Bishop Richard N. Williamson Archive: https://earthnewspaper.com/category/bishop-richard-n-williamson
April 16, 2022
Faith is a shield, stopping a host of lies.
With faith in the Resurrection, our soul flies.
The four Gospels of the New Testament have many fewer pages on the Resurrection of Our Lord than on His Passion, because the Passion was the purpose and climax of His Incarnation. “I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how I am constrained until it is accomplished” (Lk. XII, 50) – the words refer to His Passion without which there would have been no Resurrection. By His Passion He earned His victory over death, by His Resurrection He manifested that victory. By His Passion He overcame evil, and caused our salvation. By His Resurrection He showed forth the good He had earned for men, and fulfilled our salvation. Now, we fallen men will incline to avoid the suffering to get at its fruits, thus the Newchurch can replace on the Cross the suffering with the risen Christ, but the Gospels insist on the roots to ensure the fruits. Nevertheless here is a quote from each of the four Gospels on the Resurrection of Our Lord –
Matthew, XXVIII, 18, some of the last words of Our Lord recorded by Matthew before He ascended into Heaven: “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me,” and not to Moses or Buddha or Mohammed or Marx or to any of the other heads of the many false religions among men. Nor is Christ here speaking as God, because as God that authority is already His. If the authority has been “given” to Him, it can only have been given to Him as man. Such a stupendous claim can only be either nonsense, or true. But if Christ contradicted it, He would be a liar, like His enemies (cf. Jn. VIII, 55). It is this Authority which distinguishes the true Catholic Church from the Newchurch and from all other false churches or religions on earth. This unique divine Authority comes from God only through His Vicar on earth, the Pope of Rome. Necessarily God will restore the Pope to restore His authoritative Church.
Mark, XVI, 16, also words of Our Lord just before ascending into Heaven: “He who believes and is baptised will be saved but he who does not believe will be condemned.” Here is another stupendous claim which is nonsense if it is not true. And if it is true, then all ecumenism following Vatican II on the basis that souls can be saved outside the Catholic Church, is nonsense. Souls can be saved by Our Lord IN false religions, but never BY non-Catholic religions. Harsh words? The question is not whether they are harsh words, but whether they are true. I will never save my soul by wishful thinking. And it is pure wishful thinking that I can obtain Christ’s Heaven by neglecting Christ, or the one and only Church which He instituted to continue His Incarnation on earth after He in Person would ascend to Heaven.
Luke, XXIV, 25, the risen Lord is rebuking the two pilgrims of Emmaus for their slowness to believe: “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?” We human beings do not want to believe that it is necessary to do any suffering at all, but St Thomas Aquinas (III 69, 3) gives three reasons why Baptism does not take away our sufferings in this life: firstly, so that Christians can share in Christ’s Passion; secondly, so that they must struggle to earn eternal life; thirdly, so that Christian life will not just turn into a way of avoiding earthly sufferings. Suffering has its uses.
John, XX, 29, where the risen Lord has just cured the doubting Apostle Thomas of his unbelief by letting him actually touch the wounds of the crucifixion: “You (Thomas) have believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Often, two thousand years after Christ lived on earth, we are tempted to think, if only we could see Him in the flesh and live with Him daily, like His Apostles did, how much easier it would be to believe in Him. But then our faith would not have had the same value. Believing in Him without that daily evidence is that much more meritorious for Heaven, as Our Lord reminds St Thomas. Believing in God is not to believe in nonsense, far from it, but to believe in Him only with the help of “scientific evidence” is to deprive our belief of that trust in God which is a great part of the merit and value of faith. And if we suffer and still believe, belief has even more merit.
Kyrie eleison.
This issue deals with Catholic Authority, Newchurch, Resurrection, and Vatican II. Find issues dealing with these topics by clicking on the topic word.
Source: https://stmarcelinitiative.com/resurrection-quotes
Bishop Richard N. Williamson
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