Fr. Campbell- “And a little Child shall lead them” (Is.11:6)
We
are told in today’s Gospel that John, the son of Zachary and Elizabeth,
preaching in the area of the River Jordan, called the people to
repentance for the remission of sin. He baptized those who came to him
in the waters of the Jordan. It was not the Sacrament of Baptism which
was later instituted by Christ. It was merely symbolic of the cleansing
power of God’s forgiveness for those who would repent.
God’s
salvation would come when God would send His Son, born of the Holy
Virgin Mary, to be the Savior of the world. All who are of good will, in
the biblical sense, recognize Jesus Christ and accept Him as the
promised Savior. As the ancient Simeon would say, taking the Child Jesus
in his arms when He was presented in the Temple by Mary and Joseph:
“…my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the
face of all peoples: a light of revelation to the gentiles, and a glory
for thy people Israel” (Lk.2:29-32).
However,
not all of Israel would recognize Him or accept Him. As St. John says
in the beginning of his Gospel, “his own received him not. But to as
many as received him he gave the power of becoming sons of God; to those
who believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn.1:11-13).
Just
in time for Christmas, the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations
with the Jews has published a new official document, for which Francis
Bergoglio is receiving plaudits. The document begins with the words:
“The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable”. It asserts that the
salvation of the Jews does not depend on them believing in Jesus Christ,
but on the original promises of God, which “cannot be revoked”. Their
salvation is therefore assured, and they do not have to “believe and be
baptized” (Mk.16:16), like the rest of the human race.
Right
at the beginning we can affirm that it is true that “God’s promises are
irrevocable”. What the document fails to point out is that the promises
God made to the Jews of old are conditional. There is a great big “if”
clause attached to them. There are two sides to every covenant. Either
side may break it. God will be faithful! Will the Jews?
The
Covenant God made with the Jews, or with the Hebrews as they were then
called, is spelled out in detail in Sacred Scripture in the Books of
Leviticus and Deuteronomy. If the people keep God’s Commandments they
will be blessed:
“If you live in accordance with my precepts and are careful to observe my commandments… you
will have food to eat in abundance, so that you may dwell securely in
your land (Lev.26:3-5)… But if you do not heed me and do not keep all
these commandments, if you reject my precepts and spurn my decrees,
refusing to obey all my commandments and breaking my covenant… I will
punish you with terrible woes…” (Lev.26:14-16).
The
covenant woes of Leviticus are grouped in four sets of seven
chastisements. If the people failed to repent after the first
chastisements, they would suffer seven more severe punishments. After
the third set, if they were still unrepentant, God’s patience would be
exhausted, and they would have to endure the final set of seven terrible
woes.
Israel’s ultimate act of defiance against God was its rejection of Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah, which broke their Covenant with God and merited for them the final seven-fold covenant woes. Their sentencing was announced by Jesus Himself when He thundered the seven woes against the Scribes and the Pharisees, declaring that upon them would come “all the just blood that has been shed on the earth” and that “all these things will come upon this generation” (Mt.23:33-36).
Our Lord had already put the unbelievers in their place when He declared:
“Bring
forth therefore fruit befitting repentance, and do not think to say
within yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you
that God is able out of these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Mt.3:8,9).
But in the meantime, God has
fulfilled His promises: “For God so loved the world that he gave his
only-begotten Son, that those who believe in him may not perish, but may
have life everlasting” (Jn.3:16).The promises were not made to the
blood descendants of Abraham, but to the heirs of Abraham by faith, as
St. Paul makes clear:
“Know
therefore that the men of faith are the real sons of Abraham. And the
Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
announced to Abraham beforehand, ‘In thee shall all the nations be
blessed.’ Therefore the men of faith shall be blessed with faithful
Abraham” (Gal.3:7-9).
Carrying
the genes of Abraham counts for nothing. Jesus Christ is Abraham’s
heir. Those who believe in Him have the faith of Abraham. What does this
say about the honesty and truthfulness of the Vatican unbelievers who
are responsible for the recent document, including the one under whose
authority it was published, Francis Bergoglio?
Those
who hate our Lord Jesus Christ are working day and night to blot out
even the memory of Him from our minds. Christmas has long been separated
from its true meaning as the celebration of the Savior’s Birth in
Bethlehem. The Santa Claus myth, based loosely on the true story of St.
Nicholas, has been used to replace the Nativity. And now it’s no longer
“Merry Christmas”, it’s “Happy Holidays!” But it is our joy to announce
the Birth of the Christ Child, as Isaiah prophesied:
“And
there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse; and a flower
shall rise up out of his root. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest
upon him… And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and faith the
girdle of his reins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid. The calf and the lion and the sheep shall
abide together: and a little Child shall lead them” (Is.11:1,2a;5,6).