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While The Church was surely the new Jerusalem from the time of Christ, it seems to me, that Apocalypse 21 follows on from 20:9 -
P But God sent fire from heaven
to consume them
and the devil, their seducer,
was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone
where, like himself, the beast and the false prophet
will be tormented day and night eternally. P
If so, then certainly, we will see a new Universal Church, raised to a higher status in the world - in all creation - for the simple reason that Her enemy is no longer in the contest.
Thus it seems to me, because it is obviously not the end of the world when the final judgment will take place - as mentioned in Apocalypse 20:11-15 - at whose glance earth and heaven vanished.
We have a new era approaching - not the end of the world. So, having a new era without the encompassing, devastating evil of the devil, we may expect some grand things to take place.
And the grandest thing will be in relation to the Holy Mass, when the consecration will be perceived in a new, enlightened and much clearer fashion,
so that The Real Presence
will be keenly realised
not only by those of The Faith,
but by everyone.
Come Holy Spirit.
The Real Presence
The modernist trend to downgrade the Real Presence by promoting the Presence of Christ in the congregation, in Scripture and in the Priest while concurrently demeaning His Presence in the Holy Eucharist, is another deception that is about to end.
It is true of course, that Christ is to be found where two or three are gathered in His Name. It is true also, that He is found in Scripture, the Word of God.
In the Priest, acting on Christ's behalf in his ministering of the Sacraments, He can also be found.
The modernist deception lies, not in the Truth of Christ's Presence in these different fashions, but in
their effort to demote His greatest Presence
- His fullest, most loving Presence -
in The Eucharist.,
the Sacrament of Love
The deception goes further then that, however, for the modernists, for their own purposes, would have us forget Christ's Presence in other fashions.
Christ's Presence in the Pope.
For example, and very importantly, Christ is to be found in His Vicar on earth, the Pope. The Presence of Christ in the Pope involves the Pope's Priesthood, but more particularly because
he is the personal representative
to The Church
and to the whole world,
of Christ Himself.
The Pope is Peter - The Rock - who has the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep.
Christ's Presence in Tradition
Because the Tradition of Catholicism has equal importance to Scripture, then Christ is equally present in Tradition, too.
Thus Dogmas defined by The Universal Church must be accepted just as Scripture is accepted, that is, as the very Word of God.
Christ's Presence in the Sacrifice and in The Church
With regard to Christ's Presence at Holy Mass, Rev. Timothy V. Vaverek, S.T.D. in his Eucharisticum Mysterium 55 and The Four Modes of Presence: Inadequate Principles of Church Design also points out the failure to recognise Christ's Presence in yet other ways:
P A more fundamental departure from Sacrosanctum Concilium 7 and Eucharisticum Mysterium 9 is the failure of Eucharisticum Mysterium 55 to mention the sacrifice of the Mass and the Church as ways in which Christ is present.
These are startling omissions.
After all, the Paschal Mystery
of Christ's saving death, resurrection, and ascension
is present in the Mass
as the source and summit of the entire life of the Church. 7 P
On Truth, Again
In this battle over the realities of Christ's Presence, we perceive, yet once more, that the entire conflict with evil, as always, revolves around Truth.
There is nothing more important
then Truth,
not even Love.
This simple fact can be easily proven when we consider the modernist's saying that love is everything.
Let me say, straight away, that I really believe that Love is everything.
However, what the modernist fails to realise when he proclaims this saying, is that
he is proclaiming
a Truth!
For a modernist to think that he has proclaimed an everlasting Truth would stun him to the quick - it could damage his hold on even the basic reality, if I might introduce these awful words basic reality - too much like that word truth!
Therefore, what the modernist is saying, with regard to love is everything, is:-
What I say is the Truth
and the Truth is
that Love is everything.
Of course, the modernist would object to this with some venom because he is actually saying that
from Truth
comes Love.
This the modernist can not cope with, for he no longer holds Truth as sacred and everlasting. He never sees Truth as the equal of love. Truth to him is a changing thing, never the same from one generation to the next. Indeed, truth to him is to be fitted into and aligned with, the culture of the day -
with what the majority want it to be.
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