In this episode, we accompany Father Andre on a reflective journey during the season of Lent, where he sheds light on the temptations of Jesus Christ and their profound meaning for Christians today. Delving into the challenges that modern believers face, Father Andre calls upon his audience to renew their authority through fasting, prayer, and the scriptures. He emphasizes the power of Christian unity within the mystical body of the Church and the significance of the Holy Eucharist as an expression of God’s love and presence among us.
00:00:05 Introduction and Background of Father Andre
00:00:50 The Importance of Lent and its Temptations
00:03:40 Maintaining Connection with God through Baptismal Promises
00:06:54 Understanding the Mystical Body of Christ and the Eucharist
00:09:59 The Role of Male Priesthood in the Church
00:12:59 Renewing Authority through Lent Practices
00:16:51 Christian Conduct and Pastoral Leadership
00:20:27 Facing Modern Temptations with Christian Authority
00:23:43 Three Temptations of Christ and their Significance
00:29:14 Preserving True Worship and Rejecting Falsehoods
At age 10, Father Andre escaped Christian massacres by living in caves in Mount Lebanon with his family. Today, Father Andre works tirelessly to encourage American leaders to keep God in the public square, defending religious freedom at home and abroad, so that all might live in peace for the glory of God. Founder and President of the Mission of Hope and Mercy, Father Andre has learned the secret to safety, joy, and peace. Love God and one another. Now, let us spend 33 minutes on the Lord’s Day, retuning ourselves to the truth of love in the hands of God.
SPEAKER 01 :
Praise be the most holy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, now and always and forever and ever. Amen. My dearly beloved brothers and sisters in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we have begun in this beautiful season of Great Lent. You know now on this Sunday, as we draw even closer and nearer, as we have already done the first week of Lent, now we will begin the second week of Lent. It is important that we remember in a time and a season of Lent, we always remember to adore and to worship the most holy name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is one with his Father and his Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. It’s a theological expression, of course. But why do we make such a theological expression? Because remember, in the temptation of Christ, it is important what Jesus told the enemy of good at the very end of defeating the temptation when Jesus won over Satan and defeated him by telling him, your God you shall not put to test, you shall not test your God. And of course, in the season of Lent, knowing how many temptations we as human beings go through probably every day in our life, probably every time, at every occasion, throughout the entire time of the whole year. Sometimes in our life, we lack the momentum for our love to God and our love to our neighbor. Sometimes we lack and somehow have an authority over negative emotions, negative feelings, and of course we lose somehow the perspective, the vision of heaven. And of course we lose our relationship sometimes with God, with Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. And it takes authority over our passion. It takes authority over our desires. It takes authority over our will. It takes authority over our mind. It takes authority over our bodies and our spirit to maintain ourselves in relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the Lord of life. is the Lord of salvation. He is the only Son of the living God, our Lord and our Savior. From Him, God the Father, and through Him and with Him, God the Father showed us mercy and granted us peace. It was in Jesus Christ that God the Father saved us through the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And how do we really qualify or describe the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? It is definitely when we think about the perfect love, the greatest love. There is no love that is greater than the love of the one who lays down his life for the sake of his friends. This is the type of love God loved us in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, showing authority when we are in depression, showing authority when we are in distress, showing authority over negativities and bad feelings and bad emotions when we are going through tribulations. It is a very important characteristic that today, on 33 minutes on the Lord’s Day, that we will spend time together to see how we can maintain ourselves in a momentum with the divine grace, and how do we practice our authority in our baptismal promises as Christians, as a people of goodwill, in order to maintain our connection with Almighty God. So, we are not tempted, so Satan is defeated, our sins are forgiven, and we benefit from the redemptive love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we live the outcome of His peace, and we experience the divine mercy of God. Of course, in the season of Lent, there is no better time for us to renew ourselves, reminding ourselves that we are created in the image and likeness of God. So my message to you this week, go back to the scripture. It is very important for us as Christians to always remember that the truth of our life, the truth of what we see happening all around us can only be understood, can only be discerned, can only be followed, can only be seen, can only be pronounced, can only be declared and can be worshiped, can be worshiped when we believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. How do we Basically, know and realize that when our heart desires Jesus Christ, we must not delay calling upon his holy name. How do we know that Jesus Christ is the son of God? How do we know that God is our divine father in heaven? In 33 minutes on the Lord’s Day, we always remember the Holy Spirit. We always point out the importance of our prayer as Christians, and especially in our thought process, in the face of the confusion that we see in the world today, we have to think under the light and guided by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who confesses in us Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit is the one who makes us declare, pronounce, and announce, and call Abba, Father, in heaven. The Holy Spirit is the one who ties us all together, connects us all together as the mystical body of Jesus Christ in our baptism, in our confirmation, by virtue of our faith, hope, and love in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, Lent is a very unique season in which we as Christians connected to one another, realizing that we are more than a family. We are more than people who believe in God. We are more than human beings. We are the mystical body of Christ. We are the one holy Catholic and apostolic church. When I say the one holy Catholic and apostolic church by virtue, of our faith in Jesus Christ. I do acknowledge and somehow I do definitely think of all the Christians who believe in the Apostles’ Creed, of all the Christians who believe in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, of all the Christians who are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, of all the Christians from the various traditions of the Holy Church, both in the East and in the West, and the Christian tradition of the apostolic churches to the Christian traditions of the evangelical churches who desire unity, who desire and who understand that Jesus Christ is present in our midst, in his body, in his blood, in his soul, and in his divinity, in the most holy sacrament of the altar. And the most holy sacrament of the altar, my brothers and sisters, is of course the Holy Eucharist. I do understand, and when I managed and when I lived in the ecumenical context of my ministry, praying with other brothers and sisters in our Christian faith, developing dialogue, growing our human understanding towards the theology of our Holy Church, I do understand that many of us Christians do not actually believe in the Holy Eucharist. other Christians, they have the Holy Eucharist as a symbol, as a memorial through which they share bread or they share wine or sometimes not necessarily even wine. They share probably grape juice as I see traditions in ecumenical settings or when I visit other churches where we know about other traditions. especially in the West, that they do commemoration of the Last Supper, but they may not necessarily believe in the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist requires the Holy Priesthood. The Holy Priesthood requires a validly ordained ministers with apostolic successions from the time of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God has promised that and he will not regret that you are a priest forever according to the right of Melchizedek. And of course, when we speak about the valid priesthood, when we speak about the valid sacrament of the Holy Church, I know and I do understand that many of the Christians may not really share that the priesthood is probably important or the priesthood is only restricted to the male persons in our human race, meaning you must be a man. created and made in the shape and in the masculine form in which our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ when he was made man, when he was incarnated, he was incarnated in the fullness of the identity of the male figure as a human being, as a man. Therefore, of course, the church nor anyone in the world has authority to amend or to change what we call the model of the priesthood, meaning when a male person, a man, is called by God and discerned by the Holy Church, To enter into the priestly ministry, he has to be a male because the model of the priestly ministry, we call it in persona, persona Christi. It is in a person and in a shape of the masculine person of Jesus Christ that the priests are to be. And of course, through the priestly ministry and here on 33 Minutes on the Lord’s Day, it may not be the time to go into a discussion or into some sort of back and forth discussion about is this really the only shape and form of the priesthood? Yes, it is. You may have different mind and I respect that. You may have different opinion and I respect that. But I tell you, you know, looking at the Holy Bible, looking at the teachings of the Holy Fathers in the Church, looking of course at the teachings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and looking at the example of His Last Supper with His Twelve Apostles, with His Holy Apostles, the priestly ministry was instituted at the Last Supper by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and was given to his apostles who all of them were male and there is no discrimination in such a way because remember the highest dignity the highest honor and the entire creation that was ever given to a being on earth when god wanted to make his uh um his his uh a covenant um to bring His Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, into the creation, so the Word of God will become flesh. He didn’t go and make it with a man. He went to the Virgin of Nazareth, to the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, who we call the Lily of Jerusalem. who the Church defined a long time ago in the year 431 in the Council of Ephesus as the Theotokos, Mary the Virgin and Mother of God or the bearer of God. So the highest honor, the highest dignity, the Queen of all Saints, the Queen of Heaven and Earth, the Queen of Angels, the one who has a title being Mary Mother of God was given to a female. was given to the New Eve, was given to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Therefore, I invite you today in our 33 minutes on the Lord’s Day, as we would like to maintain the momentum for our relationship with Jesus Christ. And we like to renew our authority, claim the authority that we were given by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to apply through fasting, to apply through prayer in the most particular way. in order to control and in order to grow and educate our passions, our desires, our habits, our minds, our thoughts, our intelligence, our faculties, whether the intellectual faculties or our physical faculties in our bodies and our common sense. Our senses are very important and we must maintain ourselves in the calmness of the Holy Spirit. This is why we do need the Holy Spirit, because remember, in the season of Lent, in order for us to sustain ourselves with a momentum of divine grace, as I set the point for our 33 minutes on the Lord’s Day today, and to renew and use in the right way our authority as Christians in order to sanctify our bodies, we must realize that we are the temples of God, the temples of the Holy Spirit, who calls in us Abba, Father, and who professes Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior. In such a way, when I encourage you and I said we must go back to the Holy Scriptures and read the Holy Scripture every time, I encourage you, my brothers and sisters, as well and as I said before, always look at the world. If you were to identify the truth that you, first of all, are an extension of the truth of the love of God that is in Jesus Christ for us. And these are not words of sermons. These are realities of our lives. Do you know how important it is that the Christian behavior in this world is actually the most needed thing to ever be so the world can remain in the light and the love, experience the peace and experience the mercy of God? If all Christians misbehave, if Christians do not conduct themselves in accordance with the Holy Scripture, do not live it, do not proclaim it, do not concretely translate and transmit the Holy Scriptures in the form of a true worship to Almighty God, in the form of concrete acts of charity, works of mercy, What is good? What is the truth about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? It becomes questionable. So the truth of our behavior reflect in fact, mirrors in fact on the truth. on the ultimate truth of the salvation and of life and of the peace, of the forgiveness of sins and of the victory that we have received in the love and in the redemptive love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is why it is important for us as Christians to always know how to navigate on daily basis in our lives, not in accordance only with sciences, learnings, the news that we hear too, in a world today, the words that we listen to from our friends, from our family, the education we receive, the experience in our professional lives, this is not enough of a baggage for us to maintain us and to qualify us as unique human beings, meaning Christians who bear the name and the identity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, even though in our mortal bodies. So today, Father Andre and the mission of Hope and Mercy on these 33 minutes on the Lord’s Day. We are trying to think together, meditate together, pray together and see how we can actually on daily basis grow with more knowledge, look at the world through the eyes of the Holy Scriptures, through the eyes of the truth of our faith, hope and love, which is the sacraments that we receive in the Holy Church, which are living on daily basis, not only as human beings who have a gender, not only as human beings who have means and income or probably faculties or charismas or talents, Or we might have or not have the little or the most. But remember what we have the best. Remember we have in us what we are and who we are. We are the human beings who are created in the image and likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Take a moment in this season of Lent. Remind yourself when the world hits you hard, when friends betray you, when you are disappointed with the people around you, when you are persecuted for the sake of your faith, in a world that is filled with confusion, in a world that is filled with sadness, in a world that rejects you probably, in a world that is putting under accusations many of the little brothers and sisters of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, criticizing them, hurting them, lying about them, depriving them from food, depriving them from water, depriving them from medicine, depriving them from homes and housings, depriving them from justice, depriving them from freedom, depriving them from the possibility of living the faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I am thinking most of all in every form of seen and unseen persecution that we Christians suffer from on daily basis in our lives. And why? Blessed are you if they persecute you and utter all kinds of injustices against you for the sake of my name. Remember, they have done this to the prophets and they have persecuted me before you. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ says, and I’m plagiarizing, I’m saying the main elements of what the Lord says in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5 verse 12. Remember that in all of this, we remind ourselves on daily basis, we have been created in the image and likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that is our treasure. That is the truth of who we are. With that, we have a need to develop our pastoral leadership in a season of Lent. You know, Christians sometimes Like anyone else, when we lay our ambitions and what we would like to accomplish and do in our lives, Sometimes we plan to send our children, first of all, for our future to probably be the healthiest, go to the gym, find the best girlfriend, find the best boyfriend, marry and have children and have the best income, the best profession, the best look. We actually think about our belongings, our companions that we want for our lives and including from paths all the way to the human beings, all the way to accessories, all the way to the things that the life presents us with. It’s almost we are living the temptations of Christ on daily basis without knowing. Remember, in one of the first temptations that the evil one tempted Jesus with was the bread, right? And to eat because Jesus was hungry. And this is why in the season of Lent, we actually fast. And there are traditions in our fasting, why we fast. And of course, to restrain our passions, because this is the fasting of the fathers. This is the fasting of the patriarchs of old. This is the fasting of the fathers in the Holy Bible and the prophets in the Holy Bible. The fasting of Moses, the fasting of Elijah, and the fasting of the people of Nineveh and the king of Nineveh. This is the fasting that makes us a radiant human beings because as Jesus said in the gospel of the temptations in which he defeated Satan, not by bread alone a human being lives, but by every word that he listens and she listens to that are coming from the mouth of God. And of course, with this, we have an example that is given for us in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when he defeated the temptations that were presented to him by the devil in the wilderness. When our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ went to the wilderness and was tempted by the devil, remember that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was facing an enemy who wanted to abuse the divine power. And that’s very important. My brothers and sisters in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the content of our lives, the purpose of our lives, And the message for our life is this. We have divine power as Christians. We have God’s protection as Christians. And we have God’s blessing as Christians. But in order to realize that we as human beings created an image and likeness of God as sacred vessels, as I said during our 33 minutes on a Lord’s Day today, we have to realize also in us that As we walk with the divine power, we shall not abuse the divine power. And of course, this is the test that the devil subjected Jesus Christ to. He wanted Jesus to abuse his divine power, to use it for evil. He wanted Jesus, looking at him and seeing him, he was very weak, he was very ill, he was very hungry, he was very tired after spending 40 days, according to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 4, verse 1 to 11, and according to the Gospel of Saint Luke, chapter 4, verses 1 to 13. And the first temptations, when the devil suggested on Jesus to turn stones into bread, that temptation meant that the devil wanted Jesus to abuse his divine power. And of course, Jesus responds to him telling him, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And then in the second temptation, you know, remember that we as Christians have God’s protection. And God’s protection is imminent, is always present in our lives. How does God protect us? One could ask if we’re listening to 33 Minutes on a Lord’s Day, it’s very easy. Pray to your guardian angel. Pray to the company of the saints. God protects us through the means of nature. God protects us through the order of harmony and the order of life that we put for ourselves, the order of love. God protects us through the means of the intellect, the means of our common sense that we have in us, the power of discernment. God protects us through the power of the Holy Spirit that is in us by virtue of our baptismal promises. And on the deepest level, God protects us because he manages everything in accordance with his divine plan using the faculty of God’s divine providence. Everything will turn for the benefit of those who believe in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is what the gospel tells us. This is what St. Paul tells us. This is what Jesus tells us. Even the hair, I myself who lost much of my hair, even the every hair in your head is counted. And God who takes care of the little birds, God who takes care of the little flowers will take care of us and our needs. And this is the word of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for us in the Sunday during the season of Lent. And of course, when the evil one took Jesus Christ to the pinnacle of the temple, there the evil one tempted Jesus and he kind of like encouraged him. He told him like, throw yourself. Throw yourself down that hill. Throw yourself from that cliff. And of course, because it says in the book of Psalms that God will bring his angels and he will lift you up. And not one single bone will be broken. And you will never dash against a stone, against rocks, and nothing will happen to you. And the unique part of this is that the eye of the evil one was on the temple, because this is where the temptation happened. You know what happens in the temple usually? Sacrifice. A sacrifice of praise, sacrifice of incense, and the sacrifice of the animals, the sacrifice of the lambs. So it’s a place where the priestly function takes a place and the rising of the incense, the sacrifice of the incense takes a place before the throne of Almighty God through the altar of the Holy Temple in HaKadosh Katushin and the Holy of Holies. With this, my brothers and sisters, the insiduity of the devil and his twisted astuteness, because he’s not smart, he’s astute but not intelligent, and his viciousness, and him being the murderer, and him being the one who wants to target life, he wanted to abolish the true sacrifice. And how could he abolish it with sacrifice? By killing the high priest. That is why I cautioned you in the beginning, and I said, and I know you probably were thinking, why Father Andre spoke about the priestly ministry being given in a shape and in a form of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is how Jesus Christ laid the ministry of the priesthood. He laid it to man. He’s given it to man at the Last Supper. And he told these men to do this in memory of him, being his body, his blood, his soul and divinity are present every time in the memorial of salvation, not as a simple commemoration, but as reenactment. of the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because this is the sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world. This is the Lamb of God. These are the words of St. John the Baptist. Here is, there is, this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Follow him. And that’s why it was important. So the devil was doing a false worship because he was also reciting the scripture. You know, he was citing the scripture. He says in the scripture, it says, you know, that the angels will come and they will pick you up. So he was twisting the understanding of the scripture and thus the priesthood of the Baal. That’s the priesthood of the evil one. And Jesus rejects this evil priesthood. And Jesus stands for the valid priesthood because he is a high priest. And when he validly states and chooses a priest that is ordained validly, no one, no power, no authority on earth can take this valid priesthood away, not even in a church, unless a priest does. denies Jesus Christ, rejects Jesus Christ, and rejects his faith. Other elements come through the orders of the Holy Church sometimes with misunderstandings or with even abuse of authority. But the priestly ministry is a valid ministry, and when God chooses his priests, he chooses them in image and likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And of course, we encourage, and I personally, who lived the persecution in my priestly ministry, I do understand in a fullness of the responsibility how important it is for us to remain faithful, to remain obedient to the Word of Almighty God and to the teaching of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church in this regard, and to reject every form of false worship. Do not let the devil drive you or guide you to do forms of false worship. the killing of the innocents, the murder of the children in the wombs of their mothers. I want to leave you. with these concrete and practical events that we see in our lives. Look today in the world, they’re killing the infants, they’re killing the babies, they’re killing the babies in wombs. These are forms of bad sacrifices. We have to reject these bad sacrifices. Do not put God into the test, please, because remember that in our lives, we must maintain the true worship and you shall not put the Lord your God to test. And of course, in the third temptation, the evil one put Jesus Christ subjected him to his authority. Tell him, you have to worship me. I offer you authority, a fake authority. The evil one is offering for Jesus Christ. I give you all the kingdoms of the world. Look today, my brothers and sisters, big religious leaders in the world. big prelates in the world, including bishops and popes and pastors and ministers and megachurches, they might, for whatever reason or another, they might end up sacrificing Jesus Christ and succumbing to the temptation of the devil and of the evil one, choosing the kingdoms of the world and the glory of this world. And they actually, instead of worshipping God, they worship money or they worship a form of a community consent. or the world glory that is from the devil. Reject that devil and tell him, get behind me, Satan. Your ways are not the way of the Lord. With this, my brothers and sisters in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I wish you today a wonderful Sunday. And I encourage you, visit our website of the Nation of Hope and Mercy and make sure there, during the season of Lent, you help us and you assist the poor and the needy and the rejected and the persecuted Christians in their needs. I truthfully encourage you, Visit missionofhopeandmercy.org where you may do your tithing. And may Almighty God bless us all in this season of Lent, protect us from all evil, forgive us our sins, and bring us all to everlasting life. Amen.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to 33 Minutes on the Lord’s Day. To hear previous programs, visit the show page at missionofhopeandmercy.org. Listen to Father Andre every Sunday morning at 7.30 on KLZ as he speaks on the unity of Christians, religious freedom, and the biblical foundation of Judeo-Christian values and traditions. Join him in bringing hope and freedom to people across the globe while also strengthening your own faith, family, and community right here in Colorado. Reawaken the spiritual strength of America. Go to missionofhopeandmercy.org.
