Bishop Strickland: I’m grateful that Pope Francis is speaking about the Sacred Heart of Jesus

(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s two-part episode of The Bishop Strickland Show, Bishop Joseph Strickland discusses the connections between the Church of the 15th century and today, guarding yourself and being prepared to meet Christ, the obligation of Catholics to proclaim Christ’s truth, Pope Francis’ new encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and more.

Bishop Strickland began the first part of the episode by offering commentary on Luke 12:35-38, in which Our Lord tells the parable of the master returning to his house from the wedding. Strickland underscored that Christ is urging the disciples to be on guard for His return and even predicts what He would do at the Last Supper when He says, “Amen I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.”

“That’s exactly what Christ does at the Last Supper: He washes their feet. And so, He humbly models for us the kind of Lord He is and the kind of servants we’re called to be,” the bishop said.

His Excellency noted that in the New Testament, we often see the disciples asking questions like which one is the most important and “Who is going to sit at [Christ’s] right and left hand?” “Those are natural human questions, but the Lord is telling us to be ready not to take our place in His kingdom but to be ready to serve, to be ready to encounter Him,” Strickland said.

The bishop highlighted the need to be especially vigilant in these times, as troubling conversations take place at the Synod on Synodality and Americans vote in a critical election within the next several days.

Strickland dove into how we often procrastinate on improving our health, family life, and, most importantly, prayer lives. Still, we really need to strengthen our spiritual lives today. “That’s exactly what the Lord is telling us, ‘Don’t wait until tomorrow. Be ready now. Gird your loins. Light your lamps. Be like servants awaiting the master’s return,” the bishop said.

Strickland emphasized that to be ready for the master’s return, we need to regularly attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and receive the sacraments. “The master returns at every Mass; we need to heed this message and be ready to greet Him. Part of that readiness [is]: Have I confessed my sins? Have I done my best to repent of my sinfulness and seek to have sanctifying grace? So that that film of sin and darkness and all the muck that gets on the lens of our seeing the Lord clearly gets washed away,” the bishop said.

Later in Part 1, host Terry Barber dove into the parallels between the state of the modern Church and the Church of the 15th century, when several of the clergy were plagued by scandal, many of them having mistresses and living luxurious lives. The host played a clip of a homily by Father Jeffrey Kirby, in which the priest discussed how if there were true reformers in the Church following the Fifth Lateran Council in the 16th century, the Protestant revolution might have never happened. He added how after the Council of Trent it took one bishop, St. Charles Borromeo, to implement reforms properly. Kirby added that we’re still waiting for a St. Charles Borromeo to rise up and implement the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Barber noted that today only Strickland and a handful of other bishops, such as Athanasius Schneider and Cardinal Raymond Burke, are correcting the errors of the Church hierarchy. His Excellency highlighted that he and other clergy speaking out are simply embracing the strength Christ offers them, as St. Charles Borromeo did in his time. “The Lord had a tremendous mission for him. But St. Charles Borromeo would’ve been the first to say, ‘It’s not about Charles Borromeo, it’s about all of us being faithful to Jesus Christ.’”

Bishop Strickland began the second part of the episode by offering commentary on Luke 12:39-48, in which Our Lord continues with the parable of the master and servants of the house, this time emphasizing the need to be prepared for the thief, not knowing when he will arrive.

The bishop stressed that this Gospel passage shows that we need to be ready to greet the Lord at all times by turning away from sin and remaining in the state of grace. “Not just at the end of the world or even at the end of our lives, but to greet Him on a day-to-day basis, to seek to do His will,” Strickland said.

The bishop underscored that the end of this Gospel – “Of those who have received much, much is required” – reminds us of the responsibility Catholics have to vote in the upcoming U.S. election and proclaim the teachings of Jesus Christ each day.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘Things are just such a mess, I’m not even going to vote.’ And I believe we cannot fall away from our responsibility to be those who proclaim the truth. Yes, things are a mess in the Church, in the world, in business, all over the place. … All the more do we need to speak out and speak the truth, proclaim Jesus Christ the light of the world,” he said, adding that as Catholics we have the fullness of Christ and have a responsibility to proclaim that to the rest of the world.

The bishop stressed that Catholics oftentimes compromise the truth because they don’t want to be accused of being “holier than thou.” “We tend to say, ‘Oh, well, you have truth, and we have truth, and we’ll let you have your truth.’ That isn’t what our Catholic faith is, certainly every one of us has to live up to the Catholic faith that we know,” His Excellency said.

Strickland noted that if the Lord were to return to the planet today, He would tell us Catholics who have the fullness of the faith that we have too often failed to speak the truth.  

“We have too often failed to act, failed to speak the truth, failed to oppose a culture of death, failed to vote in the best way we can for that candidate who might not have as much truth as we want, but we have to vote for the candidate who has the most truth and then get to work calling them to live the truth even more fully,” the bishop said.

His Excellency added that sadly we’re not hearing about the great responsibility we have from the Vatican. “We’re hearing more of this synodal thing, we’re hearing about, ‘Oh, let’s all just talk with each other and have these discussions and get along.’ But we’re not proclaiming the truth of Christ,” Strickland said.

Later in Part 2, Barber asked the bishop about Pope Francis’s new encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, joking that it’s refreshing to see the Holy Father release an encyclical on an important topic rather than global warming.

Strickland agreed, saying he’s grateful that the Pope is speaking about Christ’s Sacred Heart, and then explained the beauty of this devotion.

“In a world desperate to know their Lord, desperate to know that God is with us, we know that He is and His Sacred Heart and His Eucharistic Heart, they’re what give me strength and connect me more into Christ,” the bishop said.  

“[The Sacred Heart devotion is] so beautiful because it reminds us [that] He is the second person of the Trinity, all of that theology, but He has a heart like ours. A real human heart beating in His chest, but a sacred human heart because it’s the heart of the Son of God. And so, there’s really nothing I need to emphasize more,” he continued.

“The heart of Christ pumped His precious blood through His body, just like ours is pumping blood through our bodies right now, and it’s just a beautiful image of Christ.”

To hear more from His Excellency, tune in to this week’s episode of The Bishop Strickland Show.     

To watch all previous episodes of The Bishop Strickland Show, click here to visit LifeSite’s video page dedicated to The Bishop Strickland Show.