“No other Name under Heaven” (Acts 4:12)
Fr. Campbell
St.
Paul in today’s Epistle gives thanks to God for His grace given to us
in Christ Jesus. Jesus is our Life and our Light! We believe in His
word:
“I am the light of the world. He who follows me does not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn.8:12).
The very first disciples whom Jesus called were Peter and his brother, Andrew:
“As
he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who
is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea (for
they were fishermen). And he said to them, ‘Come, follow me, and I will
make you fishers of men.’ And at once they left the nets, and followed
him” (Mt.4:18-20).
They
were to learn that “No one knows the Son except the Father; nor does
anyone know the Father except the Son, and him to whom the Son chooses
to reveal him” (Mt.11:27).
At
a later time when Jesus told his followers, “For my flesh is food
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” (Jn.6:56), many of them turned
away.
“Jesus
therefore said to the Twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon
Peter therefore answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast words of
everlasting life, and we have come to believe and to know that thou art
the Christ, the Son of God” (Jn.6:68-70).
Before Jesus ascended to the Father, He sent His Apostles to preach the Gospel:
“Go
into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who
believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe
will be condemned” (Mk.16:15,16).
The
preaching of the Gospel of Christ is the salvation of the nations. But
the world is now in grave peril. The light of Christ is being
extinguished, because many love the darkness rather than the light.
Those who love sin hide in the shadows, and they flee from the Light of
the World, because His very existence is a reproach to them. The world
hates Jesus, and tries to blot His memory from the minds of men. When
His enemies crucified Him, they thought that would be the end of it, but
they were confounded when He rose in glory from the dead. Filled with
power by the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, His Apostles set out to preach the
Gospel.
But
today the Gospel is hardly preached at all. Those who should be
preaching and defending Jesus Christ have made friends with His enemies,
carefully avoiding mention of His Name. They don’t preach the Gospel.
They hide their light under a bushel by practicing ecumenism,
“dialoguing” with those who those follow the false religions of this
world, and leaving them in the darkness of their unbelief.
St. Peter challenged the Jewish authorities concerning Jesus:
“This
is ‘The stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become
the corner stone.’ Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is
no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved”
(Acts 4:11,12).
How
essential it is for our salvation to know Jesus Christ. Without Him we
have no way to God the Father, and no way of receiving the Holy Ghost,
who is given only to those who believe in Christ. But where is the
Church? In these days, with the Church in eclipse, we may feel alone and
friendless, but we have a true Mother and Advocate in the Blessed
Virgin Mary. She is our refuge in these times, and her Holy Rosary is
our powerful weapon.
St. John says in his first epistle:
“Everyone
who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone who
loves him who begot (the Father), loves also the one begotten of him
(the Son). In this we know that we love the children of God, when we
love God and do his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we
keep his commandments; and his commandments are not burdensome. Because
all that is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory
that overcomes the world, our faith. Who is there that overcomes the
world if not he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1Jn.5:1-5).
How
great a sin it is to impede the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
This sin is in direct disobedience to the command of Jesus to His
Church. The Gospel must be preached to all:
“Go
into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes
and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be
condemned” (Mk.16:15,16).
The words of St. Paul to Timothy are powerful:
“I
charge thee, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus, who will judge the
living and the dead by his coming and by his kingdom, preach the word,
be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke with all
patience and teaching. For there will come a time when they will not
endure the sound doctrine; but having itching ears, will heap up to
themselves teachers according to their own lusts, and they will turn
away their hearing from the truth and turn aside rather to fables”
(2Tim.4:1-4).
We preach the Gospel by letting our light must shine before men:
