"I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him." (John 5: 43).
Our modern world is losing its struggle with the powers and principalities and, ignoring St. Paul's warning to "keep Satan from gaining an advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his designs" (2 Corinthians 2: 11), has fallen into a spiritual malaise which has allowed the demons to gain a tremendous advantage. Our Lady spoke of this with Fr. Gobbi of the Marian Movement of Priests saying that, "Even in the Church, the darkness will descend more densely yet and will succeed in enveloping everything. Errors will spread much more, and many will wander away from the true faith . Apostasy will spread like an epidemic, and pastors will be stricken by it along with the flocks entrusted to them....The contestation directed against the Pope will become stronger: theologians, bishops, priests and laity will openly oppose his Magisterium..." (January 1, 1992, Rubbio (Vicenza, Italy).
On March 11, 1995, Our Lady told Fr. Gobbi that, "In the Church, the great apostasy, which will spread throughout the whole world, will be brought to its completion; the schism will take place through a general alienation from the Gospel and from the true faith. There will enter into the Church the man of iniquity, who opposes himself to Christ, and who will bring into her interior the abomination of desolation, thus bringing to fulfillment the horrible sacrilege, of which the Prophet Daniel* has spoken."
It is not without reason that Our Holy Father Benedict XVI addresses the supreme temptation of the Man of Sin in his book "Jesus of Nazareth" which was published last year. His Holiness explains that, "..the choice is between a Messiah who leads an armed struggle, promises freedom and a kingdom of one's own, and this mysterious Jesus who proclaims that losing oneself is the way to life...If we had to choose today, would Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, the Son of the Father, have a chance? Do we understand him? Do we not perhaps have to make an effort, today as always, to get to know him all over again? The tempter is not so crude as to suggest to us directly that we should worship the Devil. He merely suggests that we opt for the reasonable decision, that we choose to give priority to a planned and thoroughly organized world, where God may have his place as a private concern but must not interfere in our essential purposes." (p. 41). His Holiness then reminds us that, "Earthly kingdoms remain earthly human kingdoms, and anyone who claims to be able to establish the perfect world is the willing dupe of Satan and plays the world right into his hands." (p. 44).
Dr. Von Hildebrand was right when he said that, "Modern man has lost that consciousness of being a creature which even the pagan possessed, and he lives in the illusion that by his own powers he can transform the world into a terrestrial paradise." (The New Tower of Babel, Sophia Institute Press, 1994, p. 21). Having decided against God, "modern man" has embraced the Flight. This flight from the Divine Other has led to the decline of man's confidence in the powers of human reason to attain reality and truth. Man in the Flight has concluded today that all truth is relative. In the same way that Pilate asked Our Lord, "What is truth?" and hastened in his flight to the judgment-hall without waiting for an answer (John 18:38), so "modern man," in his embrace of relativism, joins the flight without any thought of inquiring for the truth. Instead, he settles for illusion, rejecting the permanent authority of truth as founded by the Divine Other in reality, reason and revelation while setting himself up as the autonomous source of all truth:
"Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the 'mystery of iniquity' in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 675).
Why is Our Holy Father telling us now that we face a choice between two Messiahs, a secular "Messiah" who promises "freedom and a kingdom of one's own" and Our Savior Jesus Christ? Does he sense that the Man of Sin is about to reveal himself to the world?
* Matthew 24:15.
Our modern world is losing its struggle with the powers and principalities and, ignoring St. Paul's warning to "keep Satan from gaining an advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his designs" (2 Corinthians 2: 11), has fallen into a spiritual malaise which has allowed the demons to gain a tremendous advantage. Our Lady spoke of this with Fr. Gobbi of the Marian Movement of Priests saying that, "Even in the Church, the darkness will descend more densely yet and will succeed in enveloping everything. Errors will spread much more, and many will wander away from the true faith . Apostasy will spread like an epidemic, and pastors will be stricken by it along with the flocks entrusted to them....The contestation directed against the Pope will become stronger: theologians, bishops, priests and laity will openly oppose his Magisterium..." (January 1, 1992, Rubbio (Vicenza, Italy).
On March 11, 1995, Our Lady told Fr. Gobbi that, "In the Church, the great apostasy, which will spread throughout the whole world, will be brought to its completion; the schism will take place through a general alienation from the Gospel and from the true faith. There will enter into the Church the man of iniquity, who opposes himself to Christ, and who will bring into her interior the abomination of desolation, thus bringing to fulfillment the horrible sacrilege, of which the Prophet Daniel* has spoken."
It is not without reason that Our Holy Father Benedict XVI addresses the supreme temptation of the Man of Sin in his book "Jesus of Nazareth" which was published last year. His Holiness explains that, "..the choice is between a Messiah who leads an armed struggle, promises freedom and a kingdom of one's own, and this mysterious Jesus who proclaims that losing oneself is the way to life...If we had to choose today, would Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, the Son of the Father, have a chance? Do we understand him? Do we not perhaps have to make an effort, today as always, to get to know him all over again? The tempter is not so crude as to suggest to us directly that we should worship the Devil. He merely suggests that we opt for the reasonable decision, that we choose to give priority to a planned and thoroughly organized world, where God may have his place as a private concern but must not interfere in our essential purposes." (p. 41). His Holiness then reminds us that, "Earthly kingdoms remain earthly human kingdoms, and anyone who claims to be able to establish the perfect world is the willing dupe of Satan and plays the world right into his hands." (p. 44).
Dr. Von Hildebrand was right when he said that, "Modern man has lost that consciousness of being a creature which even the pagan possessed, and he lives in the illusion that by his own powers he can transform the world into a terrestrial paradise." (The New Tower of Babel, Sophia Institute Press, 1994, p. 21). Having decided against God, "modern man" has embraced the Flight. This flight from the Divine Other has led to the decline of man's confidence in the powers of human reason to attain reality and truth. Man in the Flight has concluded today that all truth is relative. In the same way that Pilate asked Our Lord, "What is truth?" and hastened in his flight to the judgment-hall without waiting for an answer (John 18:38), so "modern man," in his embrace of relativism, joins the flight without any thought of inquiring for the truth. Instead, he settles for illusion, rejecting the permanent authority of truth as founded by the Divine Other in reality, reason and revelation while setting himself up as the autonomous source of all truth:
"Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the 'mystery of iniquity' in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 675).
Why is Our Holy Father telling us now that we face a choice between two Messiahs, a secular "Messiah" who promises "freedom and a kingdom of one's own" and Our Savior Jesus Christ? Does he sense that the Man of Sin is about to reveal himself to the world?
* Matthew 24:15.
4 comments:
Paul, when you were prevented from applying to the La Salette Missionaries it was because you were deemed "too rigid" in your faith. Notice the priest's words to you, "We do have a mix of people whose opinions vary, and who have different theological perspectives."
If you had been "more flexible" about "women priests," New Age Yoga" and other forms of dissent, you would have been welcome. You were asked to "opt for the reasonable decision," as Pope Benedict put it. To compromise in other words.
You didn't. Your "fundamentalist" attitude toward the dictatorship of relativism was deemed "unacceptable." So you were deemed "unacceptable."
Soon those of us who are orthodox Christians won't just be excluded. We will be killed.
We don't fit into the new schema.
I think you're right Mr. Melanson. The Holy Father is outlining in sharp detail who Jesus is in his book. I get the feeling that he is preparing the Church for the advent of Antichrist.
By the way, I'm sorry to hear about the way the La Salettes treated you.
Don't give up. Hang in there. You are in my prayers.
Most Catholics will succumb to Antichrist. There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind about this. Dr. Dietrich von Hildebrand explains that, "..we must first of all understand that an outward truce with evil - that is to say, a passive toleration of all objective wrongs, an attitude of silence and of letting things pass which in some circumstances has the appearance of consent and sometimes actually results in consent - can never derive from a love for true peace. For the real value of peace resides in its being AN OUTGROWTH OF LOVE AND AN EXPRESSION OF GENUINE HARMONY...
The unison we pretend to establish with evil - the attitude of coolly allowing a power of wrong to unfold - neither rests on actual love nor reflects true harmony. Rather it is a product of weakness and involves a defilement with evil, a participation in the wrongdoer's guilt. Through our feeble submission to evil we merely increase the disharmony that lies in evil as such and aggravate the discord that is implied in all evil, in all wrong that offends God: a discord deeper than the one implied in the sheer fact of conflict, however fierce." (Transformation in Christ, P. 350).
But most Catholics today (not all, but most) are very comfortable with tolerating objective wrongs and, because they lack the Holy Spirit's gift of Fortitude, will simply "go along to get along."
When the Man of Sin makes his appearance and promises an earthly paradise with prosperity for all - the price being apostasy from the true faith, it will appear almost scandalous to most Catholics (and Christians in general) to oppose his programme.
Those of us who do so will not be tolerated. The remnant will be persecuted because of its "holy stubborness." Whic in spiritual terms is called Fortitude, a gift of the Holy Spirit as well as a Cardinal Virtue.
I pray that I and my family will be granted the gift of fortitude to shed our blood rather than ever for a second turn from the Truth. Never give up. Never quit. Never deny our Lord nor his Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. We must pray for the strength to wash our garments in the Blood of the Lamb so He may say to us "Who is this in garments all red?"
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