Fr. Campbell, “No other Name under Heaven” (Acts 4:12)

“No other Name under Heaven” (Acts 4:12)

Fr. Campbell 

Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, when Jesus Christ was revealed to the   Gentile nations as the Light of the world. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family – Jesus Christ, His Holy Mother, Mary, and St. Joseph. Jesus is the Divine Son of the Father, but He is also one of us. But to be truly one with Him we must be born again of water and the Holy Ghost. Those who are born again are no longer of this world, even though they remain in this world. St. Paul says that we are citizens of heaven, from which we eagerly await a Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ (Phil.3:20). The natural man, to whom spiritual things are nonsense, is a victim of his genes, his personal and family history, and his environment. For ho, there is no escape. But by grace we transcend nature and become new creatures, begotten of God. With Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we are members of a Holy Family, the Church.  

Those who are citizens of this world only, who do not know Jesus Christ, will be deceived, geniuses not excepted. The Albert Einstein’s and the Stephen Hawking’s of this world do not have a true appreciation for the spiritual. Many of them, like Hawking, do not believe in God at all. They believe in the power of the human mind to know the truth. But although they may discover many of the mysteries of the universe, the truth that matters is hidden from their eyes, and their understanding is clouded because their minds are closed to the spiritual. Their pride causes them to overstep the limits of their understanding. And they stumble on the very first verse of the Holy Bible:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… (Gen.1:1).

The world began, says Hawking, with the “Big Bang”. It didn’t need God, and it didn’t need a cause. Hawking’s opinions about God are of no value, him being neither a philosopher nor a theologian. Others look for a cause for the Big Bang, like “gravitational waves”. But, then, where did the waves come from? But don’t speak of “God” to them. For them God is a problem. They will only ask, “Where did God come from?”

If we look a little further into the first chapter of Genesis we read that God said, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen.1:3). Later, speaking to Moses, God told him, “I am who am” (Ex.3:14). And Jesus, the Son of God, scandalized the Pharisees when He said to them: 

“Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM” (Jn.8:58).

In the prologue of his Gospel, St. John gives us further light:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing that has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness; and the darkness grasped it not” (Jn.1:1-5).

We could say: “Take that, Stephen Hawking!” But I fear it would fall on deaf ears. Those who do not know Jesus Christ live in the darkness of ignorance. Our Lord gave these final instructions to His Apostles:

“Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be condemned” (Mk.16:15,16).

The Apostles took the words of Our Lord as a command, and set out to preach the Gospel to all nations and peoples. They all died as martyrs except St. John, who died in exile on the island of Patmos after writing the Fourth Gospel.

Francis Bergoglio, current usurper of the papal throne, is right is right up there with Einstein and Hawking. Consider this report from October of 2014:

“Pope Francis made a significant rhetorical break with Catholic tradition Monday by declaring that the theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real.”

This wouldn’t be the first time Bergoglio “made a significant rhetorical break with Catholic tradition”. And yes, they are real theories, but theories they remain. If they are proven facts they are no longer theories. A real pope would avoid making public statements about scientific theories and confine himself to teaching the truths of the Faith which have been handed down to us from Our Lord Himself and His Holy Catholic Church throughout the centuries. He must guard the doctrines of the Faith without changing them. When Francis expresses his opinion on the Big Bang theory, his words bear no more weight than yours or mine. Ironically, on New Year’s Day he said we should give up “empty chatter” in 2018.  

Before He died upon the Cross and returned to the Father, Our Lord advised His apostles:

“Yet a little while the light is among you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness may not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light” (Jn.12:35,36).

These words of St. Paul are for us:

“This, therefore, I say and testify in the Lord, that henceforward you are not to walk as the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding clouded in darkness, estranged from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. For they have given themselves up in despair to sensuality, greedily practicing every kind of uncleanness. But you have not so learned Christ – for surely you have heard of him and have been taught in him (as truth is in Jesus) that as regards your former manner of life you are to put off the old man, which is being corrupted through its deceptive lusts. But be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which has been created according to God in justice and holiness of truth” (Eph.4:17-24).