Sunday, April 9, 2017

Fr. Campbell, "“Heirs according to the promise” (Gal.3:29)"

“Heirs according to the promise” (Gal.3:29)

Fr. Campbell 


 There is no greater love than the love shown for us sinners, when Our Lord Jesus Christ gave His life for us, becoming obedient even unto death, death on a cross, fulfilling His words to His Apostles: “Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends” (Jn.15:12).

We must understand what this love is. We can’t be satisfied with a purely earthly love when we begin to understand the love that comes from God. The love which is purely of this earth will not merit Heaven for us. But we are being persuaded today by the world to accept earthly love as sufficient. But without Sanctifying Grace, it does not bring us to Heaven.


Then how do we receive the love that comes from God? When we are baptized we receive Sanctifying Grace, along with the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity (love). These virtues are infused virtues. They cannot be attained by human effort, but are gifts of God given to us by the Holy Ghost when we are baptized. Then we can love one another “as he has loved us.”

Charity, says St. Paul, is the greatest of these gifts (1Cor.13:13). Now the word charity here is not to be confused with almsgiving. It comes from the Latin word caritas, meaning the love that comes from God. The Greek term is agape. St. Paul tells us in Romans that “the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom.5:5). He continues: “For why did Christ, at the set time, die for the wicked when as yet we were weak? For scarcely in behalf of a just man does one die; yet perhaps one might bring himself to die for a good man. But God commends his charity towards us, because when as yet we were sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom.5:6-9).

The love of neighbor, the love of husband and wife, the love between parents and children, the love between friends, remains on the natural level until it is suffused with Charity, the love that comes from God. Then we can love one another as Christ commanded: “A new commandment I give you, love one another: that as I have loved you, you also love one another” (Jn.13:34). We are enabled to do this through the Holy Sacrament of Baptism. But the alleged “pope” Bergoglio disagrees, as we find from this quotation from 2016:

“A new video has just been released in which Pope (sic) Francis very clearly expresses his belief that all of the major religions are different paths to the same God. He says that while people from various global faiths may be ‘seeking God or meeting God in different ways’ that it is important to keep in mind that ‘we are all children of God’. This is the most recent example that shows that the Pope has completely abandoned any notion that a relationship with God is available only through Jesus Christ. As he has done throughout his papacy, he continues to lay the groundwork for the coming world religion, and yet hardly anyone seems upset by this” (Michael Snyder, http://endoftheamericandream.com, Jan.10, 2016).

But the one who laid down His life for us, Jesus Christ, is the one way to the Father, and our only hope of salvation. This is made very clear for us by our first Holy Father, St. Peter, in his words to the Jewish authorities:

“This is the ‘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).

We wish no harm to the Jews, and we can believe that they are endowed with the capacity to love on the natural level, as all human beings are, but because they rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah, it is impossible for them to have the infused supernatural virtues of faith, hope and charity, gifts which are given at baptism to those who have faith in Jesus Christ. How can they love on the supernatural level if they do not even believe in the Holy Ghost, by Whom “the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts”? They are unbelievers who follow a false religion which denies both the Son and the Father Who sent Him.  

Jesus said to the Jews who opposed Him: “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would then know my Father also… You are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sin” (Jn.8: 18,23,24).

These truths are ignored by the Vatican since Vatican II. The Jews are not told that they are in danger of losing their souls; they are not urged to have faith in Jesus Christ; the Gospel is not preached to them. And Catholics are expected to believe that the “one-size-fits-all” variety of earthly love spoken of above is all that is required for salvation. This is why our faith, too, is destroyed if we simply go along with these teachings and do not oppose them.  

Who will admit that the Jews are doing the piping, and that the Novus Ordo clergy are dancing to their tune? Meanwhile, from their new position of power at the Vatican, the Jews are working to destroy the Catholic faith. With the enthusiastic endorsement of the bishops, rabbis provide teaching materials about the Holocaust and the Jewish religion to the compliant parish clergy, who hand it on to their defenseless flock.    

While we vigorously resist their efforts to undermine the Church, we continue to pray for the conversion of the Jews, as the Church has always done. The prophet Zacharias speaks of their eventual turning to Christ: “And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of prayers: and they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son: and they shall grieve over him, as the manner is to grieve for the death of the firstborn” (Zach.12:10).

May we all understand at last the words of St. Paul: “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor freeman; there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are the offspring of Abraham, heirs according to the promise” (Gal.3:28,29).