A Show of Faith
Millennial, Priest, Minister, and Rabbi walk into a radio station...
A Show of Faith
October 20, 2024 Timeless Wisdom and the Evolving Role of Tradition and Proverbs
Have you ever wondered why certain prayers or phrases seem to stick with us, resonating deeply across generations? Join us for this episode of A Show of Faith, where our diverse panel—Professor David Capes, Father Mario Arroyo, millennial Rudy Kong, and Rabbi Stuart Federow—unpacks the complex interplay between tradition and evolution in religious practices. We kick things off with some light-hearted chat about personal updates and the delightful climate of Guatemala, setting the stage for a dynamic conversation on changes within religious liturgies. Discover how these shifts, from Latin to English in Catholic Mass or modifications due to COVID-19, stir emotions and memories that tie us to our spiritual and cultural roots.
Our lively discussion then turns to the world of proverbs and cultural sayings, unveiling their role as conveyors of timeless wisdom. From "Hakuna Matata" in The Lion King to the iconic lines of Hamlet, we explore how these narratives shape our understanding of life's biggest lessons. We connect with our ancestors through stories and proverbs, finding guidance in their collective wisdom. We also dive into the potential pitfalls of misinterpreting these sayings, highlighting the importance of context and intention, ensuring that the pearls of wisdom we pass on are as meaningful as intended.
Finally, we venture into the realm of marriage advice with Fr. Mario's humorous take on the "three-ring circus" of the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the "suffer ring." This conversation not only brings laughter but also offers insights into the realities and expectations of married life. As Rudy and his wife Natalia prepare to steer next week's discussion, we express our gratitude to our listeners for their support and prayers, promising to keep them in our hearts as well. Tune in for a meaningful blend of theology, philosophy, humor, and heartfelt dialogue that promises to enlighten and entertain.
Well, I guess it would be nice If I could touch your body. I know not everybody has got a body like you, but I gotta think twice Before I give my heart away. And I know all the games you play Because I've got them too. All I need is someone from that emotion Trying to get my part up off the floor. Oh, we'll never come down with a divorce. What it takes to stop me. Welcome to A Show of Faith where Professor, priests, millennial and rabbi discuss theology and philosophy and anything else of interest in religion. If you have any response to our topics or any comments regarding what we say, we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at ashowoffaith at hotmailcom. You can hear our shows again and again by listening pretty much everywhere podcasts are heard. Our priest is Father Mario Arroyo, retired pastor of St Cyril of Alexandria in the 10,000 block of Westheimer. Hello, our professor David Capes is our Baptist minister. He's the director of academic programming for the Lanier Theological Library.
Speaker 2:Good to be with you guys tonight.
Speaker 1:Rudy Kung is our millennial. He's a systems engineer, has his master's degree in theology from the University of St Thomas.
Speaker 3:Howdy, howdy.
Speaker 1:I'm Rabbi Stuart Federo, rabbi Emeritus from Congregation Arha Shalom, the Clear Lake area of Houston, texas. Jim Robinson is our producer and engineer. He's the author of the book I Am With you Always, matthew 2820, a daily devotional. Corey and Miranda are our board operators and together, jim and Miranda and Corey help us sound fantastic.
Speaker 2:There we go, voted the number one. You know we've been voted again the number one show here in Houston on Sunday night. Yes, yet again, yet again, yet again, because we're that good we are, we are. Yes, hey, it's good to be with you guys tonight. Yep, I'm going to be back next week. May not be in the studio, but I'll be back next week for sure.
Speaker 3:And Rudy, how's life down in Guatemala? Guatemala, guatemala, they call it the eternal spring. It's actually magnificent. It's got very temperate weather and it's a bit of a rainy season right now, but it's good.
Speaker 2:It's nice, no revolutions so far.
Speaker 3:Now is your wife sitting next to you tonight she is she's sitting right there.
Speaker 2:Well, please greet her for us.
Speaker 3:Now that you guys are aware that I am married and I do have a wife.
Speaker 2:You know there are rumors of that, but we weren't sure if it was true or not.
Speaker 1:Okay, I am the eyes of religion. Okay, so before we start talking about specific quotations or verses, greenville, mississippi, 1982, my first pulpit and the Reform movement had just come out with a new prayer book. The prayers in Hebrew were the same, the translations were more modern and, david, from translating the Voice, you ran into this too. I'm not sure how much the mass in English would have changed.
Speaker 1:Oh, really, it has changed, yeah Well let's just say there were some people who were really not looking forward to the change of prayer books. They're very tied to text. Why? Why do people get tied to a text? Why, when somebody is I don't know trying to take care of someone else, what do we say to them? When you get onto an airplane, you put the mask for breathing on your own head first. However, that goes okay.
Speaker 2:It's cliche, it's proverbial, even if it's not a proverb, but it's true it's true, but but it differs, you know, and I think one of the reasons that we gravitate is we remember what our mother said or our grandparents said, and so I think we gravitate toward those things that have been with us a lot of our lives Right, right, absolutely and we know how those things are worded and when those things are changed it makes it a little bit more uncomfortable. I think that happened when the mass changed a few years ago, right? Oh yeah, I mean I remember hearing, and you and I we talked about it several times.
Speaker 5:Well, because you know like, for example, we've had three changes. First of all, when we went from Latin to English. And then we just had a big change, like about seven or eight years ago, because in the Mass we used to say the Lord be with you, and people would respond and also with you. We don't do that anymore. Why? Because they change it to and with your spirit.
Speaker 1:So it's theologically based. They wanted to maintain the theology. That's right.
Speaker 5:The first translation was more to get colloquial, but now the Vatican felt that they wanted to keep it closer to the theology.
Speaker 1:Did people object to that? Oh man, Really.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Sounds familiar.
Speaker 5:And then, well, Really, yeah, Sounds familiar. And then, well, I'll never forget the one. There's a part in the Mass where the priest asks the Lord to send his spirit over the gifts, and it goes. Let your spirit come upon these gifts and make them holy, and they become the body and blood of your son, your Lord Jesus. And all of a sudden they put in let your spirit come down upon these gifts like the dew. Like the dew referring to the dew on Mount.
Speaker 1:Hermon.
Speaker 5:Yeah, on the manna.
Speaker 7:Right, oh and manna.
Speaker 5:Oh man, Like the dew dude. What the heck are you talking about?
Speaker 1:what did it say before mana specifically, or what was the it was just an echo, I think of that okay for those who know that, you know the echo it sounds.
Speaker 2:It could be a variety of things, right? Yeah but I think we get used to these things. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 3:Go ahead, rudy, I was gonna say even something more recent with covet the uh, so that part during the mass where we gave so two things, where we give each other a sign of peace. Some churches do it, some don't anymore at all.
Speaker 1:Wait, wait rudy, for us catholic, what does it mean? To give each other a sign of whatever you said?
Speaker 5:Everybody turns around to each other and the priest says let us now offer each other a sign of peace. Shake hands, shake hands, oh, because what Jesus said if you're not at peace with your brother, leave your gift at the altar.
Speaker 2:Okay, and so the whole issue is that your next person sitting next to you represents peace with your brethren so you know, what I remember from a long time ago is is people would would maybe shake hands or or look at each other and say peace, be with you that's when you were catholic, right?
Speaker 5:no, that's not when I was cath, but when I attended an occasional.
Speaker 2:Catholic service and then I've been in Anglican services where people simply say to you God's peace, yes, and it's. The idea is almost as if may God's peace be with you. It's kind of one blessing to another, or one wish I wish you. God's peace right kind of thing.
Speaker 5:People just get very upset. But I really love the idea of proverbs or quotes that you live by when I was a kid, I used to save these.
Speaker 1:I wish I had my little notebook that I kept these by. Well, I do.
Speaker 4:I don't I have no idea what I did with mine, did you?
Speaker 2:save yours from Cuba. I mean Cuba no.
Speaker 1:Okay, did you record them in Spanish, or did you record?
Speaker 5:them in.
Speaker 1:English no, in English Okay.
Speaker 2:I bet in Cuba there are proverbs in Spanish that you maybe even remember or people in your family did and shared with you.
Speaker 1:Yep, but see, it's not just proverbs, okay, or like translation of the Psalms.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, what is a proverb? Why don't you start with that?
Speaker 1:It's a pithy statement expressing a wise idea. Pithy but often short. Yes, usually very short.
Speaker 2:When you say a penny idea, pithy McGoffin's short, yes I mean like when you say a penny saved is a penny earned. That's about as short as you can say that.
Speaker 5:Right, you're not throwing a lot of other stuff in, right, what I remember, a song.
Speaker 2:What song About a penny?
Speaker 5:A penny saved is a penny earned. The communists are the bad guys today. I'm kind of bad at writing protest songs. Sometimes I slip and use cliches. It's the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God and the motherhood of God knows who I've been told it and scolded.
Speaker 5:I've got to love the Protestant, the Chinaman, the Negro and the Jew. But before I love another man I have to love myself and be glad for what little bit I'm worth. But before I love another man I have to love myself and be glad for what little bit I'm worth. And if my love myself enough, loving you won't be so tough because I'll have all the love to give the earth. But it's the giving. It's the giving, it's the giving part. That's hard. But Rome wasn't built in a day and the race isn't over till the last man is in. And practice makes perfect. So they say but the point is Mario.
Speaker 1:the point is, first, every one of those is recognizable, that's correct. But second, of all, they're wise.
Speaker 5:There's a wisdom. To every one of them there is a wisdom. The song itself is called the Ballad of Clichés, but by Biff Rose.
Speaker 2:Biff, biff Rose, biff, biff Rose, biff Rose okay.
Speaker 1:That's a person I've never heard of. I've heard you sing that before, but I don't remember that name.
Speaker 5:It's Paradise Almost Lost. Remember that.
Speaker 2:Paradise Almost, no, no. Well, you know, I went back to Lord of the Rings to find some proverbs that Gandalf at the very beginning, so we would have. Okay, oh Right, say it again. I like that. I like that too. To the crooked eyes, truth may wear a wry face. I like that.
Speaker 5:I like that too.
Speaker 2:To the crooked eyes. If you have crooked eyes, if you're a crooked person, right, a wry face, a wry face, w-r-y, look it up. I will have to. It's a good word.
Speaker 1:I think of rye bread. Yeah, no.
Speaker 2:No, r-y-e is different, w-r-y-e is different, w-r-y. Here's another one by Gandalf the wise speak only what they know.
Speaker 1:Right See, see, that's good. That to me sounds something reflected in Proverbs, the book of Proverbs, Right, but I couldn't place it exactly, but it sounds like it could come from that.
Speaker 5:The one that I love is when you don't know anything. Keep your mouth shut. Don't speak unless you confirm you're an idiot, right we have sayings like that, the uh, uh.
Speaker 1:It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, yes, than to open your mouth and prove you are one. Yeah, right, remove all doubt. Oh, you're right, that's actually the full. That's even better, right.
Speaker 2:So, Rudy, we've got to go to break here in just a minute, but tell us about Guatemala. Proverbs.
Speaker 1:Yes, can you translate a Guatemala proverb?
Speaker 2:Can you say one in Spanish for our audience and then also translate it for us.
Speaker 3:There's a common one here that I hear all the time A quien madruga, dios le ayuda. I'm sure Father Mario's heard this one too, but it means God helps those who rise early, and it's just kind of a play on words, right Poetic, and this concept of Proverbs and I did quite a bit of research today and it's quite interesting how ingrained they are within transmit information right back when the majority of our language or teachings were just oral traditions, before we really had any type of writing. So these are things that have been passed down culturally, in different languages of course and different methodologies, but for thousands and thousands and thousands of years, and different methodologies, but for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. So it's really, in my opinion, something that's become. I mean, they describe it as a heuristic right, and this is a mental shortcut right that people use to make decisions right.
Speaker 1:Think of like the golden rule, right, Wait, wait wait, wait, don't do unto others that that people use to what to to make decisions right?
Speaker 2:right, we all have mental shortcuts that we engage in right use. That's just part of the way the mind works that's what here is, and and uh that's not exactly what heuristic means, but but the the idea of making decisions.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we make really quick decisions because we've we, and and they're, and they're good decisions because they're based upon mental shortcuts, and those mental shortcuts are based upon wisdom that we have gained, that has been passed down to us from generation to generation which goes to what rudy said, because I think there's something about these sayings that connect us to parents, grandparents, relatives who first said it to us, right?
Speaker 1:So I think holding on to the quotations, above and beyond the wisdom of them, is also touching our past, right.
Speaker 5:And I touch our present.
Speaker 2:Ah, yes, Father.
Speaker 5:When I say it's time to go to commission.
Speaker 2:Tempus Fugit.
Speaker 5:We'll be right back.
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Speaker 4:The Answer Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase.
Speaker 7:Hakuna Matata Ain't no peasant craze.
Speaker 1:It means no worries for the rest of your days, speaking of sayings and popular comments.
Speaker 6:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Miranda Good choice.
Speaker 6:Hakuna Matata.
Speaker 1:What a great song, too, it is a great song, welcome back to A Show of Faith.
Speaker 2:It's a great song too.
Speaker 1:It is a great song Welcome back to A Show of Faith. It's a good movie too.
Speaker 2:I mean, the Lion King was a great animated film and it's been in plays on Broadway and it's been in musicals and such.
Speaker 1:I think they call it Hamlet.
Speaker 2:Hamlet yeah, they call what Hamlet.
Speaker 1:The Lion King. The father dies, the son is all upset. What should he do? What should he do? What should he do Until the end of the play, where he does something about it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he has a mystical experience Right Right there in the middle.
Speaker 1:One of the best scenes ever, seriously, where the baboon whose name I can't remember, Rafiki, rafiki, that's what I said? I said Rafiki, rafiki is teaching the lion, the cub who, simba, simba, that's what I said. Simba. Who, simba, simba, that's what I said. Simba.
Speaker 2:She's of the right generation. She'll remember this.
Speaker 1:Rafiki hits him over the head with his stick Right and learning a lesson can be very hard and then he moves to do it again and Simba dodges and Rafiki says but we do learn Words to that effect. It's a great scene.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great scene.
Speaker 1:There's so many great scenes in there, right, but notice, I mean it was a great choice, miranda, seriously, but Hakuna Matata became a saying Don't worry, don't worry, be happy, that too.
Speaker 2:And song People would sing the song too Right right and it becomes a song A lot of times, like Father Mario was singing earlier, combining all those cliches and stuff.
Speaker 2:Hey, we're talking about Proverbs tonight. We're talking about wisdom. Here's how I define it. When I'm teaching the Hebrew Bible, aka the Old Testament, as Christians often say when I'm teaching that, I get to the wisdom tradition, the wisdom books, literature, and I say, well, let me give you a definition of wisdom. That's what academics do. We're always about giving definitions, and here's the wisdom. This is the language that I use. I say wisdom is the ability to live life well and to make good decisions.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's what in terms of Proverbs, but it's understood. The sayings help you do that.
Speaker 2:The sayings help you do that, and it's understood in the wisdom tradition that God is the author of wisdom, yes, and that the fear of God, or the reverence, knowing who God is and having the right disposition toward God is the beginning of wisdom as well, all the way back to the Egyptians, and even before that, we have wisdom literature. Here's an Egyptian, ancient Egyptian proverb, dr Darrell Bock Truly ancient, dr Darrell, truly ancient. Be industrious.
Speaker 1:Let your eyes be opened, lest you become a beggar For the man that is idle does not come to honor, which sounds a lot like Proverbs, and it also sounds like the Aesop fable about the grasshopper who doesn't?
Speaker 2:prepare for the winter Same kind of thing.
Speaker 5:Same kind of thing. One of my favorites is this one Be not the candle that is easily blown out and constantly needs protection. Desire to be the fire and wish for the wind. Ooh.
Speaker 1:Oh, I like that one that is good.
Speaker 2:That is very good Now.
Speaker 1:Now I've got nothing else to do, you could text that to me but before you text. Okay, mario, we also make up sayings, we also make up phrases, and I don't know if I'd call them proverbs, but it was a few years ago that you know, once upon a time, when you were the priest of the church, you, or the board, or whoever does it, created a mission statement. Yeah, is that what you called it?
Speaker 5:Yeah, Okay, it's funny because I used it tonight in my preaching, but it's neither here nor there. But I've always asked you know what is? I do a lot of things as a priest, okay, I have weddings, I do funerals, I do meetings, I do this and that. And then, a long time ago actually, when I was first starting to get ordained, I started asking myself what am I doing? What do all these things have in common? And I finally came up with a sentence, and the sentence is based on my experience of the culture right now, which is superficially Christian but not really disciples of Jesus. And I said the mission of the church is transforming a cultural Catholic into an intentional disciple.
Speaker 1:And I think it's brilliant A cultural Catholic into an intentional disciple and I think it's brilliant.
Speaker 2:Okay, a cultural Catholic into an intentional disciple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a great statement C-I-N-O Catholic in name only to a devoted Catholic. Okay, why? Why come out with a mission statement? Why come out with a mission statement?
Speaker 5:that's the one you did Because I wanted clarity for the parish. I wanted it for myself and I wanted it for the parish to know why it is that we're doing it and what we need to focus on and our focus has to be taking. We're not like the early apostles who were preaching to pagans and to people who never heard of the gospel. We're preaching to laps catholics for the most part, and so I call them cultural catholics. You know, you're asked who are you? Uh, I'm catholic, but I don't go to mass, I don't't do anything. But are you an intentional disciple? Do you intend, even if you're Catholic, if you're not intending, to be a student of Jesus? I always remind people that what's the point of being a disciple?
Speaker 2:That's the word.
Speaker 5:disciple means student, Means a student, and if you don't study, what's the point of being a disciple? So that's why I came up with it's the transformation.
Speaker 1:The closest I could come to that is that okay, they used to say Jewish by birth. Okay, that's come out of favor recently. So one phrase they use is Jews by chance Born Jewish, but Jews by chance, and I think that I would word it as taking people from being Jews by chance to being Jews by choice. I like it, I like it. I love the way Mario worded his.
Speaker 2:Well, Mario is really smart. Well, sometimes, despite what he, believes Despite some of those things. Hey, we're talking about Proverbs here tonight on A Show of Faith, it's. You know they're really based in I know we've got to go to a break, but it's really based in the idea that God is imparting wisdom and he does so through generations. That's right.
Speaker 2:And you know I heard growing up a penny saved is a penny earned, before I ever saw it written down. I mean, I might have heard it a hundred times and I had it memorized. It was in my head a penny saved is a penny, or finally. Finally, I'm sure I saw it written down somewhere. But that's how these things are transmitted they're transmitted orally because they're so usually short and memorable that's what we call oral tradition oral tradition yes, yeah, and every. That's what we call oral tradition.
Speaker 5:Oral tradition yes, yeah, and every culture has it and we have a tradition of going at 830 to a commercial.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's not a tradition, that's mandatory.
Speaker 5:So this is 1070 KNTH and we'll be right back.
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Speaker 6:If you're down and confused.
Speaker 1:And you don't remember.
Speaker 5:Who you're talking to Concentration.
Speaker 4:Slips away.
Speaker 6:Because your baby Is so far away. Now there's a rose in a biscuit world and the eagle flies with the dove. And if you can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with, love the one you're with.
Speaker 2:That is not wisdom that I think we ought to really need to impart.
Speaker 1:It depends on how you understand it, your interpretation.
Speaker 2:My interpretation is not if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with Really you don't love all people.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's what that means. Dirty minded Depends on what you mean by the word love. And by the way the rose in the fisted glove was a symbol of a, I think, england Communist Party or something like that.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know about that.
Speaker 1:It was something like that. My brother, mike Marist, in peace, told me that there were images in that song of revolution and rebellion and stuff like that. Okay, Welcome back to a show of faith on the intensity of the answer.
Speaker 2:What are we talking?
Speaker 1:about tonight, stuart, we are talking about proverbs and sayings and expressions that hold wisdom and influence on us and their religious implications.
Speaker 2:And why are we doing that?
Speaker 1:Because I chose it. Okay, case in point Perry comes home who is Perry, my daughter from? Like kindergarten or something, I don't know what it was, and she saw a penny on the floor or something. And she learned from someone at her kindergarten see a penny, pick it up, and all the day you'll have good luck. And it really rubbed me the wrong way. Okay, all right, so I finished it for her See a penny, pick it up, and all the day you'll have good luck, whether found on ground or floor. Give the penny to the poor, for when you give the penny away, the luck with you will stay. Ooh, I like it?
Speaker 2:Is that the full poem?
Speaker 1:No, I made up the two extra verses you did. Yes, he's smart too. Yes, sometimes, sometimes. But it just irks me that you see something on the ground that's clearly not yours, be it a penny or a wallet. You're supposed to return it, you're not supposed to keep it Right. So it rubbed me the wrong way.
Speaker 2:So that's interesting. Yes, I've never heard that before.
Speaker 1:Yeah well.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, let me give this to you before we go any further, because I think we're going to get serious here in a minute, right what?
Speaker 5:do you?
Speaker 2:mean we're going to get serious.
Speaker 5:Look, haven't we been serious, I think we've been serious.
Speaker 2:There was a second-grade teacher who gave to a number of second grade students Proverbs you know, proverbs that you hear in culture and and and left a blank. It didn't do the whole thing, just let's start it off and ask them to finish it. So here's here. Here's what the first second grader said better safe. What's the proverb?
Speaker 1:Then said Better safe.
Speaker 2:What's the proverb? Then sorry, Then sorry. Second grader said better safe than punch a fifth grader. I like that. What's it? You've got to listen to the show, Stuart.
Speaker 1:I was talking with our board operator about something urgent. You should be listening to the show.
Speaker 2:Okay, better safe than show. Okay, better safe than sorry, better safe than she said punch a fifth grader. I think it's pretty good strike while the iron is hot the iron is hot. Second grader said strike while the bug is close.
Speaker 1:I think that's pretty good, I think that is pretty good, don't bite the hand that feeds you.
Speaker 2:That feeds you. Second grader said don't bite the hand that looks dirty. That's what. That's. That's smart. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Tricks for second grader said you can't teach an old dog new math. New math is tough, and it's true every one of these is wise every one of these. A penny saved is penny earned. Penny earned second grader said penny saved is not very much.
Speaker 2:We're smart especially by inflation standards yeah, laugh and the whole world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone, you cry alone. Second grader said laughing, the whole world laughs with you. Cry and you have to blow your nose. I like that. Here's. Here's two of my favorite, last ones, last two, my favorites. Oh, these are great. Children should be seen and not heard. Second grader said children should be seen and not spanked or grounded. I like that. That's smart. There's no fool Like an old fool. Like an old fool. Second grader said there's no fool like my Aunt Edie.
Speaker 2:So anyway these things get in our culture, you know, and maybe the second graders don't know them exactly, but the rest of us know them. But all of us, you know, they of us know them, but all of us, you know they're seeking wisdom, we're all seeking wisdom, right, I think this stuff it goes back to rudy was saying, I think this stuff is hardwired into us as human beings what is? To be seekers of wisdom, to be transmitters of wisdom to be, transmitters of stories, very often looking for meaning, looking for purpose.
Speaker 2:So anyway, stewart, I'll get out of your way no, no, no, no, that's fine.
Speaker 1:I just, I just believe that for every one of these quotations there is religious implications. Okay, put the mask on. Uh, put the oxygen mask on your face, on your head, first, okay because you have to help somebody else a child, and that's true, but I've heard it used a little often to validate selfishness. No, yes, who says that? Well, I don't remember exactly who. Well, perish the thought. Yes.
Speaker 5:What's true, do you think?
Speaker 3:about this. You know what it makes me think of that verse. Before you criticize the speck in your brother's eye, pull out the log from your eye first To some degree. You have to help yourself first, right before you can turn around and think that you can pretend to help somebody else, or at least judge, or, or, or, or, you know, involve yourself in somebody else's life. Um, I was trying to seek something. You know, dr kibbs.
Speaker 2:I wanted I mean, I mean, yeah, I think, just going back to what you said to me, that strikes me as silly. What is the fact that you say? You said that these folks say you've got to take care of yourself first that selfishness. I think they've probably done studies, safety studies that demonstrate that an adult who is able to breathe oxygen. These things happen very quickly at high altitude.
Speaker 2:No, no, and it's true, and you can pass out very quickly and the kid next to you dies, right, and you die because you're trying to get the kid first, right. I think they've probably done studies to demonstrate that it's probably best to do it that way, not that it's a matter of human selfishness, but, like anything else, I'm saying that it could be misused.
Speaker 1:I'm not that that it's a matter of human selfishness, like anything else, I'm saying that it could be misused I'm not saying that's what it means. I'm saying these, these, I'm saying that these sayings have religious importance.
Speaker 2:Okay okay, I think you're right there's a significance to them.
Speaker 1:And and when we make up a mission statement okay, short to the point there's a reason behind it, exactly to find meaning, to put meaning in our world well, in father mario's case, he was trying to say how does all this activity and money and things that we're doing fit together?
Speaker 2:Well, we're trying to transform cultural Catholics into deliberate, intentional disciples of Jesus. That is giving direction to budgets of lots of money, yep, time management and weighing significance. Does this fit within the mission? If not, let's don't do it Right. Let's don't do it just because it's fun to do or because we did it before and that's the way we've always done it. Let's do it because it fits into the mission.
Speaker 1:And it's a constant reminder of why we're here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Right, so let me find it again.
Speaker 2:My light just went out I knew that. I knew his light went out years ago. Smart Alec.
Speaker 1:My cell phone light. Oh Okay, what Rudy was saying also shows that some of these sayings, proverbs, are cross-cultural, absolutely yes. You mentioned Confucius before Right, Okay, I think during the break but I believe that there is a statement by Confucius which is do unto others, et cetera. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Speaker 4:Don't do unto others what you don't want done to yourself A warning of that kind.
Speaker 1:These sayings, because they are wise, are found in multiple cultures in one way or another.
Speaker 2:And the same thing is true with laws, hammurabi's Code, for example, hammurabi's laws from another culture in the ancient world, mesopotamia yeah well, yeah, sumerian, I think. Another culture in the ancient world, mesopotamia, yeah well, sumerian, I think, was very similar to some of the things you find in the Old Testament.
Speaker 5:Right, right, but you know, there's poetry, One of my favorite Leonard Cohen is one of my favorite poets.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love his stuff yeah.
Speaker 5:And one of his favorite. The chorus to one of his songs is called Anthem. The chorus to one of his songs is called Anthem and the chorus says Ring the bell, you still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There's a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.
Speaker 1:Right, right. And what was the quotation from the Doobie Brothers that we always like? Oh yeah, what a fool believes. What a fool believes. No wise man. I can do it with this music.
Speaker 2:What a fool believes he sees.
Speaker 1:What a fool believes he sees no wise man has the power to reason away. That's right, right. A lot of these songs have these sayings in them that are actually One of my favorite ones is a broken crayon can still color. Oh, that's very good, considering how many people think of themselves as broken people. Yeah, you can. Broken pencil, broken crayon can still color.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I really like that Wow broken crayon concealed color. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I really like that. Wow, wow, that's very good. What about the one to everything? There is a season and a time for every purpose. That's Ecclesiastes, right.
Speaker 2:Another wisdom book Right From the Hebrew Bible.
Speaker 1:Right. But all you have to do is say to everything there is a season and everybody knows where you're going with it. It's because of the song Right. Yes, it's mainly the problem.
Speaker 2:More so the song than it is.
Speaker 1:Biblical knowledge which tells us something.
Speaker 5:It's time, yes, okay, it's time to go to a break. My brothers and sisters, this is 1070 K and THM. We'll be right back.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back to a show of faith on the intensity of the answer.
Speaker 2:Our band years, years ago used to play that song, love that song.
Speaker 1:Me too.
Speaker 2:That was a 60s song, I guess Probably goes back to the 60s, oh yeah, or maybe early 70s, late 60s song, I guess Probably goes back to the 60s, oh yeah, or maybe early 70s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, late 60s.
Speaker 2:Late 60s. I would say Late 60s yeah. We're talking about Proverbs. Tonight we're talking about the wisdom of Proverbs Right In every culture, in every place, including America's Benjamin Franklin, who said who said A penny saved is a penny earned? What else did he say, stuart?
Speaker 1:I couldn't tell you, you couldn't tell me because you didn't study.
Speaker 2:Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
Speaker 1:So this is too long to be a proverb, but just the first phrase will bring back all sorts of memories and applications. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. Hmm, that's an interesting echo, Interesting echo yeah, yes, and I, whatever took the road, not less, followed Right.
Speaker 2:Right, right. Hey, here's another one from Benjamin Franklin. I found I'd never heard this before.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Three people may keep a secret if two of them are dead, right.
Speaker 1:That's a godfather.
Speaker 2:That's Benjamin Franklin.
Speaker 1:Well, yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, but it's also godfather, right, right, anyway.
Speaker 1:It is only with the heart that one can see clearly what is essential is invisible to the eye. The little prince. I love that quote.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes uh, you know, here's the other thing that I want to want to talk about okay very quickly is, is that there is a sort of implicit promise in Proverbs I mean in Proverbs generally, but in Proverbs particularly in the Christian scriptures that if you live wisely, there are blessings that will accrue to you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:That is not just important to live wisely, that God honors those who live wisely, that it will add a length time to your days. You'll live longer, you'll be healthier, you'll be happier, you'll be richer, you know, I mean the book of E, ecclesiastes, etc. I mean there's all kinds of sort of implicit promises. If remember there's a passage, trust in the lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding and always acknowledge him right. And what will he do? He will make your paths straight. So there's a and what does?
Speaker 2:that mean If you trust in God with all your heart. If you don't lean, if you don't say well, I understand this, I'm going to live on my own without any regard to God. If that's what you do, then you're not trusting in God with all your heart. But if you say I don't understand this, god's told me this. This is the wisdom that has come down to me through my ancestors, as it were. I'm going to follow this wisdom, then God will direct our lives, and what does it mean to make the path straight?
Speaker 2:I think it means God will direct our lives, god will help. We'll take the rugged roads in the future and, in a sense, straighten those roads out which does what for the person walking or driving. Makes it easier to walk.
Speaker 1:Exactly. You'll get there quicker, sooner and safer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right.
Speaker 5:Exactly. Sharon just sent us two quotes.
Speaker 2:Two, all right, sharon, sharon in Dallas.
Speaker 5:Sharon used to be our producer right.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:Okay, my mic is off.
Speaker 5:Comfort.
Speaker 2:No, it's not. I can hear you, Lenny.
Speaker 5:Comfort has nothing to do with fashion.
Speaker 1:Comfort has nothing to do with fashion.
Speaker 2:Comfort has nothing to do with fashion.
Speaker 1:And I love this next one. It was probably a guy who invented high heels.
Speaker 5:I love this next one. If a man's home is no, well, the quote is a man's home is his castle, let him clean it up.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, oh gosh yes, that was good.
Speaker 7:I love it I love it.
Speaker 2:A man's home in his castle, let him clean it up. Yeah, all right, stewart, what were you saying?
Speaker 1:well, I was. I forgot what I was saying. What was I saying?
Speaker 2:I don't even I don't remember right?
Speaker 1:Yes, because what I say is so memorable.
Speaker 2:All right, so Rudy down there in Guatemala, In Guatemala.
Speaker 3:In Guatemala.
Speaker 2:I would like for you to turn to your wife and ask her for one bit of wisdom that has been passed down to her First of all, Rudy, does she speak English?
Speaker 5:She speaks.
Speaker 3:English. I think she's from Brazil. She speaks English. I think she's from Brazil. She speaks English. She talks to me in Spanish and English, but when she's mad she yells at me in Portuguese.
Speaker 1:Oh, and you already know the experience of being yelled at in Portuguese huh.
Speaker 3:I do.
Speaker 2:The honeymoon is over.
Speaker 5:She just gave me a popular one no are scenario para que loco baile samba, it's a common. Portuguese saying Don't give the crazy person the stage to dance the what To dance, samba To dance, samba To dance samba.
Speaker 1:I think that's brilliant too. Don't give the crazy person the place to dance.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I love it. I love it. Tell her we thank her for that. That's great.
Speaker 5:Sharon just said thank you two times 12. Hugs to you all.
Speaker 2:Hugs to you all too.
Speaker 5:Rudy, we don't have to do it today, okay, but I would like you to speak to your lovely wife and maybe the next show for her to just say hello to us and just to say how she's been and how is it like living with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would like to have her and just to say how she's been and how is it like living with you. Just what she wants to be is on the air. Yeah.
Speaker 5:I would like to have her say honestly what it's like being married to you.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's an experience that none of us You're not supposed to curse on the air.
Speaker 3:We don't need to talk about these things? Wow, no, I can tell you, I think she would very much like to. Just so you guys know, she also has a master's in theology and is a psychologist oh, rudy, I'm impressed so she should probably on this show more than I should that goes without saying if she's that good, rudy, why don't you have her join in with you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, actually, you know, during breaks and stuff, and sometimes her, like the last show I did for prayer, that was actually her idea. So I actually quite enjoy this dialogue that I have with her, because we kind of like just bounce off a lot of like just ideas and concepts and I tend to develop the content with her. So I feel like she's part of it already. Well, I guess I'm just the mouthpiece.
Speaker 5:You know, feelings don't count here. It's wonderful that you feel that way, but I'd sure like to hear from her. So not tonight, not to push her tonight. When she's up to it when she's ready to no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:No, we have to show discretion to her and defer to her desires.
Speaker 3:I don't think discretion is in Father's Mario.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think so. He's very indiscreet.
Speaker 5:No, what I am saying is sometimes you have to push people. You can't let people hide being afraid of being on the air.
Speaker 1:It's just talking to us. There's plenty of people who've been on with us.
Speaker 2:They've been nervous and I've told them that you're just sitting around talking to us, it just happens to be seven to thirty five thousand people, but she's also, you know, maybe not as comfortable with english but she's you know you're talking to.
Speaker 5:You're talking to a baptist minister, a jewish rab and a brilliant Catholic priest.
Speaker 1:Really, where is he? I would love to meet him, or something I've only got a couple minutes but we didn't get a chance to talk about this. But you know, there are also sayings these are sayings, more than anything that conflict with each other, but they're both well-known. For example, there's only one example. Conflict with each other, but they're both well-known. For example, there's only one example Absence makes the heart grow fonder but out of sight, out of mind, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Okay, they both work.
Speaker 1:Absence makes the heart grow fonder. But out of sight, out of mind, so those are in conflict.
Speaker 2:They are Okay, they are.
Speaker 1:They are.
Speaker 2:So is that always in reference to a person? Absence makes the heart grow fonder? Seems to me to be related to a person.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Whereas out of sight, out of mind, might refer to Anything I don't know.
Speaker 1:An object, a book, right, right I haven't seen it Right. I haven't thought about it. They also both work for people too.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:Father Mario. Yes, how about for next week? I think it's my turn to do the directing. Yes, if I'm not mistaken, I will prepare something with Natalia.
Speaker 7:Okay.
Speaker 5:And she will introduce. The two of you can run the show with us, can I make?
Speaker 1:a suggestion. Yes, sir Go ahead. Advice all of us would give for marriage. Not a wedding, but for marriage.
Speaker 2:I thought about doing that tonight actually Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. That's not very fair. They've not been married very long.
Speaker 5:No, but I think that's. I bet they may have some advice to give. I think that's a great idea, Rudy. Really the two of you, you and Natalia.
Speaker 2:I think that's a terrible idea.
Speaker 5:But I think all of us.
Speaker 2:No, but you and Natalia run the show next week. Yeah, you guys do that, and you've got to prove me wrong. You let it be about a topic you're comfortable with.
Speaker 5:And you have to prove me wrong, because marriage, I think, is a three-ring circus. It is yes, the engagement ring, the wedding ring and the suffer ring.
Speaker 1:Oh great, About 20 seconds.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 5:Okay, people, we have reached the end of this show.
Speaker 2:And the end of all the wisdom.
Speaker 5:Yes, I enjoyed this show but, rudy, you're on next week with Natalia. Okay, got it. Okay, folks, this has been 1070 KNTH. You've been listening to the Show of Faith, please, during this week. What we ask you to do is to keep us in your prayers, because you're going to be in ours.