In this episode, we embark on a reflective journey through the essence of the sacred week following Easter. As the world continues to grapple with division and confusion, we explore the role of moral conscience and faith in navigating these tumultuous times. The story of Doubting Thomas offers profound insights into the nature of belief and understanding beyond perception as we delve into the Biblical narratives that shape our consciousness.
Praise be the most holy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Welcome to 33 minutes on the Lord’s Day, a sacred time, a set apart moment, a return to what matters most. In a world that moves quickly, that speaks loudly, that often forgets God, this is your invitation to pause, to listen, and to enter into the presence of the Lord. For the next 33 minutes, we will walk together through the Word of God, encounter the reality of our daily lives, and respond to the call of Christ, who speaks not only to the world, but personally to you. This is not just a program. This is a moment of grace, a moment to remember who you are and whose you are. So whatever you are, driving, working, resting, open your heart. The Lord is speaking. Welcome to our show. Praise be the most holy name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, now and forever. Christ is risen. Christ is truly risen. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his love has no end. Hallelujah. Let the sons of Israel say, his love has no end. Let the sons of Aaron say, his love has no end. Let those who fear the Lord say, his love has no end. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his love endures forever. Hallelujah. I was thrust, thrust down and falling, but the Lord was my helper. The Lord is my strength and my song. He was my savior. There are shouts of joy and victory in the tents of the just. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever. Hallelujah. The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the work of the Lord, a marvel in our eyes. This day was made by the Lord. We rejoice and are glad. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever. A wonderful, beautiful week of Easter week, my brothers and sisters. As we say in our tradition, Christ is risen, Christ is truly risen. Christianity in the West and Christianity in the East, on the Catholic side, they celebrate the Holy Week of Easter this week, and we celebrated Easter Sunday this past week, and this Sunday we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, or New Sunday, the Sunday of Thomas. Our brothers and sisters from the Orthodox tradition, they are actually now living during their Holy Week. you know easter is not yet one easter the celebration of the passion of our lord his death and his resurrection are still not yet united in the world and this is an event that happened since the great schism that happened between the east and west but also about 500 some years ago when the gregorian calendar changed under pope gregory the 13th Of course, it affected the liturgical calendar of the Eastern churches and the liturgical calendar of the Western churches, creating a little bit of confusion. But today, we as brothers and sisters in the Lord, all over the world, in the East and in the West, we will look at the church. In every age, the church has walked through moments of confusion, not only in its liturgical calendar, but also in many other things. But not every confusion has entered so deeply into the conscience of the believer. Today, we are not only witnessing division in the world, we’re not only witnessing division in the church, we’re not only witnessing division inside our families, inside our society, we’re not only witnessing division inside our own government, inside the objectives of wars and the prospect of wars and peace the time of war and peace the means of negotiation and what is permissible what is not permissible rumors of wars rumors of flags and of course we see deadlines on the news every day and every hour this is it this is the last day and we see rumors of nuclear bombs and we see that negotiation is happening on one end and on the other end. They’re speaking about ultimatum. No, there is no negotiation. Somebody confirms between Iran and United States, for instance, that they are really talking somewhere in the world. Others say, no, they’re not talking. Somebody says the president and the US government know what they’re doing. Others say, no, they do not know what they’re doing. Well, all of this tells us one thing. There is a major worldwide confusion reigning in the world. And of course, everybody is claiming that they know why this confusion is happening. It’s almost like a tool, like an element to say, oh, don’t worry, we’re going to bring the best out of the worst. We’re going to bring the truth out of the lie. How could you bring something, a good fruit from a bad tree? How could you? I’m not sure. But what interests us today in this week of divine mercy, in this week of Easter week, we call it the white week, when Jesus appears every day to his apostles, is how he is going to actually confirm his disciples and his apostles in the truth of his mighty and holy and great resurrection. Today, we are witnessing, unfortunately, the distortion of faith itself. Faith, which was given to save, is being used today to divide. The sacraments of the Holy Church, which were given as a remedy for the human body, for the human soul to stay in touch with the Lord, somebody casted doubt even in the most intimate and highest of the sacraments of the Holy Church of all, in the Holy Mass, in the Holy Priesthood, in the Holy Matrimony, they casted doubts. So confusion reigns in somehow. A truth, the truth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as Jesus tells us, the truth will set you free. But today, the truth has become a relative reality to the most powerful, to the ones who owns the highest microphone, who has the highest budget, who has the highest dignity, to the powerful ones. And the truth therefore today is being reshaped to serve certain agendas. And when it comes to the conscience of the human being, the conscience is formed to respond to God. The conscience is formed to maintain the human being in relationship with the wholeness of life. with the wholeness of a good behavior, a good character, a good progress, and living their life with the utmost joy possible, according to Allah, according to the precept of the moral conscience, according to the commandments of the Lord in a way that the human conscience is supposed to apply the two greatest law of the entire Holy Scriptures. Love thy God and love thy neighbor as yourself. But unfortunately, today, even the human conscience is being manipulated by voices that no longer seek Almighty God. Welcome to Irrevocable. where truth is not negotiated, faith is not compromised, and Christ is proclaimed without apology. I want us together to, in order for us to embark on this beautiful, irrevocable episode, consecrated to the no manipulation of the human conscience, the Christian conscience must not be weaponized at all. I want us to run to a video together, it’s about a few minutes, in which we see the definition of the moral conscience according to the scholastic doctors of the church and to the philosophers and, of course, to some teachers in the world. It’s a video that was made by somebody I founded on YouTube. It’s a very quick video. Please pay attention to it, and we come back to our show. Remember, the intent is about the moral conscience. Let’s watch it together. Well, it’s a very quick video, but it’s the meaning of a conscience, basically, and what is the role of the moral conscience in helping us to make actual informed decisions. And you know, conscienza was knowledge, basically. And it is from the Latin word, of course. So by definition, the conscience, it is something within each of us that tells us what is right and what is wrong. An inner feeling. or a voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one’s behavior. And of course, we started with St. Thomas Aquinas. It means of distinguishing between right and wrong. First used by Aristotle as a word introduced from the Greek philosophy. And it gives the ability of the, it is the ability of the mind to understand the first principles of moral reasoning. Can you believe it? We speak about the people who have moral reasoning and that’s by itself is the difficulty today in our society. It is important to apply your moral principles to each situation, but you can still be wrong if you follow your conscience because your principles can be wrong. So your conscience, will be too so the moral conscience in order for it to make decisions informing our lives it has to have a principles in it and usually these principles come from a commandment for instance the principle of life the principle of the ten commandments the principle of the moral commandments of the church the church’s obligations and the seven commandments of the church And those commandments, basically the rules, they are the principles according to which the conscience can take and can say, this is how I would judge on a tale situazione, as we say in Italian, such a situation, a given situation. So one of the philosophers, Joseph Butler, you know, conscience comes from intuition as if almost it’s an innate thing in a human being. And so the human being is actually born with science. The human being is born with knowledge. Now, if you recall the story of in the beginning of creation in the book of Genesis, when God created Adam and Eve, the very first commandment that God gave them as a principle of life, that is that commandment from the fruit of the tree of knowledge between good and evil. do not eat other way you will die so actually the first commandment that God gave us inated in us the human conscience the moral conscience to make a choice between God and between evil between what’s evil and between what is good. So immediately in the beginning of us being created in the image and likeness of God, this is a principle of our being. We have been created in the image and likeness of God. comes with it the principle of being created as active agents agents who act who do so we’re not only beings we are beings who act who are in emotion of behavior a character of doing things and the second step of our creation as a living human beings came with the commandment of god when he said From the fruit of the tree of knowledge to know, science, conscienza, the conscience of good and evil, do not eat, otherwise you will die. So in such a way, the conscience has been innate in us as human beings, made, created as beings in the image and likeness of God, yet at the same time with a principle of doing, over every action, we judge this action, we evaluate this action to make sure it is not a fruit of evil, but it is the fruit of what is good. So the conscience could determine and judge the rightness or wrongness in different actions or thoughts. So my friends, there is a hierarchy in our human nature in which the desire for anything, for instance, the desire for food, Like animals’ instincts, for instance. You know, the animals’ instincts’ desire for food is actually at the top, right? But in humanity, during the season of Lent, we could refrain from food, for instance. We could make an active decision of conscience to say, I want to offer my hunger for the sake of the fasting season. with Jesus Christ, our Lord, because not by bread alone a human being live, but by the word of God. So here you go. The word of God is another principle that informs our moral conscience when we come to make decisions. Animals, instead, you have to rebuke them. Sometimes you have to put a muzzle on your dog, even a muzzle that could prohibit it from eating. And somehow, because their upper things on their moral conscience, their conscience, is to eat concrete conscience, we call it, practical conscience. They don’t have a moral conscience. Unless you rebuke them, then you train their moral conscience by commandment, but not by freedom, not by choice. So conscience as being more authoritative, that magisterially exerts itself in such a way that it has at the last say when it comes to moral decision making it’s the conscience that has to be in action every time we face a situation And the bottom line of what we have seen in this short video, the same person could argue that we also develop our morals during the life that allows us to fit into society. and the rules and regulations that surround it. Yes. Yes. Of course, there is a Darwinist option or there is a Darwinist approach in a secularist world for the human and the moral conscience. It doesn’t come from the belief. It doesn’t come from the fact that God created us in his image and likeness. The conscience grows with a human being basically. The conscience is not innate. But for us Christians, the conscience is innate. It came from the commandment that God gave us. Because from the beginning, we were created in His image and in His likeness. So the conscience could be a gut feeling, could be an instinct. The conscience could be a response to a guilt, even a guilt that we may not understand where it came from. The conscience usually is applied in conjunction with fear, in conjunction with a factor that is objectively guilt and somehow. But the conscience could be also an expression of love, a precept, an obedience to a precept given to us by God. As a human being, my brothers and sisters, we always come across the ethical dilemmas in life, in religion, in politics, in economy, in our personal behavior, and any sort of decision making. The conscience is a factor, is a faculty in our humanity that acts as a guide for taking correct decisions when we have to choose between competing sets of principles in a given situation. And usually these situations are perplexed or are undesirable. Conscience describes two things. One, that the person believes is right. And two, how the person decides that their choice was right. And this is what morality is. And that’s why morality is subject to relativism somehow. There is moral realities. that are relative to certain societies, for instance. What’s moral in France may not be moral in Germany. What’s moral in United States is not moral in Iran. What’s moral in Lebanon may not be moral In Saudi Arabia, what’s moral in Israel may not be moral in Egypt. What’s moral in Africa may not be moral in a different continent, in Asia or in Europe or in the Americas or in Australia or anywhere. That’s a matter of fact. But a human being always lives between two realities of the conscience. One, the good conscience. which is the voice of the Holy Spirit, to the guilty conscience, which is a voice of the guilt. But in such a way, conscience responds to confusing situations. As I was coming to the studio today to record this episode of Irrevocable, I was engaging in a conversation with my friend in the car and I said, you know, perception, the perception of the human mind is an extension to the sin of lies because it distorts the reality of what we see and to how we interpret what we see. It’s almost an original curse. Today is Sunday, when we come to the Sunday celebration of the Sunday of Doubt and Thomas, we call it, the very first Sunday after Easter, we call it the Sunday of Doubt and Thomas. We also call it in our Eastern Maronite liturgy, a new Sunday. In the West, of course, it is a Sunday of the divine mercy. Remember the disciples, when they saw Jesus immediately on the third day, when he rose from the dead one week ago, he actually went to them in the upper room. They were locked in the upper room and he stood in their midst and the doors were locked. And he said, the peace be with you. And the disciples looked around and they almost did not recognize, they did not recognize the Lord because he has changed. And of course he gave them the peace. And then he told them he will be back. And of course, Thomas was not with them on the day of the resurrection of our Lord. So Thomas comes later on and the disciples tell him, we have seen the Lord. And what does Thomas respond? Thomas goes, I’m not going to believe it unless I stick my finger in his wounds, in his hands and in his feet. So the purpose of Thomas’ doubt is actually two things. One, to remove all perception. He looked at all the apostles and he said, you are all perceiving, you’re not seeing, you’re perceiving. So there is, and somehow falsehood in your interpretation, even though the agreement over 12, it can be or 11 and the Virgin Mary most likely was with them because we know that the Virgin Mary was in the upper room throughout the season of Pentecost. Since the time of the cross, she was always in companionship of John, the beloved disciples, but this, the beloved disciple. So the funny part in this is that Thomas said, no, no, no, no, no. I want the truth. I do not want the perception of it. So unless I stick my finger in his wounds, I will not believe. And therefore, one Sunday later, this Sunday that is coming, the first Sunday after Easter, it’s a Sunday of Doubt and Thomas, and we read in the Gospel, that of course the room was locked and everybody was sitting in the upper room and Thomas was with them this time and the Gospel of Saint John 20th chapter 20 verse 26 to verse 31 tells us a week later his disciples were again in the house And Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them. So that’s the first reality of a truth, not of a perception. All the doors were locked, yet Jesus came in through the walls. which means it’s no longer perception because for perception to happen, it has to be based on a fact that could give it a logical interpretation for them. And Jesus coming into a locked room with doors and windows completely closed, That’s not perception. He’s defeating the perception. He’s standing in front of them as a totally different reality, a totally different truth, a way that is shocking to their logical interpretation and somehow. Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt, but believe. That’s how Jesus defeats perception. That’s how Jesus heals confusion. That’s how Jesus rises the moral conscience of his disciples not to be based on principles that depend on on the human reality, but on the divine truth of God. God is the principle of life. I am your principle of life. I am the principle of your moral conscience. I am the principle of your truth. I am the principle who guides you to tell you how you must act and what you must believe in. Because look, put your finger in my hands and stick your finger in my heart, Jesus said. And do not be an unbeliever. Do not doubt, but believe. That is the beauty of Jesus responding to doubt in Thomas. But also the beauty of doubt in Thomas pushing us from our perceptions, not leaving room for doubt. In the doubt of Thomas, he denied us any possibility of doubt. In the doubt of Thomas, he denied any possibility of confusion. In a doubt of Thomas, he denied any possibility of any perception. We moved from the perception to the reception of the totally other, God standing in our midst. First of all, the doors are locked and he’s in our midst. He’s not a ghost because you could feel his hands, feel his wounds, he told Thomas, feel the wound of his side, he told Thomas. Because only one was appeased by a Lance in his heart on the cross. It was our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. But also Jesus was telling Thomas, even though I had left the last Sunday, when the apostles told you, I did come and I did appear to them. You’re not there. I was actually there. I was listening to you because he tells them, you know, okay, Thomas, You did not believe the last time. Nobody told Jesus that Thomas did not believe. Jesus was with them actually in his body and in his soul, in his blood and in his body, in his soul and in his divinity. And that is a definition of the divine mercy that the risen Lord and savior Jesus Christ is with us. And then Thomas answers him, my Lord and my God. And that is a confession of faith. This is an act of the moral conscience of St. Thomas, the apostle. That is the beauty of it, my brothers and sisters. So, when this Sunday we celebrate Divine Mercy, we celebrate the statement of the faith of Thomas, who actually responded and he basically cancelled out every doubt possible. in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that’s when Jesus tells him have you believed because you have seen me blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe And this time is not because of the perception, but because of the eyewitness in whose experience he has seen the Lord, the risen Lord with his wounds, with all of the wound of the heart, with his physical reality and with the spiritual reality, admitted him and confessed him as the risen Lord. And therefore he told them, my Lord, and my God. So my brothers and sisters, in our life today, when we see those confusions happening around us, we must address something very urgent, not only for the world, but for the soul of every believer, because we are living in a time where faith is no longer only attacked from the outside, it is being redefined from within. And the question therefore for us is this, how do we remain faithful when even language of faith is being distorted? And many faithful are left asking, what is truly Catholic these days? What must I believe? Who do I trust? So the crisis today is not only political, it is a spiritual confusion disguised as conviction. But here, my brothers and sisters, for the people who are about to leave us with 33 minutes on the Lord’s Day, with KLZ, I want to confirm you in the faith of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, like Doughton Thomas, all we got to do, look towards the Lord, his risen Christ, that risen Christ, and tell him, Christ, Jesus, you are my Lord and you are my God. And believe. Do not be an unbeliever. The truth comes to us from the words of Jesus Christ. You have seen me, and so you come to believe. Blessed are those who did not see, yet they have come to believe. I ask you and I encourage you, my friends on KLZ, please visit our website missionofhopeandmercy.org and continue to show your support. Sign up if you want on our YouTube page, on our YouTube channel, on our Facebook page, on our X channel to make sure you continue streaming this podcast of Irrevocable with Father Mahana from Untamed Nation Studios. And with this, I want to wish you all on KLZ Radio, a wonderful and blessed, glorious Sunday of the new Sunday, the Doubting Thomas Sunday and the Divine Mercy Sunday. And may Almighty God bless you, protect us all from all evil, give us the peace and joy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by the sign of the victory of His cross over death and evil. And may Almighty God forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life. And again, I wish you a Christ is risen. Christ is truly risen. You just listened to 33 Minutes on the Lord’s Day. Do not let this be the end of the encounter. Carry the word you have received into your life. Let it shape your thoughts, your decisions, your relationships, and above all, let it draw you closer to Christ. But today, we also invite you into something more. If this time has blessed you, if the word of God has spoken to your heart, consider becoming part of the mission that makes this possible. Through the mission of hope and mercy, we are reaching souls, supporting the suffering, and standing with persecuted Christians around the world, bringing light to where there is darkness and hope where it is needed most. You can be part of this mission through your prayer, through your sharing of this program, and if you are able, through your financial support, To join us, visit missionofhopeandmercy.org, missionofhopeandmercy.org. There you can learn more, stay connected, and make a direct impact in the lives of those in need. Your generosity, no matter how small, becomes a channel of God’s mercy in the world. God bless you. Father Andre.
