“Save yourselves from this perverse generation” (Acts 2:40)
FR. CAMPBELL
St.
Paul tells us that we must choose either to live according to the
spirit, or according to the flesh. There is no other alternative. One
choice leads to eternal life, the other to Hell. All those who have
rejected God’s word revealed through Jesus Christ and taught by His
Church are “debtors to the flesh,” and are living “according to the
flesh.” If they do not come to believe in Jesus Christ, they will lose
their souls and die “the second death” (Apoc.2:11).
The
Jewish religion found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, but to this day
the Jews, except for the few, have remained in unbelief. Having rejected
their Messiah, they are in bondage to the religion of the Talmud, and
they choose to remain “debtors to the flesh”. St. Paul speaks of his
sorrow over the unbelief of the Jews:
I
speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bearing me
witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sadness and continuous
sorrow in my heart. For I could wish to be anathema myself from Christ
for the sake of my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh;
who are Israelites, who have the adoption as sons, and the glory and the
covenants and the legislation and the worship and the promises; who
have the fathers, and from who is the Christ according to the flesh, who
is, over all things, God blessed forever, amen (Rom.9:1-5).
On
the day of the Jewish Pentecost (Shavuot), in the first sermon ever
preached in the Church, St. Peter admonished the crowds of the Jews:
“Save yourselves from this perverse generation” (Acts 2:40).
But
Western Civilization is still too Christian for the perverse
generation. In particular, they hate Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin
Mary, against whom they blaspheme and vent their rage. They hate the
true Catholic Church, and they already control the false church of the
Novus Ordo. They have their men in the seats of power – false priests,
false bishops, and false popes, the Antipopes of prophecy.
They
have power over the governments of this world. They control the media.
They make the movies and the videos. Virtually the whole entertainment
industry is controlled by the enemies of our souls. They control the
porn industry. What motivates the porn industry is hatred of Jesus
Christ and of Christian civilization, which they are determined to
destroy.
The
destructive power of pornography cannot be overestimated. It is not
just a private matter that one can keep to himself and go on with life
as usual. It creates a horrible bondage that cannot be broken except for
the mercy of God and the power of His grace. Every time we turn on our
computer or our smartphone to view pornography, we betray our Lord Jesus
Christ and give ourselves over to His enemies. Not only that, but we
become cooperators in their plan to destroy our civilization and to make
our Holy Catholic Church come crashing down.
What
drives the Porn Industry is hatred of Jesus Christ, His Holy Catholic
Church, and Christian civilization. Pornography is blasphemous, the
devil’s weapon for these times. His preferred victims are the young and
innocent children. If you pervert them while they are young, you have
them for life, but for the grace of God. One of the devil’s tools these
days is the smartphone. You wouldn’t let the children play Russian
Roulette. And this is worse. There are simple cell phones that do not
include unsupervised use of the Internet. How can you trust the children
when they can’t trust themselves? It takes years to develop the
maturity needed to confront the challenges of these evil, and perhaps
final days.
Pornography
destroys the divine life in the soul. It dulls the taste for the
spiritual and the desire for Heaven. It coarsens the mind and creates a
tolerance for evil. You can see its effects everywhere. People have
become coarse in their behavior, and in their language. Even in school
little children are being exposed to the most crude and sinful
instruction.
The
result is that there are almost no innocent and virginal souls left, as
the Blessed Virgin Mary predicted about our times at Quito, Ecuador, to
Saint Mariana of Jesus. Christian parents are grief stricken as they
see their children falling into drug and alcohol abuse, and an immoral
lifestyle. Movies and TV produce gangsters, killers and perverts, and an
anti-Christian educational system destroys faith by promoting secular
humanism. Our educational institutions did not just deteriorate; they
were hijacked. According to one commentator:
“Christians
have lost the war for American schools – which have been scrubbed clean
of the Christian principles and traditions that once guided those
institutions, and are now filled instead with every conceivable form of
propaganda and perversion” (D. Kupelian, Why are Christians losing America?, WorldNetDaily.Com, Aug.9, 2002).
Human
nature must be healed and raised to the level of the supernatural if
its actions are to be pleasing to God. “Walk in the Spirit,” says St.
Paul, “and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh
lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these
are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you would.” He
adds, “They who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its
passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us
also walk” (Gal.5:25).
Even
in the worst of circumstances, if we have God, we are “joint heirs with
Christ,” and we have all that we need. But if we don’t have God, fame,
and power, and all the world’s riches cannot prevent us from that
sickening descent, devoid of all hope, into the eternal fires of hell.
