Fr. Campbell, "Who Shall Ascend?"

Fr. Campbell, "Who Shall Ascend?"

 

 

Today we celebrate the great Feast of the Ascension of the Lord. After the Gospel today the Paschal Candle is extinguished, to remind us that Our Lord Jesus Christ has ascended into Heaven, and now sits at the right hand of the Father. But we believe that when He comes again, those who have believed in Him, and who have been obedient to Him, will ascend with Him, as St. Paul says:

 

“For the Lord himself with cry of command, with voice of archangel, and with trumpet of God will descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ will rise up first. Then we who live, who survive, shall be caught up together with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall ever be with the Lord” (1Thess4:16,17).

 

Who shall ascend? Believers shall ascend. But see what has happened since the Novus Ordo has been inflicted upon the world. Since the time of John Paul II “believers” are now said to be those who believe in any religion. In fact, such “believers” can believe in just about they want. Hence Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Satanists, are all “believers”.

 

This, of course, is utter nonsense. Our Lord asked His hearers to believe in Him. Those who refused to believe were unbelievers, destined for eternal perdition. Those who rejected the teachings of Peter and the other Apostles went their way and were lost. It is still true today. Those who reject the Holy Catholic Church and its teachings lose their chance of going to Heaven. The teachings of the Church are found in the great creeds of the Church, the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed which we say at Mass on Sunday, and the Athanasian Creed, and in the doctrines which the Church has solemnly defined, and, of course, in the Holy Bible.

 

We believers express our beliefs when we say the Act of Faith:

 

“O my God, I firmly believe that You are one God in three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; I believe that Your divine Son became man, and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because You have revealed them, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived.  

 

“Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord?” says the psalm, “Or who may stand in his holy place? He whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain, nor swears deceitfully to his neighbor. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, a reward from God his savior. Such is the race that seeks for him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob” (Ps.23:3-6).