[00:00] In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In today's Gospel, Jesus continues His teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, and He's reminding us that we must protect that which is sacred and holy, meaning that those who blaspheme or are not open to God's truth, that we must be careful and not allow that teaching to

[00:32] be in any way distorted. St. Augustine and other followers of the Church said of this passage that when those who reject or blaspheme the teachings of the Church, the teachings of Christ, that we don't engage in argument, so to speak, but we just, we pray for them, and that we guard which is holy and sacred, holy and sacred, and preserve it, and not allowing ourselves in any way

[01:04] to be swayed by them or to compromise our faith and our teaching of the teachings of Christ. And so it's just to hold to that which is sacred. And of course, this goes further in that, you know, as far as other things of the sacramental life of the Church, that one must be a baptized Catholic in a state of grace to receive Holy Communion. It's not that we think of other people as dogs or swine, but that we recognize that

[01:40] those who are not Catholic cannot receive the Eucharist, and I've been in many churches in my time overseas where people who are not Catholic would come up to receive Communion and take the host back and go to their seat and not know what to do, not know what to do. And of course, we had ushers follow them and take the host. In this sense, it's just to remind us that we guard what is sacred and holy before God and preserve that teaching without compromise of Christ.

[02:12] And this is what our Lord means about, lest they trample them underfoot and turn and tear you to pieces, to pieces. Secondly, our Lord then presents the golden rule to do unto others what you would have them do to you, and that the Fathers and the Saints remind us that this is the precinct of charity, that we try to do all things with charity, to have love at the root of all that we do. And secondly, our Lord then continues to remind us that we must be contrary to the society,

[02:46] we must be, our life must be contrary to society. The road that leads to destruction is broad, and we see that many, many in society reject Christ, His teachings, the commandments of God, the law, the teachings of Christ in His Church. And it's just to remind, again, an important reminder not to compromise our faith, not to allow ourselves in any way to accept that which is contrary to Christ, His teachings

[03:16] and the commandments of God. And of course, this also means a conformity to Christ, that Christ is the gate that's being spoken. Narrow is the gate that leads to life, and those who find it are few, that Christ is that gate by which we pass through. He, in another gospel, called Himself the gate of the sheep. And of course, this means our conformity to Christ, carrying our crosses, carrying our crosses, our life of obedience, our life of daily conformity to Christ, conformity

[03:55] to Christ through our life of prayer, our life of penance, our life of sacrificial life, our life, again, of striving to each day conform ourselves more perfectly to Jesus, and carrying our crosses with love and joy, and not allowing ourselves to go the way of society, the easy way, the easy way, no sacrifice, indulging in sin, indulging in whatever whim or desire our passions lead us into, and leading a life of vice.

[04:28] And this is the broad road that leads to destruction, destruction meaning the loss of God, the loss of God. May the Holy Spirit inflame in our hearts and souls today a desire to be ever more zealous in following Christ, a desire to be faithful, and to now never allow ourselves to be disheartened or discouraged by our faults, our failures, but that we pick ourselves up again and renew

[04:58] ourselves to the sacrament of confession to continue that path of following and loving our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.