The Door to Heaven
Fr. Campbell
“But
Jesus taking to himself the Twelve said to them, ‘Behold, we are going
up to Jerusalem, and all things that have been written by the prophets
concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished” (Lk.18:31).
The
disciples did not understand this, because, as Our Lord said, “it was
hidden from them”. Today there are many things hidden from us because
our eyes are closed to the truth. We have been so conditioned by the
false prophets of the New World Order that we will accept anything that
is thrown at us by the media. Our smartphones and our TV’s have become
our guides and our teachers. What chance has the Gospel of Jesus Christ
to be heard anymore? Jesus Christ used to be “the Way, and the Truth,
and the Life”. Now He is no longer remembered, and the Truth is hidden
from our eyes. The world has lost its way.
Think
of the talented performers and entertainers of these times. How many of
them have become slaves of the devil? They start out young and
innocent. But they are soon confronted by the realities of this world,
and many of them are forced to trade in their innocence to the perverts
and pedophiles if they expect to be successful. Unwilling victims or
not, they end up betrayed into the hands of sinners.
The
truth is that most of the human race today is heading at full speed for
the gates of Hell. We need God’s help to find our way through the
present darkness. The Catholic Church used to provide that help. It was
the light of the world, because it preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ
to the nations. But now its government, including the papacy itself, its
properties, and its pulpits, have been hijacked by the enemy, and the
Gospel is no longer preached, and life has lost its meaning for many.
The Book of Wisdom tells us of the despairing thoughts of those who have
lost their way:
“Brief
and troublous is our lifetime, neither is there any remedy for man’s
dying, nor is anyone known to have come back from the nether world. For
haphazard were we born, and thereafter we shall be as though we had not
been; because the breath in our nostrils is a smoke and reason is a
spark at the beating of our hearts, and when this is quenched, our body
will be ashes and our spirit will be poured abroad like unresisting air.
Even our name will be forgotten in time, and no one will recall our
deeds. So our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud, and will
be dispersed like a mist pursued by the sun’s rays and overpowered by
its heat. For our lifetime is the passing of a shadow, and our dying
cannot be deferred because it is fixed with a seal; and no one returns”
(Wis.2:1-5).
And
how do we find the way that leads to life? There is only ONE WAY!
Nothing could be clearer than these words of Our Lord Jesus Christ:
“I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me” (Jn.14:6).
On another occasion The Lord’s words were equally clear:
“Amen,
amen, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All whoever have come
are thieves and robbers; but the sheep have not heard them. I am the
door. If anyone enter 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 came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly”
(Jn.11:7-10).
Those
who call themselves Catholic, but are so in name only, understand “none
of these things.” Those who still hold to the true faith know that they
are following the way of the Cross, but for them there is no turning
back. As scandal multiplies, the enemies of the Church, bolstered by
distorted and falsified media reports, are circling for the kill like a
pack of hungry wolves. What is left of the official Church is merely a
shell which cannot be fixed, as the apostate Francis and many bishops
and cardinals are now openly denying the essentials of the faith.
Faithful Catholics can only pray and keep the faith as best they can
while all they hold dear falls into ruin around them.
St.
Nicolas von Flue, canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1947, made this
sobering prophecy: “The Church will be punished because the majority of
her members, high and low, will become so perverted. The Church will
sink deeper and deeper until she will at last seem to be extinguished,
and the succession of Peter and the other Apostles to have expired. But,
after this, she will be victoriously exalted in the sight of all
doubters.”
This
is the time for saints. The true Church, abandoned by her own and at
the mercy of her enemies, is still under the protection of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, and enjoys the prayers of the saints. Purified through
suffering, she will rise once again as the holy and immaculate Bride of
Christ, prepared to welcome her Lord when He comes again.
How
does one remain a faithful Catholic when faced with the crucifixion of
the Church he loves? Well, this is what Lent is all about. We must be
obedient to the Church and observe a true Lent. On Wednesday of this
week, Ash Wednesday, we will receive the ashes on our foreheads as a
sign of penance. But without the Church’s Lenten program – prayer,
penance and almsgiving – the ashes remain a meaningless symbol. We must
not let that happen.
The Acts of the Apostles records that St. Paul preached with St. Barnabas in the cities of Asia Minor,
