“Seek the things that are above” (Col.3:1)
Fr. Campbell
The
Winter Olympics are over as of today, and our athletes are returning
home with their medals of gold, silver and bronze, or at least with
memories of an exciting and memorable experience. We admire the Olympic
athletes. But their achievements, like all things earthly, will one day
be forgotten, and their medals and trophies will perish with this world.
Those who are wise look for the higher things, as our Savior Jesus
Christ teaches:
“Do
not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth
consume, and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth consumes, not thieves
break in and steal. For where thy treasure is, there also will thy heart
be” (Mt.6:19-21).
We
meet Jesus in today’s Gospel gloriously transfigured on the holy
mountain, said to be Mount Tabor, conversing with Moses and Elias about
His coming sufferings, in the presence of His apostles, Peter, James,
and John. God had spoken to Moses from the cloud at Mount Sinai.
Here at Mount Tabor He would affirm the authority of His divine Son, the
new Moses:
“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him” (Mt.17:5).
But
in the end there will be little faith in this world, as the Lord
Himself tells us, and St. Peter speaks of the end of all earthly things:
“The
day of the Lord will come as a thief; at that time the heavens will
pass away with great violence, and the elements will be dissolved with
heat, and the earth, and the works that are in it, will be burned up.
Seeing therefore that all these things are to be dissolved, what manner
of men ought you to be in holy and pious behavior, you who await and
hasten towards the coming of the day of God, by which the heavens, being
on fire, will be dissolved and the elements will melt away by reason of
the heat of the fire! But we look for new heavens and a new earth,
according to his promises, wherein dwells justice” (2Pet.3:10-13).
The
history of the world has been the history of the rise and fall of
civilizations. Many of them have faded from the memory of man, and we
have today mere remnants of them, such as the mysterious ruins in Mexico
and Peru, and traces of long lost civilizations on every continent.
Civilizations decline and fall because God’s sovereignty and authority
are despised. Today Jesus Christ is not honored as King, His Church is
hated and persecuted, and the devil has power over the nations. But the
Church alone will endure. St. Augustine remarks:
“God’s
mercy was greater than the devil’s malice or Adam’s disobedience. He
would send a Redeemer, His own Divine Son, Jesus Christ, Who would shed
His Blood for us and build us an Ark – the Holy Catholic Church – to
carry us safely above the polluted waters of this world. Those who would
refuse to climb aboard the Ark would be lost, for ‘outside the Church
there is no salvation.’ In the meantime we must live, as St. Peter says,
‘among the pagans,’ as the Church, ‘like a stranger in a foreign land,
presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations
of God’” (De civitate Dei, XVIII, 51, 2).
Yes,
we live among the pagans! And every day we have evidence that the world
is becoming still more corrupt. This is all part of the devil’s plan.
The devil is building a New World Order, and to achieve that goal
everything of the Old Order must be utterly destroyed. God in His wisdom
created different races, but they must be forced to mingle and
intermarry. One huge coffee colored humanity will be easier to manage.
This is not to say that there is anything wrong in itself with
interracial marriage, but it must take place as a result of personal
choice. God loves variety, and the beauty and integrity of the
individual races should not be lost.
The
World Religions are an obstacle to change, so there has to be One World
Religion. The Catholic Church is the greatest problem, so it must be
changed from the top down. This is the purpose of Ecumenism. Ecumenism
is a melting pot in which those of all religions will be softened up.
Bergoglio is furious that many “backward” Catholics resist Ecumenism.
They don’t want to be part of his Ecumenical stew. They want to preserve
their Holy Religion just as it was given to us by our Lord Jesus
Christ, and they must defend it with their lives. They will never burn
incense to the gods of this world. God Himself tells us how He will deal
with this diabolical plan:
“Why
do the nations rage and the peoples utter folly? The kings of the earth
rise up, and the princes conspire together against the Lord and against
his anointed: ‘Let us break their fetters and cast their bonds from
us!’ He who is throned in heaven laughs; the Lord derides them. Then in
anger he speaks to them; he terrifies them in his wrath: ‘I myself have
set up my king on Sion, my holy mountain.’… And now, O kings, give heed;
take warning, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and
rejoice before him; with trembling pay homage to him, lest he be angry
and you perish from the way, when his anger blazes suddenly. Happy are
all who take refuge in him!” (Ps.2:1-6;10-12).
A
word to the wise – ours is not a pick-and-choose religion. Either we
accept the whole thing as revealed and taught by Jesus Christ and His
true Church, or we are Catholic in name only. Our first Holy Father, St.
Peter, admonishes us: