Saturday, February 24, 2018

Fr. Campbell, “Seek the things that are above” (Col.3:1)

“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:

“May grace and peace be given you in abundance in the knowledge of our Lord. For indeed his divine power has granted us all things pertaining to life and piety through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and power – through which he has granted us the very great and precious promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption of that lust which is in the world. Do you accordingly on your part strive diligently to supply your faith with virtue, your virtue with knowledge, your knowledge with self-control, your self-control with patience, your patience with piety, your piety with fraternal love, your fraternal love with charity. For if you possess these virtues and they abound in you, they will render you neither inactive nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2Pet.1:2-8).