The Exorcist Files - Facing The Problem of Evil and Suffering with Fr. Dan Reehil

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

Fr. Dan Reehil helps us process God's sovereignty and goodness in a world dominated by evil. Get 25% Off @CowboyColostrum with code EXFILES at www.cowboycolostrum.com. #CowboyColostrumPodGet $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood—delivered right to your door. Go to:  https://www.wildalaskan.com/EXFILESHeavenMeetsEarth.comThe Vault- ExorcistFiles.SuperCast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello, Exorcist Files, fam. Today we have a little bit of a shorter episode for you, but one that I think will actually really resonate. We routinely get questions from listeners all over the world, seeking spiritual truth with the age-old question, why is there so much evil in the world? Especially if God is all-loving and all-knowing. It's a question that is vexed, well, I think pretty much everyone throughout history. And do we have the answer for you today? Well, not necessarily. But while on my recent travels, I was grateful to sink up with a longtime friend of the show, Father Dan Rehill, who also happens to be an exorcist. He shares some really poignant and timely thoughts about how we can think through the tension we're currently experiencing right now in this world with so much tragedy and suffering and the hope that is to come. Lastly, if you need some encouragement because you're going through a difficult time, you need a reminder of God's goodness, or your NFL team just happens to be lacking in any fruits of the spirit or defense, then may I suggest you, also check out Heaven Meets Earth. It's an incredible new series from CBN, which features some

absolutely wild testimonies of answered prayer, powerful Holy Spirit moments, and so much more. Make no mistake, the world has a lot of terrible things happening, but there is much to be helpful for. All over the world, there are signs happening that make you wonder. So, check it out on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. And with that, here's Father Dan Rehill to help us wrestle through the question of evil and suffering in the world. Joining with me today, Father Dan Rehill, friend of the show, and someone we deeply respect and admire Father Rehill, thank you for joining us today on the show to help us wrestle through some tough questions.

It's good to be with you. Thanks for inviting me. Folks, on the show, obviously, we cover spiritual warfare, but more importantly, this show has been about documenting the reality of evil. Spiritual warfare is the vehicle that we talk about, but evil is real. We've tried to present that on this show as accurately as we can. Father Rehill, for those of you who have not listened to him on our show before or aware of his work, he is an exorcist and a Catholic priest and someone we respect highly in the world of spiritual warfare,

but also someone that I really was looking forward to just helping us kind of process a little bit, some of the questions that have arisen from this time. There's a lot of great stuff out there. But given that this show has talked about evil for a while, I thought we would be in a unique position to help address. So, Father, how do you explain how God is in control and sovereign over all this? And yet, we live under the dominion of the evil one, and all this evil is just on full display. Okay, so this is the perfect day to discuss this, because today, September 14th, the Catholic Church celebrates the triumph or exultation of the cross. And this is where we point when things like this happen. Because

the only man that came into the world without any sin and remained sinless, his entire life was Jesus Christ. So this was the perfect man. He's also divine. The word became flesh and dwelt among us with a human body, joined together, the divine and the human, fully, both. But he never did anything wrong. He never committed a single sin. He never had to apologize for anything. And yet this is the man that was blasphemed, spit on, beaten, broken, scourged, mocked, stripped naked, nailed to a cross, and murdered. Okay? Before this, the cross was a thing of shame and guilt and torture.

And after his resurrection, the cross becomes the significant point where salvation enters the world. So in a way, the cross, in a mystical way, is the marriage bed of the Lamb of the Lord. God. That's how he chose to bring new life for the world and for its inhabitants. And that was his purpose. This is the only man that was born to die. That was his mission. And it was a mission. And this is what set us free. So when you point to the worst thing that was ever done on the planet, which is the crucifixion of the Son of God, it also happens to be the greatest thing. This is why we wear crucifixes on our fingers, ran our necks, we hang them in our homes. To remember,

one, I needed that man because I'm a sinner and I needed him. And then two, don't ever forget what he did for us. Okay? So that's the first thing. And you have that context. And a lot of people don't have that. That's the problem. If you don't understand that he took the worst thing and made it into something very good,

the best actually, then the second thing we have to realize is God does not think about the world as we think about the world. He says in his own scriptures, my ways are far above your ways. As high as the sky is above the earth, or my way is above your ways. We focus everything in this life in terms of living in this life. It's just the way we're wired. It's part of our concupiscence in the fall,

but the reality is the next life is where all our focus should be. Are we getting to heaven? That's the focus of every person, or should be the focus of every person's life. How can evil exist? Well, did God will for this to happen? I don't know. I would say probably not.

did he allow it to happen? He did. And then God can use this evil act to bring forth something good, amazing, and beautiful. So if you remember the Joseph of the Old Testament, he was beloved by his father, Jacob, and he had the colorful coat, and he was called the dreamer because he got all these supernatural dreams God was giving him about his future. The brothers were very jealous and envious. They want to kill him, but it said they sell him into slavery, and off he goes into the desert and prison with Pharaoh. He's in prison now. And eventually he becomes the governor of the whole land by God's providence.

And when the great famine comes, he stores up all this food and he's able to feed many, many, many, many people of all these countries. And what does he say to his brothers when he meets them again, what you have meant for evil, God has used for good to save many lives. It's a very important quote. We should never forget, Genesis 50-20. What you have meant for evil, God has used for good to save many lives. I would say in the case of Charlie, what this, whoever this person is or a group of people that

succeeded in killing him, what they have meant for evil to silence him, God is now using for good to explode around the world his message of goodness, of truth, of God's mercy, of God's care for the ones who follow him. And that might seem like a paradox for a lot of people. How could the one you love let you get killed? because heaven is better. It's better than here. And we can't comprehend what's awaiting us because we only know this. But I'm telling you from the people I know who've been there and come back, and I don't canonize people, but I believe he was martyred. And in that case, he would go straight to heaven. Heaven is far better because the people I know who've been there and come back said they didn't want to come back. They were

forced to come back. But really, it was like God said, you have a mission to complete. It's not over. Apparently, Charlie's mission was complete. And you know what? He can do. more from heaven than he can on earth. Now, just in three days, four days now, look at what's happening around the world. Did you see what was happening in London and Paris? A million people came out. A million. And it's not like the fake millions report about the rallies here. It's a real million. They're crossing this whole bridge. It's full. Korea, Japan, they're all having rallies saying Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. And if you look at the people saying, I went back to church, I'm going to read the Bible.

I'm going to go seek this. So there is something happening. Like a pastoral level, I know when you deal with, I imagine you have people in your congregation, you have out with who, for example, this is something that touches on a lot of people, but whether themselves or a family member gets a really bad diagnosis.

I imagine this question comes up. How could God let this happen to me? How do you minister to people in those moments when they think about something, when we just think about, all right, God is permitting, I know God's in control, because obviously the challenge is, that we want to celebrate, we believe in a God,

we start with the premise, God is good. I know cancer and ALS and Parkinson's and all the stuff, that's not good. And yet God permits it. So how do you counsel people who maybe just to maybe make it specific, you know, get a bad diagnosis and they say, Father, I'm wrestling with the goodness of God right now? Well, to be honest, that doesn't come up a lot.

Really? Okay. Yeah. So the first thing is, though, I'm afraid. That's what I usually get. And so the way you go to that is I go, I'm with you. Okay? And we're going to walk through this together, and I give them big hug and let them cry. Get the feelings out.

And then either later that day or over time, we meet again and we talk again. And I say, listen, let's come up with a plan here. So we're going to start, just like we do with exorcism people, with subjects who are being confronted by evil through the supernatural. We're going to give you a prayer subscription. And I'm going to do it with you. So we're going to do a rosary every day for a lady to come into this and eradicate this problem. We're going to hand it over to her.

We're going to ask her to take control here because she's our heavenly mother. And right away they start getting peace. They still have the problem, but they have peace. Now, if you have God's peace, you can pretty much move through anything. I mean, that's how it works. It's supernatural. Once they have the peace, we can talk rationally. So the next step is, are you improving?

Let's say it's six months later. I'm not improving. I'm getting worse. How much worse are you? it doesn't look good. I might die in two months. Okay. So I think it's fair to say, let's start preparing you for your entry into heaven to meet the saints. And that's how you, it's not like to prepare you to die. That doesn't sound good. Nobody wants to hear that. No, let's prepare you for your entry party to have that great celebration with the saints. Who's your favorite saint? Let's talk about

that. I'm going to get a list of it. Let's ask that they could come and meet you when you cross over. And then they start thinking about it with, it has meat on it. It's not just, just a fairy tale thing in the sky. I don't know what's going to happen. We have a plan. We're asking for God's intervention. We're asking for our lady and the saint's intervention. We're praying, and we're still asking for a miracle. But then you can walk them right up to the finish line and hand them over with grace. And there's no fear. There's no histrionics or craziness. There's no anger. The family's at peace. It really can work the way it's supposed to. I would imagine when Joseph died, that's how it happened. I'm curious, father. Have you done, we've had a

couple. I know Father Zeta was a hospital chaplain for a while. We had a great conversation recently about last riots and kind of some of the observations. Have you been present at many final moments for people in your work as a priest? I'm curious, what do you? I'm the only priest in my county. Okay. So I'm curious. It's funny. I asked one priest this and he said, well, actually, Ryan, he's like, a lot of people are not really in a really cognizant state. So he's like, I don't want to burst your bubble here, but he's like, but there are some beautiful stories. But I'm curious, Father, is there anything that you have observed in your time doing ministry with those as this week has transpired? I've just been thinking about we don't know the hour of the time

that we're going to get called home. And I'm curious when people are on the threshold of crossing over, like what are they thinking? What are they saying? How do you talk to them? Well, the ones who are like daily mass goers, they kind of know what's coming and they kind of understand this is going to be better, and they're usually trying to console their family. They flip the script on it. It's like they're the ones consoling the family who are really upset and completely torn apart because a lot of them don't have a relationship with God. They've left the church, the kids, the grandkids, whatever. However, I had a case where one of my good friends, who's a chef in Nashville, good Catholic guy, he called me up when he says, you know, I think she was a hostess at one of the restaurants,

is dying. She's in Vanderbilt. Can you go talk to her? She's not even baptized. but she's kind of afraid. So I said, of course. So I went and visited her, and I said, so I can talk to you about, we have three things we can talk about. So we can talk about the weather and topical events, or we can talk about your illness,

or I can talk to you about Jesus and what he promised for those who love him. Pick one. And she goes, well, I don't fare about the weather. I'm dying. So let's go with Jesus. And she's not baptized. So I said, did you know he came into this world

so that he could open the gates of heaven so that everybody who follows him could get into heaven and spend eternity in this amazing, beautiful, wonder. I imagine the best meal you've ever served the restaurant times a billion. And like, everything's perfect and everything's beautiful. And she goes, it sounds wonderful. I go, do you want that? And she goes, I do.

I go, okay, I can baptize you and confirm you right here today. So we did. Her sister was in the room, too. and I said, you're in actually the geographical parish boundary of the cathedral. So when you die, would you like to have your funeral at the cathedral? It's the most beautiful church in Nashville. And she says, oh, I would love that. And her sister goes, oh, God, now we're never going to hear the end of this until she finally goes.

I mean, it was a very cute relationship. But you know what? She was open. She took it all in. She wanted it. And I'm sure she went straight home. I mean, that baptism wipes away everything. Amen.

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I had another one. It was about three, four years ago. I just finished the Easter vigil. So have you ever been to the vigil mass? No. Okay. It's like three hours. It's very exhausting for the priest.

And no, it's a beautiful mass, but it's almost like training for the- It's the Super Bowl, right? It's the Super Bowl, right? It's the Super Bowl, right? It's the Super Bowl. It's training for like the marathon. So when the day comes, there's five hours of prep. and then you get ready, and then you go three hours, and then you get home, and you're just dead.

And I walk in the door, and I kick off my shoes, and I sit down, and I literally was just in a coma, and the phone rings. Somebody's dying in the hospital, can you come? And I'm like, are you joking? Now? Okay. So it's so late that the hospital entrance was closed. I had to go through emergency, and then I have to wait for a cop to come.

And it's taking 45 minutes. And I just said to the Lord, just let them hang on, because this isn't my fault. Young guy. No, it wasn't. I'm just trying my best. So he's 50, young guy. I remember he had big arm. He was a Marine or something. He's got all his kids who went on his wife. And his kids are young, you know, teenage, maybe 20. They're all bawling, crazy loud, wailing, the really gutter roll, screaming and yelling. So I'm just staring because I'm literally still like in a coma. And I'm just staring at the whole scene. And the Lord says, Annoint him now. I go, oh, okay. So I walk him, I go, excuse me, I really got to do this. Let me do this. So I give him the whole. So I give him the whole thing. So I give him the whole. whole anointing and I said, Tom, it's the Easter vigil. We have entered into Easter, like the day of the resurrection. You know, you're good to go. Whenever you're ready, Jesus is waiting. And when I finished that sentence, when I said waiting, he flatlined. And it went, and everybody in the room went, and they all look at me like, what did you do? And I go, no, no, no, no, no. He's been waiting for this. This is why he was hanging on. He's going

right over. So this is your moment to say goodbye and be at peace. And I exit it out. Those are the rare exceptions when something is so right to the minute. But yeah, God can do that. As people are you know, kind of talking with you about as they realize that this iteration is ending. I'm curious, you know, this thing with Charlie's also got me ruminating on, you know, as Christians, we kind of, or I guess as humans, we all know that one day our tickets up. And, but we, we tend to live in this kind of ignorant bliss. I've been thinking a lot about how I say, I'll be right back or I'll be in four hours. And this is generally true.

Thankfully, it's been very true. But you just never know. And I've been thinking about, like, he probably wasn't thinking an hour before. This is it. And so I've been ruminating on, you know, okay, the psalmist says, teach me to count my days. What needs to be said that I haven't said? Who do I need to forgive? Who do I, is there a good I'm withholding from someone?

Does death have this kind of clarifying effect of like what's important and that healthy respect and fear of it kind of gets people's lives in order? For those who love God, yes. But there are those who are, their heart is so hardened and they just will not let go of those grudges. You know, as much as I can make an argument for them to let go of it, there's a, it's, the bitterness is there. And so the last attempt is I just say, listen to our father tells us in the end of that

prayer will be forgiven to the degree we forgive others. And if you're not going to forgive in his final moments, and what, what is it to you? You're going to go. You're going to be gone. Why do you care? Just say you're sorry. Sometimes that works. Sometimes they just leave them with their thoughts and you hope they do it. But you know, you can't force them because it doesn't mean anything if they don't mean it. But usually the people that are in the church that I minister to are pretty much all on board with the message that we're trying to convey. So I don't encounter that a lot. But you make a good point. The art of dying well is directly correlated to the art of living well. And the art of living well is like, be the best disciple you can be. So just what you said, love God of all your heart and love your

neighbor. You know, it's yourself. Almost identical to what you said is Dominic Savio. Do you know him, Italian saint? When he was like 12 years old, he was being mentored by another saint, Don Bosco. This is Italy in the 1800s. And he was taking a lot of these kids off the street who didn't really have any kind of mentoring and trying to make saints out of them. And one day he stopped a bunch of them who were playing football and soccer here and said, if you had, if Jesus appeared to you and said, you had one hour to live, what would you do? And all the boys are kind of panicking. Oh my gosh, Father, I would have to go to Mass. Could you say Mass for us? Oh, I need to go to confession. Oh, my gosh, I'd have to go home and apologize to my parents for how awful I'd benson. Oh, I'd have

to ask forgiveness for this and do this. And Dominic didn't speak. And he goes, Dominic, what would you do? He goes, I play football because I've been to Mass. I prayed my rosary. My parents know I love them and I don't have to ask forgiveness from anybody, so I'm good. He died two years later. He's a kind of a nice saint. John Fisher. You know who that is? No. He was the Bishop in London during the time of Henry VIII. Oh, Henry wants to have a new wife. And John Fisher said, no, we can't do that. And he says, well, I'm going to. And he goes, well, I'm going to condemn it. You can't do that. And so he starts his own church, of course, and takes the new woman.

So over the issue of having sex with somebody else besides his wife, he starts a church, which continues today, by the way. And he puts Sean Fisher in the clock tower prison. And on the morning of his execution, at about 6 o'clock of the morning, the guards comes in, and says, today you're going to be executed, just one to let you know. and John says, okay, well, I'm really tired. Would you mind if I went back to sleep?

So, given the last hours of life, these saints who were fully prepared, which is why they could do this, one wanted to play football and the other wanted to sleep. Not what you'd expect. I mean, this brings up interesting question because Christianity is this art

of holding these conflicting, seemingly conflicting truths and paradoxes. This life is so important, and yet it's not. and I'm curious, you know, because I look at most of history and it seems like, you know, this idea, too, that you're going to, you know, you want to live to be 100 and have health, wealth, house and spouse. Those are great things. But when I look at history, I'm finishing the Stalin biography right now, which you want to talk about a trip. And I go, I mean, there's 20 million people who just evaporated. And they were farmers and they weren't wrestling with, well, I don't know what fulfills me. And I mean, it was like, I want to survive. I think life has been such a flea. fleeting mist for so many that I find myself wondering sometimes, like, is life just a test? Why did, if we are such a fleeting mist and God and the heaven is this goal, why do we get life when so many people seem to get such short opportunities to engage with it, if that makes

sense? Here's the thing. Think about this. So we come into this role with nothing. But most people will spend their entire life chasing everything in the world, everything, the money, the big houses, the cars, the vacations, all of it. And then you leave with nothing, except the love you gave and the love you received. And that comes through beautiful human relationships with God and with your fellow man.

That's all you take. Now, most people don't tend to focus on that because we are literally brainwashed by the world that you need all this to be happy. But then it's all gone. you're like, well, what was that about? I wasted 80 years for what? Stuff I left behind. The Book of Wisdom says this all the time. And you can, it's cut and co-heleth. This is all vanity. It's all just smoke and mirrors, like you say. But for those who get it, when you end your life, spending your whole life giving and trying to forge those relationships that are going to bring forth

good fruit for the kingdom, that's storing of treasure and habit. That's what we have to be dealing. It's fine. I think I knew this, but it wasn't until I started my work on the Xist Files that I, I had heard this articulated, but the idea that God is sovereign and an absolute control of the universe, and yet the world is under the dominion of the prince of the era of Satan. And I know this is a really difficult kind of abstract question, but for someone wondering right now and asking, I'm like, wait, I know God's in control, and I know he's sovereign, but wait, I'm living under the weight of the enemy, which makes sense if you look at all the horrible, the hell on earth that we exhibit, how does that interplay, you know, are there any thoughts you

could share to help us maybe try and make sense of that dynamic and how that operates? God is in control of everything. This is a truth, okay? But he also set up a divine providence on how the order of universe would operate. But he can suspend those things. You know, Padreau Pio could float off the ground and suspend gravity. But overall, he lets things play out the way he set them up. And when he expelled Lucifer from heaven, he was thrown down to the earth. And that happened. All of the spirit realm was created before the material realm. So he's kicked out, and then everything is spoken into existence down here.

And the whole thing plays out. So why would he let Satan into the garden? Well, he would let him in as a test to see if Adam and Eve were going to be fully allegiant to what he asked of them. That would be the only good answer I could give you. And he also knew they were going to fail. And he go, well, that doesn't seem fair. But what did he have to replace that?

Something better. They were just creatures at that point. His creatures, and he walked with them, at least once we know in the new day of the sun. But now he's going to give an opportunity to become his sons and daughters, which they weren't before that. So he's going to elevate us through this fall and raise us up to a point where man will be above the angels.

Man was below the angels before this. So you see, he only allows these things to bring about something greater. A lot of people don't like that. They say, oh, I just don't like that. I feel like I don't know how I'm playing this game. I feel like I could be manipulated and duped at any minute. You could because he's infinitely more smart than you, but he also is infinitely more loving. And that's the one thing we can depend on.

The other thing we can depend on, he doesn't change. And so this God who's so great and omissioned and all powerful and all loving, he's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He's not going to change. Yeah. You know what we don't know about God? You never know how he's going to do something or what he's going to do next, but we know he doesn't change.

And the part that's a little bit terrifying is what is he going to do next? Because that's the big question mark. But he will not change. So if you claim to his nature, you'll be good. If you try to claim to figuring out how he works, you're always going to be confused. You know, Peter, but I'm curious, is there this, you know, again, this is, I know abstract theology, but do you think that there's this word? world where God is in control, but Satan still has to ask these permissions to do these things,

and there's this dynamic, and God will allow Satan to kind of overplay his hand, and then he'll just turn around and then just use it to kind of, like Satan is just inadvertently propelling God's plan forward, despite being in charge of the world. Yeah, and the perfect analogy for that is the cross. Satan thought he whined when he crucified Christ. And then in that very moment, when Jesus enters hell and it busts everybody out of there. Satan's like, what is going on? Because he got duped, right? Because he's just not that smart. He's brilliant compared to us, but compared to God, he's nothing. He's a net. So this is like playing chess with the chess champion of the world versus of three-year-olds who's just learning. He's 400 moves ahead of you. He's already won the game,

but he's going to let you play to see what happens. That's how he deals with Lucifer. And he'll always bring goodness out of it because that's all he can do is to do the good. The problem for us is trusting that he will do that. Look at Pope John Paul too. He was basically an orphan by 18. So he's got nobody in his corner. The parents are gone. His brother, he never met. A brother died before he's born. And he's being raised now in a communist culture where they're killing Christians and Jews. And he has to go to seminary underground, but if he's discovered, they kill him. What happened? He became the Pope. Like, I mean, there's examples of God taking care of his people all through Scripture

and all through our own day and age in the last, you know, two, three hundred years. You could point some so many examples where, yes, in terms of the way we process information, we think that was a fail. In terms of the way God process, if everybody gets home to heaven today, that's a wing for God that's a win. Regardless of how they died. So speaking of that paradox, someone dies of cancer and the enemy comes at you and says, see, God didn't protect them and he's not going to protect you, right? And yet we know God protects or God allowed this guy who gave his life to him to be murdered.

So what faith can you have in him protecting you? How does the Christian respond, you know, even verbally to that? Like, what is it saying like, you know, God is in control, God is good. Yeah, murder is evil and that was wrong. And I don't know, I don't know God what the plan is, but I know you're good. And therefore, I don't have to fear. Like, what is that, is that the way just to rebut that? Yeah.

I mean, I would look at it clinically. For a long time, you know, I had a very wild pass before I converted. And I've often thought I'm going to have to be martyred to get into heaven because of all this wrongdoing I did. And the wild days in New York. And so I'm always like, I think the best way for, I'm not saying this in any way to like mock what went on. But for years, I've told people, if I had it my way, I'd want to be martyed with the bullets at the back of the head. Because it's just one minute I'm talking and the next minute I'm facing Jesus like, hi, oh, hi, how do I get here? In many ways, that's like probably the most merciful way to die for the person dying because there's nothing except boom, here I am.

The only thing better is die in your sleep, maybe, because then it doesn't leave a scarring memory to the family members. But, yeah, that's where the pain comes in is for the family. And it kind of is, that's how it works. If you love him and give your life to them, he will then give you the tools you need to move through moments of darkness with grace. If you reject him and say, you're an evil God, you don't like me, you do all these bad things. You've pushed yourself away from God, and now you're going to be in terrible unrest. And the demons will torment you because you've separated yourself from God, not he from you. Isn't that right?

I mean, you've seen it. Yeah, no, it is. We've actually had a few people right into the show. you know, and it's people always want to know, oh, father, do you think, do you think it was demons that made this person do this shooting? Because we're sadly seeing all these terrible shootings. And they want to know, oh, is it mental health or demons? And obviously, our regular listeners know, sadly, it doesn't have to be one or the other. But with things like this, do you see this is direct spiritual warfare? Do you think when people just do premeditated murder like

this, that that's at the least demonically amplified, if not overtly planned? Yes. Of course it is because it goes against our human nature. Well, perfect human nature, of course, but even fallen human nature, there's an element in all of us that sees life as good. Now, if you're far away from God and you'd have to be really far away to get to the point where you think it's better to kill people than listen to their opinion, that is not humanity. That's demonic. That's a total demonic influence. I mean, look at the Look at the first murder that ever occurred. Cain, sin is crouching at your door. Don't do it. You think sin is a manifestation of like, no, that had to be a demon crouching at the door. That's calling the sin to his mind. And God is saying, don't do it.

And he does it. That's the first family. That left three people on the planet. 33% of humanity was a murderer. It's true. In the very beginning. So this has been an age-old problem, but it's, From the very beginning, we knew it was influence of the enemy.

And I said this to Carlo and several other exes probably about a year or two ago. I said, if this trajectory continues, we're going to start seeing this all over the media and in our Kroger's and in our Walmarts. And when you go to the gas station and the coffee shop, you're going to start seeing people doing these things, screaming these things, acting out these weird ways. And they're going to go, is everybody gone mad? No, everybody's embraced the demonic.

not because they wanted to, but because they said, I don't want any part of God or his kingdom. Well, there's only two. If you're not going to pick this one, you're going to wind up in that one. No, it seems, I mean, you just see the evil that's out there.

And part of the reason I wanted to have a short conversation today is I know so many people are looking for hope right now and around the world, people are suffering for the truth, et cetera. But to the person who says, hey, I just lost, I feel like there's no hope. I know that's not true.

But I just feel like it's so hopeless and it feels so bad right now. What, you know, what encouragement would you offer to the person who's just caught in that feeling of kind of hopelessness right now? Yeah, I talked about this today in my homily, because I'm getting a lot of calls and people emailing saying, I've lost hope. Listen, the first century of this church, every pope was murdered. every pope not one not two like over 30 okay so imagine living in a church like that where every time the elect a pope he's murdered and they're trying to get you too and you're on the run and you're having masks in secret places so you don't get caught so as bad as this is and it's bad it's not that

okay and this is the most important thing our hope is in jesus christ it is not in charlie kirk it is not in Donald Trump, it is not in Pope Leo. Our hope is in Jesus Christ and his promises to us. He promised he'd be with us till the end. He gave us his mother. He sent us His Holy Spirit. He gave us the garden angel. And he said, I will stay with you. It's going to be difficult, but I'm going to stay with you. And I promise you, I will prepare a place for you if you stay with me. That's where our hope is. Our hope is in the next thing. This life can all fall apart. They can drop a nuke on America. We can have an earthquake that splits the country into the worst catastrophes in the history of the world, doesn't matter. I'm not hoping in this world. I'm hoping in Jesus Christ and his promise to me

and to you and to all of us who follow him. And that's where our hope is. So that hope can't be diminished by anything because he's not going away. And his kingdom isn't going away. So realign your hope where it belongs. I had a spiritual director tell me whenever I would wrestle with this, said, Ryan, I wish you would obsess more about who you're becoming rather than where you are. And I thought I was stuck with me because if you do view it as, hey, I'm just prepping you for eternity. And all that matters is that we get you ready. And for everyone that's a different circuitous journey and everyone's got a different path and important not to compare ourselves to other journeys, et cetera. It's just so weird that God permits these tragedies and these are the

things that wake us up. And I wish it wasn't so. But it seems to be the primary way that he gets our attention. Yeah, and you know, it doesn't happen for everybody. I think 350,000 people die on the planet every day outside the womb. We do live in very strange times, and so it's important to keep our eyes fixed on the right thing, and I appreciate that. It sounds like heaven is the answer, and as long if we keep an eternal mindset perspective, I do think about this. If I actually believed everything in the book 100%, if I believe my Bible 100%, I really wouldn't actually be afraid of anything. And it's just that delta.

It's that little, it's that unbelief. Because obviously, like, cancer sucks. And I've lost friends to it. And yet, if I believe that we all just go to a way infinitely better place and there's no suffering anymore, then I'm like, oh, well, that's actually a good thing. And I'm just, man, I just miss talking to them, you know, which is valid. But it's like, yeah, that's, you know, but if we believed it, you know, I guess, yeah, we wouldn't, we wouldn't have any reason to fear all this. So, Father, I know you got a big trip coming up. you're heading out on a pilgrimage to a very special place for you. Where are you headed?

Back to Medriori. Or it all began, right? For me, yeah. That's right. That was the beginning. 33 years old came back to Jesus. That's a good year. Numbers matter, right? Numbers matter. And I remember being horrified thinking he accomplished his whole mission at 33 and I'm becoming day one. I know. Oh, I wrestle with that all the time too. But then I go, Moses was 80 and he's, he was one of the two slots that was given a tent opportunity at the Transfiguration. So, hey, you could be 80. You could be 80 and lead a rebellious people through the desert, but you never know. But anyways, Father, thanks for helping us for Russell through some of this, and we appreciate it. And I hope upon your swift return, you'll treat me to some more

that eggplant parm for our listeners who don't know. Father Reha also is a great chef. And he makes a mean eggplant parmesan, which I discovered it was Friday. There was no meat as a Protestant. so I was surprised, but it was that delicious that I was able to get past it. Thank you. I'd be happy to do that with you. Amazing. Awesome. Well, folks, stay eternally minded and keep praying. Pray for our country, pray for our family members, and yeah, keep our eyes on what matters, folks. Thank you. That's right. Thank you, Father Rio for joining us. Thank you. God bless you.