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).
