Sunday Within the Octave of the Ascension, May 20, 2012
(John 15: 26, 27 & 16: 4)
How could we be justified in faith if our salvation was rooted and founded only in things we can see with our eyes? It was in answer to this question that Jesus told St. Thomas, “Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they who have not seen and have believed.” (John 20: 29) When Jesus had accomplished all that related to the preaching of the Gospel and to the mysteries of the New Testament He was raised up to heaven in the presence of His disciples. We celebrated that Feast day this past Thursday. So what had been visible in Christ bodily is now veiled in mystery. The purpose of this was so we may have a stronger and a more perfect faith. What was once seen and believed in Christ when He was here bodily, was now succeeded by revealed truth, and this truth, being taught by the authority of Christ’s Church, was believed and followed by the faithful. “Blessed are they who have not seen and have believed.”
The Apostles were greatly uplifted by our Lord’s Ascension so that whatever made them afraid in the past, now caused them to turn the gaze of their souls upwards towards the Divinity of Jesus Christ. It was then that the Son of Man, the Son of God, became known in a more perfect and holy manner. When He returned to His Father bodily he began to be more present to us in His Divinity as time went by and His humanity became more remote from us.
It was because of this that our Lord said to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection when she drew near to touch Him: “Do not touch me, for I am not yet ascended to my Father.” (John 20: 17) It was as if He said to her: “I do not want you to approach me in a bodily manner, nor that you should know me by the feel of My Flesh. I would rather you wait for what is higher and greater, which I am preparing for you. When I have ascended to my Father then you shall touch me more perfectly and more truly, for you shall know what you do not touch and you shall believe what you do not see.”
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus promises to send the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Blessed Trinity. The Holy Ghost removes fear from our hearts, and changes hatred into love in the hearts of our enemies. He is also called the Consoler because He delivers us from all confusion of soul and bestows upon us incredible joy. The martyrs experienced this joy even while being tortured and killed by the enemies of Christ and His Church.
Our Lord warns the Apostles of the suffering they will endure, that they will be put out of the synagogues and that “the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God.” This is an astounding statement. Those Jews and Romans who kill Christ’s followers will think they do a service to God. They have a zeal for God, but not according to the New and Everlasting Covenant established by Jesus. The Messiah was the inheritance of the Jews. When they refused to accept Him, they forfeited that inheritance. They were the Chosen People as we learn in the Old Testament books of the Bible, but today, the Chosen People are all those who accept Jesus Christ and all He taught. Those who accept Christ and all that He taught will find themselves in what is called today the Traditional Catholic Church.
It is worthwhile to expand on that a little. It is popular today to believe that everyone worships the same God, since there is only one God, and that however you worship Him is okay. This is called religious indifferentism, and it says that all religions are equally worthy and profitable to man, and equally pleasing to God. This error is widely held.
What do we really say when we say that all religions are equally good? We ignore reason, because we say that if two religions are opposed in their beliefs, then both are correct. It’s insulting to God to suggest that truth and error do not matter to God, who is Truth Itself. The great religions of the world, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the religions of India and the Orient are in direct contradiction with each other. To suggest they are all equal before God is to say that God has no love of Truth. Defenders of Indifferentism may say that all religions agree on some basic things. However, if they do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood they shall not have life in them. (John 6: 53) It is also wrong to suggest that all Christian religions are equal, but I won’t go into that today other than to say that Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah and the Son of God, established one Church, His Church, and imbued it with authority and its priests with certain powers, among them the power to forgive sins. If the Catholic Church, which is the Church Jesus established, binds people to believe everything it teaches then whoever does not believe everything it teaches does not belong to the Christ’s Church. If post-Vatican II churchmen say differently, they are not preaching the one true Faith.
This does not mean that all non-Catholics are condemned to hell. As Catholics we are not permitted to judge others, as Jesus is quoted in Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that ye not be judged.” Our Lord will judge all people. It is our job to act charitably toward others, and that means all others in the world, even if they hate us and persecute us. That’s not always easy to do.
Let us trust in the mercy of God that we shall be given a zeal for our faith through our obedient hearing of the Word of God in the sermons of our priests, and from this obtain an eager desire to put charity into practice so we may give a good account of ourselves before the Judgment Seat of Christ and receive the reward of salvation. +++
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