False Freedoms and Falling Stars
Fr. Campbell
You must put on the armor of God – shield, sword and all – “that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and stand in all things perfect” (Eph.6:10-17). We are now living in the evil day with the enemy at the gate, and even within the camp. In fact, St. Paul says, our chief enemies are not those of flesh and blood, but spiritual entities in high places – angels who have fallen from grace with Lucifer, and who now control the earth and most of fallen humanity. We must, at all costs, save ourselves from their clutches.
The fallen angels have been so influential one would think aliens had invaded the planet. And indeed they have, if we are to take the book of the Apocalypse seriously. Even the Catholic Church itself, once the chief bastion against Satan’s realm, has been infiltrated by aliens. The lambs of the flock scatter in confusion and become victims of the agents of Satan. Perhaps these agents are the locusts of the Apocalypse that are unleashed at the sound of the fifth trumpet, as described by St. John in the Book of the Apocalypse:
“And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet, and I saw that a star (Lucifer) had fallen from heaven upon the earth, and there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit… and out of the smoke there came forth locusts upon the earth… And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many horse-chariots running to battle. And they had tails like those of scorpions and there were stings in their tails; and they had power to harm mankind for five months. And they had over them a king, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek Apollyon; in Latin he has the name Exterminans (the Exterminator)” (Apoc.9:1;3;10,11).
Physical injury and pain are nothing compared to the spiritual damage inflicted by the sting of these scorpion-locusts, whether they are fallen angels or human beings of influence who have become agents of the devil. Recently I was alerted as to the dire consequences of the Declaration on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis Humanae, Dec. 7, 1965) of Paul VI at the close of Vatican II, in which he declares,
“The council exhorts Catholics, and it directs a plea to all men, most carefully to consider how greatly necessary religious freedom is, especially in the present condition of the human family… it is necessary that religious freedom be everywhere provided with an effective constitutional guarantee and that respect be shown for the high duty and right of man freely to lead his religious life in society.”
this world can give us only slavery because they are ruled by the slave master himself, the devil. St. Paul comments:
“Making known the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And if our gospel is also veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this world (the devil) has blinded their unbelieving minds, that they should not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2Cor.4:2b-4).
Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Mortalium Animos (January 6, 1928) spoke of the dangers of abandoning the religion revealed by God by taking part in ecumenical dialogue:
“Now, such efforts can meet with no kind of approval among Catholics. They presuppose the erroneous view that all religions are more or less good and praiseworthy, inasmuch as all give expression, under various forms, to that innate sense which leads men to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of His rule... to favor this opinion, therefore, and to encourage such undertakings, is tantamount to abandoning the religion revealed by God… This being so, it is clear that the Apostolic See can by no means take part in these assemblies, nor is it in any way lawful for Catholics to give to such enterprises their encouragement or support. If they did so, they would be giving countenance to a false Christianity quite alien to the one Church of Christ.”
“Let your loins be girded with truth,” says St. Paul. To know Jesus Christ is to know the truth. He fills us with the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit. Those who do not know Christ, or who disobey Him, are awash in a sea of error and sin. You don’t have to have a PhD, but you must know Him, love Him, and obey Him, Who is “the Way, and the Truth, and the Life” (Jn.14:6).
St. Paul tells us to take up “the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, that is, the word of God” (Eph.6:16,17).
No alien horde, no spiritual force of wickedness, can defeat those armed for battle with the grace of Christ and the spiritual weapons He provides. Armed with the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “powerful as an army arrayed for battle” (Cant.6:10), and protected by St. Michael the Archangel with his lightning-swift sword, our victory is assured.
