues.

[00:06:08] That’s the point of everything. That’s the point of every hymn. That’s the point of every church. That’s the point of every statue or other Catholic image ever made. The end game for God is our holiness. It’s our salvation, yes, but salvation requires our holiness. So if the devil can convince people that orthodoxy is just as good, then what you’re going to have is a church filled with very orthodox people going to mass every single day and doing 20 rosaries every day.

[00:06:37] And not one of them will be holy. And that’s what he wants. He doesn’t want a church that’s holy. He’s perfectly fine with a church that’s orthodox, observant, whatever. But he does not want the church, and by that I mean the people, to be holy. Because holy people are a threat to his designs, to his ambitions, to his kingdom.

[00:06:59] Holy people are a threat. So he wants to undo our holiness, or rather he wants to stunt our growth in holiness or put a stop to it, completely slow it or stop it by getting us to see orthodoxy as the, as just being, just as valuable as holiness. It is not orthodoxy I describe it this way. Orthodoxy is like the rails of a railroad.

[00:07:24] And if they’re disjointed, if they’re crooked, if they’re not aligned correctly, if they’re missing. Well, the train [00:07:30] will go off the rails. The train will not go to where it’s going. In fact, the train will, there will be a catastrophe with that train. Orthodoxy is the rails of a railroad. It is not the train itself.

[00:07:41] And an increasing number of Catholics are treating Orthodoxy as the train. It is not. Holiness is the train. So that’s number one. The second thing he wants to do, and this is the big one. The devil wants us to be disoriented so that we’re unable to discern truth. We live in a world which, where lies are masquerading very convincingly as truth.

[00:08:08] Discerning truth, identifying a lie, even if it’s very well disguised as a truth, that is arguably a Catholic’s superpower, and the devil wants to neutralize it. Let me repeat that. Being able to identify the truth, to distinguish it from lies which attempt to look exactly like the truth, that is arguably a Catholic’s superpower.

[00:08:34] Well, why would the devil want to disable that? To disorient us so that we can’t discern truth? Is it just so that he can draw us into sin? Well, yeah, but I don’t believe even that is his endgame. I don’t even believe that’s his endgame. When lies are so cleverly and so convincingly disguised as the real truth, we tend to [00:09:00] choose the lie over the truth.

[00:09:01] Right? By we I mean mankind, man. Right? We tend to choose the lie over the truth. We see that all over the world. Ask the world about love. What is love? Almost all of them will get it wrong. They’ll define it or characterize it as having to do with emotions, not actions. Right? Well, love is emotional, but it’s not the emotion, it’s the action.

[00:09:26] Sometimes we have to love people that, and by love I mean love by action, we have to love them, care for them, even if we don’t think very highly of them. You see what I mean? We have to love them anyway. And sometimes we feel for someone. Differently from how we feel for others. For instance, if there’s a homeless person or a starving person who’s a stranger, and just a few feet away there’s a starving person who happens to be a relative, well, I’m not going to feel for them the same way, but I may love them the same way.

[00:09:56] I may give them both something to eat, or give them a job, I don’t know. Most of the world will use emotions to define or characterize love. They get it wrong. Love, in that case, is a lie. Disguised very convincingly as the truth. In fact, even many Catholics are convinced that the lie is the true thing.

[00:10:15] Sex is another example. Many people get that wrong. What is sex? Who’s it for? What’s it for? Most people will not say it’s unitive and it’s procreative for a man and a woman who are married to each other. Most people will not say that. An increasing number of [00:10:30] Catholics will not say that. As long as you love each other, it’s alright.

[00:10:33] That is false. Now that we’ve thrown love in there, We’ve made it good, right? Wrong. Sex, as the world sees it, is a lie, disguised very convincingly as the truth. And some of you are saying, well, I don’t know, I’m not fooled by it. Well, well, well, just wait. Or you hear love I knew what love was, I’m not fooled by the lie.

[00:10:52] Okay, maybe not, but wait. A few other examples, faith, religion. Disguise themselves as truth, when really they are not. They’re lies. God, another lie that’s disguised as truth. It goes like this. God loves you no matter what. Well, that’s true, but it’s a lie. Because what is someone saying when they say that?

[00:11:14] I can live however I want and God is indifferent. He still loves me. He loves me anyway. Well, yes, but what you’re really trying to say is, He doesn’t care that you’re doing wrong. But He does care that you’re doing wrong. Well, God loves unconditionally. That is false. God has conditions. That’s why there are ten commandments.

[00:11:33] That’s why there are gospel principles. That’s why there’s a church and church doctrine. Right? That’s why there’s, moral theology. Because we recognize that God has a standard. He loves you even if you end up in hell. But He cannot love you, the act of love. He cannot love you if you are far away from Him because of the way you lived your life.

[00:11:54] In other words, He cannot save you. He cannot rescue you. In that final moment upon your death, [00:12:00] He cannot save you from damnation if you are too far away from Him. He cannot love act, even if He loves you feeling. So God, and that’s just one of many examples. I can go through examples of caricatures of Jesus that sound like Jesus, but actually they’re a fake Jesus.

[00:12:18] It’s not the real Jesus at all. I can go through a ton of examples, so could you. God, the way the world sees Him, largely, is a lie. Disguised as the truth, and many people have taken it as the real thing. Even many in the church. Even some in the hierarchy. Mercy and justice are two things that many people, including practicing faithful Catholics, misunderstand or understand wrongly.

[00:12:46] Okay, so those are a bunch of examples, okay, of lies that people see and accept as the real things. Right? Love is love. That’s a lie that people accept as the real thing. Love equals love is a good example of something that is so obviously false, but many Catholics are convinced that it’s the truth. And you want to say to them, do you Now, this is actually a good example.

[00:13:12] You want to say to people, do you realize that if Johnny Loves Sally. Is that a good thing? Yes. Well, what if Johnny is 40 and Sally is 12? Now is it a good thing? No. Then love does not equal love. What if Johnny and [00:13:30] Sally are both 20? Is it a good thing now? Yes. What if they’re related? What if they’re siblings?

[00:13:37] Is it okay for Johnny and Paul to be in love? Yes, because love equals love. Well, what if they’re related? What if one’s a grown up and one’s a child? You want to go through this, these thought experiments with them, to explain to them that this claim that love equals love, all love is the same, is false.

[00:13:56] Because it is possible for a love to be disordered or wrongly ordered. People can love things. Not the way they are in love with a person, but people can love things in a way that’s disordered or wrongly ordered. So you want to go through this process with them to help them to see the light of day, right?

[00:14:16] Well, that kind of, I don’t know what to call it. That kind of problem is going on all over the world and even in the church. Where people are believing things that are obviously lies. And you want to take them through a thought process to help them to see that it’s not the real truth, it’s a lie. Well, what about lies that really look like truth.

[00:14:39] God loves unconditionally. Or Jesus doesn’t condemn anybody. Or as long as you’re in love and care for each other, premarital sex is not a sin. And so on. Now, you see how some things, some lies, are looking more and more like the truth. Right? And you’re going to say, [00:15:00] but I’m still not fooled by them.

[00:15:01] Maybe you aren’t. But many are. But I’m going to tell you a lie that’s going to disguise itself as a truth that even you might be convinced by. Even me. And this is why we have to be very careful. This is why we have to be very careful. So here’s the devil’s endgame. First, I’m going to start off with some Scripture.

[00:15:20] The second letter of St. Paul to Timothy. Chapter 3, verse 1. Understand this. There will be terrifying times in the last days. People will be self centered, lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, and irreligious, callous, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good.

[00:15:51] Traitors. Conceited. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. When I first read that, folks, I was a young teenager. I might not have even been a teenager. I might have been 12. I might have been 12. Might have been 13. And I thought, boy, that, a world where those things are going on, that’s going to be the Twilight Zone.

[00:16:14] That is so crazy. That kind of world is so crazy, it’s probably going to be thousands of years from now. For the world to get that crazy, it has to be thousands of years from now. Lovers of pleasure, rather than [00:16:30] lovers of God. As they make a pretense of religion, but deny its power. Hello, must be thousands of mi thousands of years away.

[00:16:40] Nope. We’re there right now. I’m not saying these are the end times, but It’s at least a precursor to the end times, I believe. But key here is as they make a pretense of religion, but deny its power. In other words, they adhere to a lie that they believe is the truth. Let’s go to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 675.

[00:17:06] Before Christ’s second coming, the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. It will not shake the faith of many atheists, my friends. The Catechism says it will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies the Church’s pilgrimage on earth will unveil the mystery of iniquity.

[00:17:29] In the form of a religious deception, offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. Very interesting. So why does the devil want to disable the faithful? First, to remove holiness from the world, so he doesn’t want us to grow in holiness. And if we don’t grow in holiness, we don’t inspire holiness in others, we don’t teach holiness to others, that’s number one.

[00:17:52] But number two is his real endgame. He wants us to no longer be able to discern truth. So that when the antichrist [00:18:00] arrives, the antichrist will convince even Catholics, even faithful practicing Catholics. There are people in the faithful who probably believe that because they are traditional Catholics or traditionalists, I hate that term, or traditional minded, traditional loving, whatever they are people in the church who probably think, well, because they’re traditional, they will be immune to this deception.

[00:18:22] They will not my friends, they will not. In fact, depending on what quote unquote traditional means to them, their traditional ness, right, the traditional mindedness, which may place an emphasis on orthodoxy rather than on holiness, their traditional mindedness may actually be exactly how the Antichrist fools them.

[00:18:49] He may say a lot of Catholic y sounding things. He might speak Latin, I don’t know. He might say a lot of traditional sounding things. But he will be the Antichrist. And because he’s going to look so much like the true thing, he will fool many. And how’s he going to do that? By, with a juggling act?

[00:19:10] With money? He’s going to bribe you? How’s he going to do that? The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage, the church’s pilgrimage on earth? Will unveil the mystery of iniquity in the form of a religious deception. Religious deception. He’s not going to convince people to become atheists. The devil knows that people need to be religious.

[00:19:29] This [00:19:30] is how God made them. The devil knows that very well. He knows it better than you and I do. How is he going to deceive people? Through a religious deception. Through a religious deception. And he’s going to fool many. And my friends, if you think he won’t fool Catholics, Boy, he’s got you fooled already, because he will fool many Catholics.

[00:19:52] And if, there are some who think, well, I’m very traditional, I’m very Catholic and, Antichrist won’t fool me. The Antichrist could fool you. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me at all. Why? Because when the devil has made it difficult to discern, the discernment of truth is A facility of the mind.

[00:20:14] It’s an intellectual ability. It is grace a little bit. It, grace is involved. Okay, but it’s not sanctifying grace. It’s actual grace. And that’s a rare thing. That’s a rare or exceptional thing. There’s grace involved, but if we’re in a state where we’re rejecting grace, and you can be, there are a lot of people who are in a state in life where they’re rejecting grace.

[00:20:40] Even those who think they’re in a state of grace. If we’re rejecting grace, then that doesn’t count. But also, grace perfects nature. The ability to discern truth is a natural ability. It is an ability of the mind. And grace only helps to improve it. Right? [00:21:00] If the mind is not capable, not able, to function in, in, in, with purity, in a way that we’re able to discern truth.

[00:21:09] Well, the mind is like a muscle. If it’s, if it, if that capacity has been built, if that ability, that strength has been built, then it’s there. But like a muscle, the mind can atrophy, too. And we can become less capable, less able to discern truth. And, let’s go back to Timothy. I’m not saying this is like gospel, to my point, but it does it adds substance to my point.

[00:21:36] This part here. As they make pretense of religion, but deny its power. They make pretense of religion, and I’m not saying, Catholics are being pretentious, or traditional Catholics are being pretentious, although some of them are, but by and large I don’t think that they are. I’m not saying this applies to any particular group.

[00:21:55] As they make pretense of religion, but deny its power. It is possible to be very religious. And blocked from the power of the religion you’re practicing. It’s very possible to be a very orthodox Catholic, who is not able to discern truth, and who is very readily convinced that the Antichrist is the real thing.

[00:22:22] So what’s the devil’s endgame? Once again First, to make us less holy or to stop us from growing in holiness, and second, to make us [00:22:30] unable to discern truth so that when the Antichrist arrives, the Antichrist will fool Catholics right alongside of everybody else. That’s his endgame. It’s very important that as Catholics we remember what our endgame is supposed to be.

[00:22:44] Holiness. It is, again, it is salvation, but it’s holiness. If we’re not living like Jesus, if we’re not holy however orthodox we are will not matter. We can’t put so much emphasis on orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is important, just as the rails on a railroad are important. But orthodoxy is not the train, it’s the rails on the road.

[00:23:04] So I would say, one thing to be mindful of is that orthodoxy is important, but holiness is where it’s at. That’s number one. Number two, don’t just recognize and identify the hierarchy. That holiness is the most important thing. Yes, okay, but now do it. Now do it. Grow in holiness every day.

[00:23:23] Every day, grow in holiness. Rid yourself of vice. Grow your virtue, or add to your virtue. Grow in virtue. Every day, grow in holiness, even if it’s by fragments. Okay? Orient your life, or order your life toward growing in holiness, toward sainthood. Because the world needs saints, and the church needs saints, and you are those saints.

[00:23:49] You are those saints, but you will not be if you fall into the devil’s trap. And if we in the church believe that we’re immune to that great big trap, [00:24:00] if we believe that, then he’s already got us in the trap. Because that is a false idea. He can absolutely trap us and win. Grow in holiness. And don’t obsess too much, and this is for everybody, for all of us, not just you, but me too.

[00:24:18] Don’t obsess too much over orthodoxy. Most of you listening to this are already orthodox. You don’t have to do 12 more devotions. You don’t have to follow, the flavor of the month. Or the ca the Catholic personality of the month. You don’t have to do that. Just about everyone listening to this is probably orthodox enough now.

[00:24:41] Just focus on holiness. Focus on holiness, and believe me, that’s a whole lot harder to do than to, than being orthodox. Focus on holiness because that’s what the church needs the most. Cardinal, Sarah has said that to death. Cardinal Burke has said that to death. Benedict the 16th has said that to death.

[00:25:01] Grow in holiness. That’s what the world needs. That’s what the church needs. That’s what you need. That’s going to wrap it up for me. This is a lot longer than I planned on it being. I hope you enjoyed every single minute and second of it. Follow me on boy, I’m really tired now. Follow me on Twitter. At for the queen bvm, thank you for subscribing especially thank you for being a paid subscriber I really appreciate your help and support.

[00:25:27] Thank you and god bless and be with you all [00:25:30] Bye. Bye.