in World News Bishop Strickland: Faith brings us an ‘everlasting joy’ the world can’t possibly offer
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(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s two-part episode of The Bishop Strickland Show, Bishop Joseph Strickland discusses being the wheat, not the weeds, in the field, enemies within the Church, finding and keeping the pearl of great price, forming a good conscience, and more.
Strickland begins the first part of the episode by offering commentary on Matthew 13:36-43, in which Our Lord explains the parable of the wheat and weeds in the field, the wheat being the children of light and the weeds being the children of the devil. The bishop emphasized that this Gospel reading, using the imagery of a garden, is pertinent for our times and that we need to remember there is a separation between weeds and wheat. While we need to co-exist with the weeds, we must be the wheat of the Lord to obtain salvation.
“The weeds are strangling out the wheat and so much of the world today. The weeds can take over, the weeds can really choke out the good plants of whatever kind, and they suck out the nutrients.” The bishop added that in our times, we have many weeds spreading false messages that cause others to sin.
“What Jesus says in that parable is so significant because He says evildoers and those who cause others to sin will be thrown into the fire, and He’s not talking about a bonfire. He’s talking about hell. They will be condemned and burned for eternity because they’ve rejected His message, they’ve rejected the truth,” he says. “They are seeds like any other, but they have not chosen to flourish in God’s word and living the commandments and everything that Christ tells us.”
His Excellency noted that we’re hearing the opposite from people in the world and even in the Church today. “Leaders in the Church are telling people, ‘Ignore the commandments; we’re going to reshape them according to our image.’”
“We need to open our eyes, we need to read the word of God, we need to read the Catechism of the [Catholic] Church. We need to look at the truth and quit trying to reinvent it and say we’re inventing the truth ourselves,” he added.
A bit later in the episode, host Terry Barber asked Bishop Strickland about a statement made by St. John Henry Newman that seems to prophesy the current state of the Church: “I thank God that I live in a day when the enemy is outside the Church, and I know where he is and what he is up to. But I foresee a day when the enemy will be both outside and inside the Church, and I pray for the poor faithful who will be caught in the crossfire.”