Sunday, March 26, 2017

Fr. Campbell, "Time of the Signs"

Fr. Campbell, "Time of the Signs"
 
Our Lord Jesus Christ says that “there will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars; and on the earth distress of nations bewildered by the roaring of sea and waves; men fainting for fear and for expectation of the things that are coming on the world; for the powers of heaven will be shaken” (Lk.21:25,26).


In the Apocalypse we read about the Beast, which is like an incarnation of the devil:

“And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon its horns ten diadems, and upon its heads blasphemous names… And the dragon gave it his own power and great authority… And all the earth followed the beast in wonder. And they worshipped the dragon because he gave authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like to the beast, and who will be able to fight with it?’ (Apoc.13:1,2b,3b,4).

This Beast, says a biblical footnote, “is the figure of the kingdoms of the world, kingdoms founded on passion and selfishness, which in every age are antagonistic to Christ and seek to oppress the servants of God.”

We are now confronting the Beast in its modern incarnations. The Beast is now represented by the modern political machine created by the secret societies, different heads of the same Beast, such as Zionism and Freemasonry.  

The great Pope Leo XIII warned of the secret societies in his Encyclical, Humanum Genus (April 20, 1884):  

“Now, the Masonic sect produces fruits that are pernicious and of the bitterest savor. For, from what We have above most clearly shown, that which is their ultimate purpose forces itself into view – namely, the utter overthrow of that whole religious and political order of the world which the Christian teaching has produced, and the substitution of a new state of things in accordance with their ideas.”

The Beast is thus anti-Christ, anti-Church, and anti-pope. It is impossible for us to fathom the secret counsels of the Beast because secrecy is its shield, and lies and deception its method. Indeed, “Who is like the beast, and who will be able to fight with it?” The Beast and its heads do not live by their own power but are given life by the dragon, i.e., the devil.

The vast majority of the world’s people have no idea of what is happening to them – that they are being robbed of their wealth and lands, that their rights are fast disappearing, and that their countries are being prepared by stages for integration into the new world order foretold by numerous Holy Popes of former times.  

Can one dialogue with the Beast? The Beast does not live by the truth, but by lies and deceptions, like its father, the devil. One cannot dialogue with a liar. Truth is the Beast’s poison. The servants of the beast are miscreants who try everything to cover their tracks – gigantic lies, world scale larceny, manipulation of the sources of information and staged disasters. Then how can we stop the Beast in its terrible destructive rage? If truth is the Beast’s poison, we must speak the truth and live by the truth. In his encyclical, Pope Leo XIII invokes the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

“Let us take as our helper and intercessor the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, so that she, who from the moment of her conception overcame Satan, may show her power over these evil sects, in which is revived the contumacious spirit of the demon, together with his unsubdued perfidy and deceit.”

Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the power of the devil will be crushed. God speaks to the serpent (the devil) in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; she shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for her heel” (Gn.3:15).

The “woman” is not Eve, but someone who was yet to come, namely the Mother of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary. For those who doubt that Mary is “the Woman”, we have the testimony of Jesus Himself. It is twice recorded in St. John’s Gospel that Jesus called His Mother “Woman”. The first time was at the marriage feast at Cana when she asked Him to change water into wine. Again, just before He was to die on the Cross, He said to her, “Woman, behold thy son,” referring to the Apostle John, who stood with her below the Cross.

No doubt St. John in his later years, exiled on the island of Patmos, spent many nights observing the movements of the stars and the planets. This is reflected in the Apocalypse, which he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. In Chapter 12 he speaks of the Woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and crowned with twelve stars. The Church has traditionally understood this as representing Mary and the Church.

In this connection, among the fascinating celestial events to take place this year, is a total eclipse of the sun on August 21st. And on September 23rd, there will be an amazing configuration of stars and planets in the constellation Virgo (the Virgin). The sun will enter that constellation on September 16th. The moon will be at the feet of the Virgin. Over her head will be twelve “stars” (nine actual stars, and three planets, Venus, Mercury, and Mars). And lurking below will be the serpent constellation, Hydra. The planet Jupiter will have spent nine months within the womb area of the figure, and will exit at that time. This is an exact representation of the Woman clothed with the sun described in chapter 12 of the Apocalypse. Is this not one of the signs predicted by Our Lord when He said “there will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars”? It would seem to be. We must learn from it and prepare for the trials to come. After the many tribulations to follow for the Church, the Lord will return on the clouds of Heaven:

“And then they will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with great power and majesty. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand” (Lk.21:27,28).