Fr. Campbell, “Marrying and giving in Marriage” (Mt.24:38)

“Marrying and giving in Marriage” (Mt.24:38)

Fr. Campbell 

Jesus explains in today’s Gospel that the Jews who refused to receive Him as their Messiah lost their right to be called children of Abraham. Marveling at the faith of the Roman centurion whose servant He had healed, Jesus said to His disciples:

“Amen I say to you, I have not found such great faith in Israel. And I tell you that many will come from the east and from the west, and will feast with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom will be put forth into the darkness outside…” (Mt.8:10,12).

 

Concerning natural generation, not all who call themselves Jews are descended from Abraham, nor are all who call themselves Muslims. And only a small minority of those who call themselves Christian can claim Abraham as their ancestor, namely, those Christians of true Jewish or Arab ancestry. Therefore on the natural level there are no grounds for calling Jews, Muslims and Christians “children of Abraham”.

Are we, then, all children of Abraham in the spiritual sense? And is Judaism our “elder brother in the faith” as John Paul II called it? Those who call Abraham their “father in faith” must have the faith of Abraham. And only those who believe in Jesus Christ, Abraham’s Heir, in Whom the promises God made to Abraham were fulfilled, have such faith, and are the true children of Abraham. Others, though we must respect them as fellow human beings and pray for their conversion, are simply unbelievers.

In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul laments the apostasy of the Jews:

“For they are not all Israelites who are sprung from Israel; nor because they are the descendants of Abraham, are they all his children; but ‘Through Isaac shall thy posterity bear thy name.’ That is to say, they are not sons of God who are the children of the flesh, but it is the children of promise who are reckoned as posterity” (Rom.9:6-8).

To the Galatians Paul says:

“Know therefore that the men of faith are the real sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, announced to Abraham beforehand, ‘In thee shall all the nations be blessed.’ Therefore the men of faith shall be blessed with faithful Abraham” (Gal.3:7-9).

Paul quotes the prophet Hosea:

“A people not mine I will call my people, and an unbeloved, beloved, and her who had not obtained mercy, one who has obtained mercy. And it shall be in the place where it was said to them: you are not my people; there they shall be called sons of the living God” (Rom.9:25,26).

What happened to the Jews who refused to listen to the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ should have been a lesson to the whole world. But it has been said that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. There have been several schisms and revolutions. The Great Schism, which involved the separation of Eastern Orthodoxy from Roman Catholicism, took place in the year 1054 A.D. The so-called Protestant Reformation was sparked by Martin Luther when he nailed his 95 theses to the door of a Wittenberg Catholic Church in the year 1517.

Now, in these times, we appear to be facing the Great Apostasy foretold by St. Paul:

“Let no one deceive you in any way, for the day of the Lord will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and is exalted above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sits in the temple of God and gives himself out as if he were God” (2Thess.2:3,4).

We must wonder at some of the strange things that are happening these days among those who consider themselves Catholic. You may have seen the news report about two flight attendants who were married by Papa Bergoglio in a plane flying over Chile (CNN, Jan.18, 2018):

“Vatican officials say it marks the first time a pope has married a couple on a papal plane.”

Really? They had been married in a civil ceremony seven years ago. They have two children. They did not ask Francis to marry them. And were they carefully questioned to find out if there were any impediments to the marriage? Were they interviewed separately under oath as to the truth of their answers? Did they produce Certificates of Baptism right there on the spot? How were they able to prepare themselves for the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony by Confession and proper absolution, while making coffee and serving lunch to the passengers and crew?  

Bergoglio thinks this incident will inspire couples to marry. But it is more likely that they will be inspired to care little about the state of their souls, and proper preparation for the reception of the Holy Sacraments. This is what has become of the teachings of the Catholic Church and its Sacraments after the Novus Ordo has done its wrecking job. Our Lord foresaw it all: 

“Now from the fig tree learn this parable. When its branch is now tender, and the leaves break forth, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the door. Amen I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things have been accomplished. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but the Father only. And as it was in the days of Noe, even so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noe entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and swept them all away; even so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Mt.24:32-39).