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Yesterday at Mass, I used the expression necessary evil to describe the cross of Christ, to describe chemotherapy, for example. And I also used it to describe politics. And what I meant by that was that, like the law and the need for a law is a kind of necessary evil because it's a fallen world, and we can't just trust our neighbor to do the right thing out of love. So a law kind of keeps people in bounds. But that expression necessary evil was how he started. And I wonder if you're interested in that or struck by that. It's an interesting expression to me. How could a good God allow evil? And then how could a good God use evil to redeem the world? So the cross is this crucifixion of Christ, the surrendering of the Son to death. And in some mysterious way, that brings healing into the world, the healing of sin and separation in the way that, like chemotherapy is an evil that can really hurt the body in a lot of ways, can even do damage to the person, but for the sake of ultimately healing the person, it's this very, very difficult treatment that a person with cancer would be happy to receive. So in that sense, a kind of necessary evil. Also politics and law, because we're not all one big happy family. We need now the implementation of law, structure and policy. I wanted to clarify that, though, because I talked with some of you after Mass yesterday, and you were questioning whether politics is a necessary evil. Because Aquinas, Thomas Aquinas, one of the saints of the church, does speak about politics as a good. And of course, what I mean is, on the one hand, it is true that we are political beings, meaning because we are made in the image of a God who is a community of persons. We are a kind of polity by nature. We live with others. You know, no man is an island kind of thing. So politics as trying to live with your neighbor is not an evil. I don't mean that, but the need for law and structure. And then that. That process of. Like the political process of working out, hashing out differences and working out and reconciling with people who think differently. That whole process, it's only necessary because the world is fallen. But we want to believe, and this is what I love about America, that good can come from that, even though it is not easy and there will be casualties and people will be hurt at times. And it's still better in a fallen world to live honestly in trying to reconcile with one another, even though it will be difficult than it is to impose a kind of fabricated law to the point of reducing everyone and not permitting them to have any opinions at all. Just think about North Korea, how scary it is to see a people who live on lockdown all the time. So I love America in that it permits this kind of engagement with the reality of the fact that we are not all the same. We don't all think the same way about everything. So that that word about, like, necessary evil. And now I mentioned Christ on the cross. And the thing that struck me in particular when looking at the events surrounding the shooting of Charlie Kirk, the. The Father handing in Tyler Robinson is very interesting to me and the mother as well, because it reminds me of how God the Father, in a very mysterious way, by handing over the Son and really asking His Son to give himself up. Right? Our Heavenly Father is doing this with Christ in order to bring healing into the world. And it's a great mystery. It's impossible to really understand how that through this death can come new life. And I mentioned the mother too. If I understand this correctly, Tyler Robinson's own mother was also happy that instead of committing suicide, her son would give himself up and hand himself in. Okay, so I thought it was interesting, and we mentioned it yesterday, that the Father is handing over the Son on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. Well, on this weekend, as we celebrated the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, which is that the Father is giving up the Son for us to heal the world. You know, there was a time when, as a young man, I was very, very mean to my mother because the fighting got so bad. And I thought I didn't deserve to live because I was so cold to her. And after two weeks of not speaking with her, my father pulled me aside and said, you have to apologize to your mother. You have to accept responsibility for how ugly it got. You have to turn yourself in. So I did. But then, praying before the crucifix, shortly after, I looked up at the cross and I saw it like for the first time. See, I didn't feel like I deserved to live anymore. I didn't want to live anymore because I so offended my mother. Who am I to ever enjoy a drink again or laugh at a joke again, or travel again when I was so cruel to my own mother in public, too, in an airport. But I looked up at the cross and I saw Jesus saying, in a sense, I have died for that. What happened in the airport, I died for that. I have it. I got it. I was seeing for the first time just what this crucifixion of Christ can accomplish. He took our sins onto the cross and offered them to the Father and died the death that we want to die when we sin so gravely, like Tyler Robinson. I think they're saying that he was saying, I'd rather commit suicide. But, you know, we know that feeling of like committing a sin that's so grave that we want to just die. Who am I to continue living? So when I looked at Christ on the cross and said, thank you so much. How can I repay you? What can I ever do to thank you for dying, for what happened in the airport when I so offended my own mother? And he said to me, in my heart, he says, you know, live. Live. So this is. This is what he wants for us to continue to live. So in that sense, he comes to bring us what we said yesterday was like new wine. Now, he mentioned it and said it that way because at the wedding feast at Cana, Christ turns water into wine. But remember, now, the Blessed Mother is there, and she says to Jesus, they have no wine. They ran out of wine. And her heart breaks for them. And she goes to Christ and says, please, if you can do it. And he says, but my hour has not yet come, which is a reference to his crucifixion. You know that when I start working miracles or signs, this is going to lead to my crucifixion. But nonetheless, she encourages him to turn himself in. In that sense, she encourages him to hand himself over. Even the Blessed Mother, like God the Father, encouraged her son Jesus, to give his life for the healing of the world. So lastly, then, to those of you, especially those of you who are in college or who have children who are in college, I know that I said, had some of the masses, like, just have fun. College is really just about enjoying yourself anyway and kind of growing up. And what I mean by that is, like, even those of you who are older, your life is not ultimately about your job, you know, any more than, like, a college student's life is ultimately about their degree. You know, going to college is about growing up and making some mistakes and learning, sometimes learning the hard way. You know, how I feel about things, what I think about things. You know, how to control my passions. It's true. It's easy to go off the rails. I don't deny that. And nor do I think that you're not smart enough or capable of standing up to someone who might be trying to indoctrinate you from the front of the classroom. I think it's important for you to recognize lie or evil when you hear it or see it. But I also wanted to say, like, I think the best place for us to grow in our ability to adhere to the truth is in the family or in some community that we share, likely with the church, where in that context, where there's love and shared spirit, you can grow in your convictions, you can feel free to ask questions where disagreements can take place without it turning into a humiliating competition or defeat. So I, by no means really would mean to say that college kids can't have these conversations. I'm just, I'm just saying I hope you don't feel like you have to have everything all figured out in order for you to go forward. Like it's okay to permit that there's a lot of uncertainty in life and that there's going to be a need for redemption a lot of times throughout life. But that's what Christ is offering us. Remember, he said he's offering us eternal life, which is like a life you can always turn to for new wine. And I just feel like this pressure to fix all the world's problems, which is the art of politics, before you graduate college. It's just a lot of pressure for you to feel. So I used to say, when I was in college, if I heard something that I knew that the church didn't teach, I used to say, I don't know exactly what the church teaches, but I know it's not that. So, yes, I would have called myself pro life when I was in college, but I didn't really have a good pro life argument. And I am grateful that Charlie Kirk masterfully would have given a lot of young people some way to, to reasonably adhere to their pro life stance. Right. But I also just think it's important for us to consider the context in which that kind of argument happens. You know what I'm saying? What I want to do as a priest is just try to create the conditions necessary for you who are listening to me right now, for example, to open your heart to this. I believe then that Christ can accomplish the conversion. I. I don't think Christ needs me to win an argument against you. He doesn't call me to be a contradiction, a word against. He calls me to be a word for you. You know the way that Christ was talking to Nicodemus, a Pharisee. These Pharisees were not liked by the people, but Christ drew near to the Pharisee Nicodemus, like in intimacy and closeness, and then doing so with fishermen who were thought simpletons who had no contribution to make to the world because they couldn't make erudite arguments. This is how he changed the world, you know, one person at a time. And all of them first, ordinary people who start their lives by drinking the first wine, which is the desire for life. And then, after learning that Christ alone fulfills their desire for God and for life, allow him to give them new wine.