In the name of the father, of the son, and of the holy spirit. Amen. There's a great deal of human psychology, of human weakness, of human feeling and sentiment, And of course, these are the qualities for the most part that we live by. Aristotle, of course, defined man as a rational animal. But in my humble estimation, the human race down the centuries has tried to disprove Aristotle.
Matter of fact, not so long ago, I purchased a book on psychology, and the opening sentence was that man is an irrational animal. He lives by his feelings. That's nineteen eighty two. And you see, of course, all of these things are true. Cardinal Newman said it is almost and Cardinal Newman said it's almost a definition of man to say that he is an irrational animal.
That was Newman. But he said it's almost a definition. You can see how these people in this synagogue up there in Nazareth, that was not a lake the Lake Of Galilee, was quite removed from the lake. And in those days it was much more removed. And, of course, our blessed Lord had done all kinds of miracles down in Capernaum, which is on the lake, on the Northwest Corner.
And so, when he goes back to Nazareth into his own town, they expect him to do something great for them. But you see they're torn. They can't reconcile this man who seems to be so wonderful with the fact that he's one of themselves. And then, you see, when he speaks up and says things to them they don't want to hear, then they hate him. And of course, one of the best arguments in the world to defeat your opponent is to kill him.
That eliminates that argument for a while. I I often think this this incident of our Lord saving himself from this grandma that wanted to kill him. You see, that may have been in Judas' head when he betrayed our Lord. Because if Christ escaped from his captors once, why couldn't he do it again? However, whatever that may be, the point I want to make is this, For the most part, the truths that would do us most good are those we least want to hear.
Try it out on your own violin sometime and see if it isn't true. The best way to become popular is to tell people what they want to hear. You can't miss. You just can't miss it. But you see, our blessed Lord did just the reverse.
He he absolutely did the reverse. There is not the slightest there's not this You cannot come up with a single incident from our blessed Lord's life where he compromised, where he negotiated, or where he pussyfooted, where he was a milk toast, where he said, oh, let us all sit down and be friendly. After all, love is everything. All we have to do is to love one another and everything's going to be fine. Of course, that's hogwash.
Because let me ask you this question. Suppose you would say, that is true. That's wonderful. But what do you mean by love? What does the word mean?
Do you love your dog when you let the dog run after every car down this running along the road? Eats everything you can get a hold of. Scavenges everybody's garbage pail, drinks and drinks all kind of water, good, bad, and indifferent. Is tormented by kids, runs after kids, barks his head off, and you say, oh, I love you. Do what you want, but I love you.
I wouldn't think of interfering with your power of self determination. So go out and kill yourself running after cars. What do you mean by love? You see, it's an empty word. It has it has 13 columns of meaning in the Oxford dictionary.
And our blessed Lord was not that kind. He took a stand. Things were black and white with Jesus Christ. There was right and wrong. And he wasn't afraid in the least of laying it on the line.
Laying it on the line. He talked about death. He talked about suffering in this life. He talked about his cross. He talked about following him, and look where he went.
Who in the name of heavens wants to go where Jesus Christ went? It's not human. Course, it's not human. Because Christ didn't come to make this world a more human world, a more a more comfortable world, a happier world. Not There's not a word in the New Testament to that effect.
And yet, yet just this past week, I I got a a catalog of books. The latest edition, the latest publications. And you think that all Jesus Christ came for was to make this a better world. Just a a Marx who preceded Marx. And yet there's nothing like this in the New Testament that I can find.
All the Christ said, my world, my kingdom is not of this world. Can anything be simpler than that? He told us to live in this world as if we weren't living in it. He told us that our goal mustn't be in this life, but it must be heaven. We must keep heaven in mind.
It's the only thing that makes living here worthwhile. We don't like to hear that. And yet, mister Skinner, doctor Skinner brought some of this back into our modern contemporary psychology. Our blessed Lord spoke out. And you see, it's very difficult for us to grasp how bitter those words were he spoke to those Jews.
Because you see, he what he tells them is that, look, you asked me to perform miracles here like I did down in Capernaum. Alright. But look what happened in the past. Remember, he's quoting the old the bible to them. When the when the people of God, the chosen people were rejected, and the hated gentile was chosen.
And he speaks it to them straight to their He eyeballs them straight down the line. Because you see they would not accept him, because they knew him. They knew him as the son of Joseph the carpenter. It's very easy for us to have a I've said this many times. It's so easy to have a misconception of Jesus Christ.
It's so easy to have a conception of Christ that is my creation. I make him out to be what I want him to be, and then I love what I've made is my creature. Not the way our blessed Lord came into this world at all. He came to open up an entirely new world. Not to downgrade this world.
Our our blessed Lord only, as you may say, despised. I hate that word, but it's used. He despised this word, but only in terms of comparing it with something better. And when you compare a very inferior metal to the to a 20 carat gold, then you've got to say that gold is better. I would like to have the gold.
If I don't want that, there's something wrong with me. And so, let us take to heart the message of Jesus Christ. In a certain sense, it's very complex, and I'm the first one to insist upon it. I'll be the last one to minimize the complexity of the Christian message. At the same time, I'm the first one to say that the message of Jesus Christ is simple.
Because all we have to do is to follow Jesus Christ. In the name of the father, and of the son, and of holy spirit. Amen.