Fr. Campbell, "Time of the Signs"
Our
Lord Jesus Christ says that “there will be signs in the sun and the
moon and the stars; and on the earth distress of nations bewildered by
the roaring of sea and waves; men fainting for fear and for expectation
of the things that are coming on the world; for the powers of heaven
will be shaken” (Lk.21:25,26).
In the Apocalypse we read about the Beast, which is like an incarnation of the devil:
“And
I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten
horns, and upon its horns ten diadems, and upon its heads blasphemous
names… And the dragon gave it his own power and great authority… And all
the earth followed the beast in wonder. And they worshipped the dragon
because he gave authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast,
saying, ‘Who is like to the beast, and who will be able to fight with
it?’ (Apoc.13:1,2b,3b,4).
This
Beast, says a biblical footnote, “is the figure of the kingdoms of the
world, kingdoms founded on passion and selfishness, which in every age
are antagonistic to Christ and seek to oppress the servants of God.”
We
are now confronting the Beast in its modern incarnations. The Beast is
now represented by the modern political machine created by the secret
societies, different heads of the same Beast, such as Zionism and
Freemasonry.
The great Pope Leo XIII warned of the secret societies in his Encyclical, Humanum Genus (April 20, 1884):
“Now,
the Masonic sect produces fruits that are pernicious and of the
bitterest savor. For, from what We have above most clearly shown, that
which is their ultimate purpose forces itself into view – namely, the
utter overthrow of that whole religious and political order of the world
which the Christian teaching has produced, and the substitution of a
new state of things in accordance with their ideas.”
The
Beast is thus anti-Christ, anti-Church, and anti-pope. It is impossible
for us to fathom the secret counsels of the Beast because secrecy is
its shield, and lies and deception its method. Indeed, “Who is like the
beast, and who will be able to fight with it?” The Beast and its heads
do not live by their own power but are given life by the dragon, i.e.,
the devil.
The
vast majority of the world’s people have no idea of what is happening
to them – that they are being robbed of their wealth and lands, that
their rights are fast disappearing, and that their countries are being
prepared by stages for integration into the new world order foretold by
numerous Holy Popes of former times.
Can
one dialogue with the Beast? The Beast does not live by the truth, but
by lies and deceptions, like its father, the devil. One cannot dialogue
with a liar. Truth is the Beast’s poison. The servants of the beast are
miscreants who try everything to cover their tracks – gigantic lies,
world scale larceny, manipulation of the sources of information and
staged disasters. Then how can we stop the Beast in its terrible
destructive rage? If truth is the Beast’s poison, we must speak the
truth and live by the truth. In his encyclical, Pope Leo XIII invokes
the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
“Let
us take as our helper and intercessor the Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
so that she, who from the moment of her conception overcame Satan, may
show her power over these evil sects, in which is revived the
contumacious spirit of the demon, together with his unsubdued perfidy
and deceit.”
Through
the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the power of the devil
will be crushed. God speaks to the serpent (the devil) in the first
chapter of the Book of Genesis:
“I
will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and
her seed; she shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for her
heel” (Gn.3:15).
The
“woman” is not Eve, but someone who was yet to come, namely the Mother
of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary. For those who doubt that Mary is
“the Woman”, we have the testimony of Jesus Himself. It is twice
recorded in St. John’s Gospel that Jesus called His Mother “Woman”. The
first time was at the marriage feast at Cana when she asked Him to
change water into wine. Again, just before He was to die on the Cross,
He said to her, “Woman, behold thy son,” referring to the Apostle John,
who stood with her below the Cross.
No
doubt St. John in his later years, exiled on the island of Patmos,
spent many nights observing the movements of the stars and the planets.
This is reflected in the Apocalypse, which he wrote under the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost. In Chapter 12 he speaks of the Woman
clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and crowned with twelve
stars. The Church has traditionally understood this as representing Mary
and the Church.
In this connection, among the fascinating celestial events to take place this year, is a total eclipse of the sun on August 21st. And on September 23rd,
there will be an amazing configuration of stars and planets in the
constellation Virgo (the Virgin). The sun will enter that constellation
on September 16th.
The moon will be at the feet of the Virgin. Over her head will be
twelve “stars” (nine actual stars, and three planets, Venus, Mercury,
and Mars). And lurking below will be the serpent constellation, Hydra.
The planet Jupiter will have spent nine months within the womb area of
the figure, and will exit at that time. This is an exact representation
of the Woman clothed with the sun described in chapter 12 of the
Apocalypse. Is this not one of the signs predicted by Our Lord when He
said “there will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars”? It
would seem to be. We must learn from it and prepare for the trials to
come. After the many tribulations to follow for the Church, the Lord
will return on the clouds of Heaven: