“The things that are for your peace” (Lk.19:42)
A thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ, His ancestor, King David, prayed:
“Pray
for the peace of Jerusalem! May those who love you prosper! May peace
be within your walls, prosperity in your buildings” (Ps.121:6,7).
Jesus wept over Jerusalem and lamented its future destruction by the Romans, which occurred forty years after His Resurrection:
“If you had known, in this your day, even you, the things that are for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” (Lk.19:42).
But
what were the things that were for its peace? We need to know because
the same fate awaits us if we do not wake up in time and amend our ways.
Jesus was saddened by the hardness of heart and lack of faith He
witnessed in Jerusalem:
“Jerusalem,
Jerusalem! Thou who killest the prophets, and stonest those who are
sent to thee! How often would I have gathered thy children together, as a
hen gathers her young under her wings, but thou wouldst not!”
(Mt.23:37).
Before His Ascension, Our Lord sent out His Apostles to preach the Gospel:
“Go
into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who
believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe
shall be condemned” (Mk.16:15,16).
But
it didn’t take the devil any time at all to set up his false
philosophies and religions to deceive the unwary. In our own time the
man in the oval office declares that America is no longer a Christian
nation. Festivals of other religions, like Ramadan, Hanukah and Diwali
are celebrated at the Whitehouse, but Christianity no longer has a
place. Even the rainbow flag was raised over the Whitehouse in support
of the gay agenda. Soon every perversion will be accepted as normal, and
those who object will be considered criminals. This nation, like
virtually every nation in the Western World, is adrift in a sea of
corruption without a compass. Jesus was of infinite patience, but when
He had reason to be angry He did not mince words:
“Woe
to thee, Corozain! Woe to thee, Bethsaida! For if in Tyre and Sidon had
been worked the miracles that have been worked in you, they would have
repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And
thou, Capharnaum, shalt thou be exalted to heaven? Thou shalt be thrust
down to hell. For if the miracles had been worked in Sodom that have
been worked in thee, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you,
it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment
than for thee” (Mt.11:21-24).
We were once “one nation under God.” Now we are a nation without
God. Even Satan can be openly worshipped in the name of “freedom of
religion”. But what is this “freedom of religion” that America so
proudly proclaims? True “freedom of religion” does not mean that
everyone has a right to choose whatever religion he wants, whether it be
true or false. Religious Freedom is the freedom to choose the religion
that God wants, the one, true Religion revealed by God through
His own Divine Son, Jesus Christ – the Holy Catholic Religion. Everyone
is obliged to seek out that one, true religion and embrace it.
True
Religion is no longer taught or practiced by the Novus Ordo sect, which
masquerades as the Catholic Church, nor by the leader of that sect, the
so-called “pope” Francis Bergoglio. The Augustinian nun, Anna Catherine Emmerich, who lived about
two hundred years ago, recounts in her visions:
“I
saw also the relationship between the two popes… I saw how baleful
would be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in
size; heretics of every kind came into the city (of Rome)… Then, I saw
that everything that pertained to Protestantism was gradually gaining
the upper hand, and the Catholic religion fell into complete decadence…
In those days, Faith will fall very low, and it will be preserved in
some places only…” (Yves Dupont, Catholic Prophecy – the Coming Chastisement; Tan Books).
How,
then, can we escape the anger of God and the catastrophic punishments
that are hanging over this world like the sword of Damocles? I’ll bet
you have already answered that question for yourselves. If you said the
Lord’s Prayer this morning you prayed:
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!” (Mt.6:10).
We
escape the punishments by obeying God, and by doing His will, like
Jesus Christ, who came into this world to do the will of the Father:
“Behold
I come; in the written scroll it is prescribed for me, to do your will,
O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!” (Ps.39:8,9).
Our
purpose in this world is not to be pleasure seekers, to make piles of
money, or to gain fame or power. Like the Blessed Virgin Mary, who told
the Angel Gabriel: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me
according to thy word” (Lk.1:38), we are here “to know, to love, and to
serve God in this world, so as to be happy with Him forever in the
next.” Our Lord says it best:
“For
I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of
him who sent me. Now this is the will of him who sent me, the Father,
that I should lose nothing of what he has given me, but that I should
raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father who sent me,
that whoever beholds the Son, and believes in him, shall have
everlasting life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn.6:38-40).