00:00Thank you!
00:30We are now here at the Circus Maximus. Many people think that Christians died in the Colosseum, however this is a misconception.
00:56The Christians were martyred, either in the Circus of Nero, which is where St. Peter's Basilica stands today, or here in this place, which is the Circus Maximus.
01:07which was right next to the Palatine Hill, that is, the place where the emperors lived.
01:12On one side they had the Colosseum, which was a place of entertainment, where games and competitions were held, and the Circus, which was also a place of competitions.
01:21But it was a very open space, and a large number of people could fit inside.
01:27All this that we see now, which looks only green, all this was the stands, and this that looks like a valley, was where the tracks were.
01:36Perhaps some of you have seen the movie Ben Hur, well, that show takes place in this location.
01:43Some of our brothers were indeed martyred here.
01:47The vast majority were in Nero's Circus, but also here with certain shows, right?
01:54Whereas in Nero's case it was truly a sadistic situation, with wild beasts and where they were thrown was a small arena,
02:02Where they threw them out and the wild beasts ate them, not here.
02:07Here they were sometimes dismembered with the strength of the horses, they were placed in different ways, mainly with carriages, in short.
02:16It was a really different shape than what a racetrack would be for us today, and this is where people had fun.
02:24By the time of Saint Augustine, these types of racetracks, gymnasiums, and all these pagan amusements already existed.
02:33The early Christians were strongly tempted to attend all these spectacles,
02:39where, especially by the time of Saint Augustine, persecution no longer existed,
02:44It wasn't exactly about watching Christians being killed, but about watching gladiators fight each other.
02:51They were truly very violent, savage games, and the Christian ran the risk of living a syncretic Christianity.
02:59a Christianity where, on the one hand, yes, there was faith in Jesus Christ, but one could also attend gyms,
03:06where people walked around naked, where there were a series of paintings that encouraged sex,
03:12People talked about secular things; in short, there were a number of shows and places.
03:18which were not proper to Christians.
03:21However, unfortunately, due to social pressure and the lack of deeper evangelization
03:28By the 5th or 6th century, when the empire was still flourishing, it was putting pressure on our Christians,
03:34This resulted in many Christians experiencing this situation.
03:39Saint Augustine, in fact, complains in one of his books about how often there were sands in the arenas,
03:45even bishops, who, not being fully aware of the danger to their souls,
03:50because they attended all kinds of shows.
03:53The same thing is happening today.
03:55We don't have a circus like this, but we have other shows.
03:59Similar things happen in our stadiums.
04:03People who attend football, baseball, and other sports events don't always get along in a healthy way.
04:10There is a lot of drunkenness, too much alcohol is being consumed, people are shouting a lot of obscenities,
04:16both to the players of the other team and to the referees.
04:20Showing signs that our Christianity is not alive.
04:25Often, stadiums, as was the case in this grand circus, were like one big bar.
04:31where everyone drank until they were drunk, with all the consequences that this brings to life.
04:37We Christians need to show signs that we are changing.
04:41May the circus never repeat its actions within us.
04:45Let all that remain as something buried by time, where Christianity can now rise again.
04:53The early Christians felt unworthy to perform all these actions inside stadiums,
04:59And that's why they decided to withdraw so as not to succumb to the pressure from others.
05:03There are other types of shows, such as table dances, where, well, as I've always said,
05:11What are they full of? Who are the ones who fill our strip clubs in the city?
05:16They are certainly not people of another religion, since 90% of our country still identifies as Christian.
05:24and most of them were Catholic.
05:27It means that the people who crowd the bars, who crowd the strip clubs,
05:32who goes to all these inappropriate places and which seriously endanger his salvation,
05:37They are Christians, mostly Catholics.
05:39I think it's time we stopped going to these places, to these shows,
05:44in the same way that the Christians of the first centuries also stopped attending.
05:50There was a radicalism, there was a purity in Christianity,
05:54And that is what we, my brothers, must return to today.
05:58We absolutely must remove all these spectacles from our lives.
06:03This trend is now harmful to Christianity.
06:07We need to get all these video games out of our homes.
06:11We need to attend wholesome shows,
06:13shows that help the soul grow and develop.
06:18It's time to change, it's time to return to the first church.
06:23to that church that abandoned all these places to begin living a different kind of Christianity,
06:29to truly begin to live with that peace and joy that Jesus gives us,
06:34without the need for all these deaths and all these spectacles that only pollute the soul.
06:41Hopefully, we too can leave our mark on our modern society,
06:45everything that destroys our life and makes our salvation, in many cases, become wealth.
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