Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordine.
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
In this time after Pentecost, the Church gives us these wonderful readings today
about the preaching and the teaching of the Gospel,
the Gospel message of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ and his Church.
Today we celebrate a memorial with St. Raymond of Penifeth,
a Dominican of the 13th century.
He lived to be a hundred years of age, and he gave service to his order and to the Church.
It was he who helped organize the canon law in the early stages of the Church.
And we are blessed.
This is all part of the wonderful patrimony of our Church
that we have that we'll talk about a little later on.
How the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Jesus gave us his Church.
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I'll build my Church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
St. Raymond was asked by the Pope to do this work,
working with the canon law, and he did it successfully.
And so many other people in the Church over the years
have done the work of God.
It's all part of God's plan.
The gates of hell.
Error and mistake.
And untruth will not prevail against the Church.
That's very, very important.
Today, in the first reading, St. John tells us about the commandment
that we should believe in the name of Jesus Christ
and love one another, even as he gave us his commandments.
Again, believe in the name of Jesus Christ.
We've been hearing all throughout Christmas how his name shall be called Jesus
because he will save his people.
He will save his people from their sins.
This is certainly very important.
Where else are we going to get our sins forgiven except by God?
God, who gave his Church the power to forgive sins.
Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven.
Whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.
So many people today don't believe in that.
They don't believe in the Gospel, what the Scripture says.
Jesus gave this power to the Apostles and their descendants.
Their successors, I should say.
And it's a most wonderful power.
St. Anthony Mary Claret said about people belonging to Protestant churches,
he said they should belong to the Catholic Church
because where else, where else are they going to get their sins forgiven
and remain in the state of grace, as St. John talks about.
Because God will come and abide with you.
Those who keep his commandments, God will come and abide with them.
And we know this is sanctifying grace
because we receive this grace at baptism.
Jesus, again, in his preaching the kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God,
spoke about baptism.
Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
And at baptism,
we receive sanctifying grace.
A most wonderful gift.
Sanctifying grace is nothing more than a gift of God.
The gift of God's love.
God comes into the soul.
And the soul is redeemed of original sin.
And he's made a child of God, an heir of heaven,
a participant in the divine nature.
That's what God's abiding means.
If God is abiding in your soul,
you're participating in his nature.
You live in him and he lives in you.
This is an absolutely incredible teaching.
That God dwells in our soul.
And that's the soul and sanctifying grace.
And not only that, but we're all made spouses of Jesus Christ.
Which is what we'll be when we get to heaven.
We'll be spouses of Jesus Christ.
The relationship will continue.
It begins here on you.
In union with God, with sanctifying grace.
And it culminates in complete union of God in heaven.
And that's what heaven is all about.
Union with God.
Eye is not seen, ear is not heard.
Who could even imagine?
We know what love means on earth.
And the love of a man and a woman is nothing greater in that relationship.
Well, how about the love of God for a soul?
God's infinite love.
For his beloved church and his soul.
The souls of all of us.
So this is all the wonderful things we have in grace.
And we see this today in today's first reading.
This is why it's so important to have the spirit of Jesus Christ in us.
And as St. John tells us, how do we know we have the spirit of Jesus Christ?
When we confirm that Jesus Christ was born in the flesh.
And is the son of God.
During the early church, we know that there were many heresies.
They didn't believe.
They denied that Jesus Christ was God.
The Arian heresy denied the divinity of Jesus Christ.
And St. Paul in today's reading tells us about the spirit.
He says every spirit that severs Jesus is not of God, but of the Antichrist.
In fact, he's particularly talking there about another heresy in the early Corinthian church in which they said that Jesus Christ came.
I should say Jesus Christ came to Jesus at the baptism and then left him at the passion.
To me, that sounds a little strange, a little odd to tell you the truth that God that Christ came to Jesus at his baptism and then left him, which is like all heresies when you think about it.
They're all right from hell.
They're part of the Antichrist, the part of the devil.
And that's why it's so important to understand how the church will never teach a lie, will never teach untruth.
That's why Jesus says,
Thou art Peter and upon this rock I'll build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
The gates of hell, which are deceit and lies and from hell, from the devil.
And the many.
People today who do not believe in Jesus Christ, as St.
John tells us, they are Antichrist.
There was Antichrist in those days, and that's why St.
John says they're even here today.
All right.
We're not talking about the Antichrist, but people who have the spirit of the Antichrist.
They're always around because anybody who denies that Jesus Christ is the son of God and in a way denies his church and his gospel.
Is Antichrist.
That's why it's so important for us to obey the teachings of the church and listen to the gospel message that we see in today's gospel.
How Jesus went and preached the kingdom and he confirmed that he was teaching the truth because all the miracles, great crowds followed him and they believed in him.
We can see that from the, from the many, many miracles, Jesus backed up what he said by miracles, supernatural occurrences that only God can give.
And so we, we know that for the truth and we see that we've seen that for 2000 years.
That's why it's so important for us to do what Jesus did preach the kingdom as best we can, because there are so many people today.
Who no longer believe so many Catholics who don't believe what they were taught.
So many Protestants who have denied the teachings of Jesus Christ that he's spoken about in his gospel and that our church teaches and so many people who don't believe that Jesus is God.
So we need to practice these spiritual works of mercy to teach the doubtful, admonish the sinner.
All right.
Pray.
Pray for those who are far from God, because as you know, our world is in great trouble.
This is why our lady came to Fatima.
She says many souls will go to hell because no one prays and sacrifices for them.
She was speaking about our age, which is really in great apostasy.
People no longer believe they no longer go to church.
They don't think it's important.
And yet we know the church teaches outside the Catholic Church.
Outside the church, there is no salvation.
The church is like an ark that we can all enter and we will survive.
If we're not in the ark, will we be saved?
Doubtful for many.
So that's why we have to pray and instruct you.
We're certainly sure we're going to be saved in the ark in the Catholic Church.
If receiving baptism.
And receiving all the other wonderful graces that we receive in the church.
But other people were not so sure of.
That's why it's so important to remind people of the obligation to obey what Jesus has commanded.
He who hears you, he told Peter and the church.
He who hears you, hears me.
So this is so important.
And yet people are very careless about it.
They don't think it.
It makes any difference.
One church is as good as another.
That's not true.
One church is not as good as another.
Jesus Christ only established one church.
And that's why when we follow Jesus Christ and his doctrine, his gospel.
We have to do all we can to let people know that.
Because a lot of people are in great, great error.
And I think that's what Our Lady means by to pray.
And we pray that we pray to Jesus and give him peace.
And we pray that we do what we do.
Not just to make little sacrifices of giving up fasting or almsgiving and so on.
But to teach.
To explain things to people.
To instruct the ignorant.
Counsel the doubtful.
Admonish the sinner.
Admonish all those who have fallen away from the church.
And no longer go to church.
They don't think it's necessary.
How fantastic.
foolish. How very foolish. If Padre
Pio could tell his devotees that they were very careless
for not going to confession once a week,
what would we say about people who don't go for years?
Who don't go to Mass on Sundays? Haven't received communion
in years. Are they careless?
Foolish? Yes. All those things.
Right? And they're doing the work of the Antichrist, as
it were. They believe more in the lies of Satan than they do in
the truths of the Catholic faith. So this is why we pray our rosary.
And we can say today, our gospel tells
us the proclamation of the kingdom, the third luminous
mystery. Pray that the kingdom of God would spread.
Pray that rosary to Our Lady and ask her to save
the many souls in our world.
Who have turned away from her son.
May the Lord bless you.
Praise to thee.