Trinity Sunday, May 31, 2015
Time for a Courageous Stand
Fear of the Lord
is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. But fear is also a normal and
necessary human emotion. Without fear we would not take care to avoid the
dangers that threaten us daily. It is true that irrational fear can paralyze us
and prevent us from acting when we should, but normal fear can be our friend. One
who lacks fear will not take care to avoid danger. Both the coward and the hero
experience fear, but the coward backs away, while the hero faces the danger
courageously.
But there are
things that we must fear. What we must fear above all is the loss of the true
Catholic Faith, the greatest catastrophe that could befall us. Millions of
Catholics are being misled by the antipopes of Vatican II. Most of those who
call themselves Catholic have already lost their Catholic Faith because they
have followed the Vatican “Pied Piper” into darkness, and are now outside the
true Church. They had no fear of losing their Catholic Faith. As for you, stand
firm in the Faith, entering through The Door, Jesus Christ, into eternal life:
“I am the door,”
says Jesus. “If anyone enters by me he shall be safe, and shall go in and out,
and shall find pastures. The thief comes only to steal, and slay, and destroy.
I come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly… Amen, amen, I say to you, he who enters not
by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up another way, is a thief and a
robber” (Jn.10:9,10,1).
Jesus Christ is
able to say these things because He is a Divine Person, truly God, the Second
Person of the Blessed Trinity. And if God says that something is true, YOU’D
BETTER BELIEVE IT! Something else to believe:
“I am the vine,
you are the branches,” Our Lord says. “He who abides in me, and I in him, he
bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide
in me, he shall be cast outside as the branch and wither; and they shall gather
them up and cast them into the fire, and they shall burn” (Jn.15:5,6).
But now we are
being told that we don’t have to believe what Jesus says. Jesus is being flatly
contradicted, and that by His supposed “Vicar” on earth. “Stay where you are,”
says Francis Bergoglio. Any religion is good enough. You don’t believe in God?
No problem! Just do good, and we’ll meet “up there”. St. Augustine comments on
such as Bergolio:
“No man can have a
true and certain hope of life eternal, unless he know the true life, which is
Christ, and enter by him, who is The Door, into the sheepfold. Such men as
these often try to draw others to some kind of a good life which is not a
Christian life… Some there are… who not only boast that they are among the
Seers, but who would even fain appear as though they are enlightened by Christ;
and nonetheless, they are heretics” (St. Augustine, commenting on St. John 10:1-10,
the Gospel for the Tuesday after Pentecost).
No wonder the Jews
like Bergoglio so much. But which God are they worshipping? They don’t believe
in the Holy Trinity, and they deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Jewish worship
and Catholic worship may have superficial similarities, but they are
essentially different. If Jewish laws were in effect, those who worship Jesus
Christ as God could be arrested and executed for blasphemy. Look what happened to
Jesus Himself:
“And the high
priest said to him, ‘I admonish thee by the living God that thou tell us
whether thou are the Christ, the Son of God.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Thou hast
said it…’ Then the high priest tore his garments, saying, ‘He has blasphemed;
what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now you have heard the
blasphemy. What do you think?’ And they answered and said, ‘He is liable to
death” (Mt.26:63,64a;65,66).
But who cares? Not
Francis, it seems! Wearing his prayer shawl and yarmulke, he lights the menorah
and “prays” with his Jewish friends in their synagogues. Francis is as much Jew
as Catholic, despite his protestations of love for Jesus. But his actions reveal
him as a Judas. And the young, observing the behavior of this wildly popular
celebrity, follow him straight out of the Church. Why not, if any religion, or
no religion at all, is good enough?
St. John has
already warned us in his first Epistle:
“I have not
written to you as to those who do not know the truth, but as to those who know
it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that
Jesus is the Christ? He is the Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. No
one who disowns the Son has the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father
also” (1Jn.2:21-23).
God still hears
the prayers of the humble and contrite, who tremble at His word:
“But to whom shall I have respect, but to him who is poor and little
and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my words?” (Is.66:2).
St. Paul tells Timothy:
“But thou, O man
of God, flee these things; but pursue justice, godliness, faith, charity,
patience, mildness. Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life
eternal, to which thou hast been called…” (1Tim.6:12).
You must stand
firm in the Faith, admonishes St. Paul. Your very salvation is at stake:
“Work out your
salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who of his good pleasure works
in you both the will and the performance. Do all things without murmuring and
without questioning, so as to be blameless and guileless, children of God
without blemish in the midst of a depraved and perverse generation. For among
these you shine like stars in the world, holding fast the word of life to my
glory against the day of Christ…” (Phil.2:12b-16).
