“You shall not carve idols” (Ex.20:4)
Fr. Campbell
With
the First Sunday of Advent we begin a new Church Year. The observance
of Advent gives direction to our lives. Unlike most of the world around
us, we know where we are going, for, as St. Paul says:
“Our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly await a Savior,
our Lord Jesus Christ, who will refashion the body of our lowliness,
conforming it to the body of his glory by exerting the power by which he
is able also to subject all things to himself” (Phil.3:20,21).
The
young are not being taught the truth about life in this world. They
must be productive ciphers of the system. They are fodder to be thrown
into the front lines of battle, so that the “fat cats” of this world can
enjoy their luxury yachts and their grandly appointed estates. Well
might they enjoy their lives in this world, because the next isn’t going
to be much fun for them! Now this is not to say that all rich people
are evil and all the poor are good. There are kings and queens, and rich
men like Zacchaeus in heaven.
For
many others there is direction in their lives, but it does not lead
them to the desired destination of Heaven. Already in ancient times, God
spoke through Moses to His people about the requirements of true
religion:
“I,
the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that
place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall
not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above
or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not
bow down before them or worship them. For I the Lord, your God, am a
jealous God, inflicting punishment for their father’s wickedness on the
children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation;
but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on the children
of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Ex.20:2-6).
The
false religions promise salvation of one kind or another, but it is a
false hope without foundation. The key that unlocks the door to eternal
life is faith, faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Divine Son, and in the Holy
Catholic Church which He established, with its holy Sacraments and its
bishops and priests ordained to administer them. The Church is the
anteroom to Heaven where we prepare to enter the golden door into
eternal happiness.
By
the grace of God we have been received by the Good Shepherd into His
flock. This took place at our Baptism. And we are formed and nourished
by the holy Sacraments of the Church, especially the Holy Eucharist, the
Bread from Heaven, of which Our Lord said,
“Amen,
amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and
drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He who eats my flesh
and drinks my blood has life everlasting and I will raise him up on the
last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He
who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, abides in me and I in him. As
the living Father has sent me, and as I live because of the Father, so
he who eats me, he also shall live because of me. This is the bread that
has come down from heaven…” (Jn.6:54-59).
Today
many “carve idols” for themselves. Today there are many allegedly “true
religions,” all of which are said to have their origin in the
“religious sense” which arises spontaneously from within the person.
Pope St. Pius X demonstrates the absurdity of this in his encyclical
against the Modernist heretics:
“In the religious sense
(as the Modernists understand it) one must recognize a kind of
intuition of the heart which puts man in immediate contact with the reality
of God, and infuses such a persuasion of God’s existence and His action
both within and without man as far to exceed any scientific conviction.
They assert, therefore, the existence of a real experience, and one of a
kind that surpasses all rational experience…
“How
far this position is removed from that of Catholic teaching! … What is
to prevent such experiences from being found in any religion?… On what
grounds can Modernists deny the truth of an experience affirmed by a
follower of Islam? Will they claim a monopoly of true experiences for
Catholics alone? Indeed, Modernists do not deny, but actually maintain,
some confusedly, others frankly, that all religions are true. That they
cannot feel otherwise is obvious. For on what ground, according to their
theories, could falsity be predicated of any religion whatsoever?” (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Sept. 8, 1907).
Our first Holy Father, St. Peter, warned:
“There
were false prophets also among the people, just as among you there will
be lying teachers who will bring in destructive sects. They even disown
the Lord who bought them, thus bringing upon themselves swift
destruction. And many will follow their wanton conduct and because of
them the way of truth will be maligned... Their condemnation, passed of
old, is not made void, and their destruction does not slumber”
(2Pet:2:1-3).
Four
of the Novus Ordo Cardinals at the Vatican have awakened from their
slumber and are calling for Antipope Bergoglio to account for his
heretical teachings in his document Amoris Laetitia. Bergoglio says he is not losing any sleep over it. We shall “stay tuned” for further developments.
