The Final Confrontation by Cami Murphy
Dear brothers and sisters,
I had a fire in my heart to write this on this feast of the Holy Innocents, which is so special to me. I pray that God give you the graces He has in mind for each of you as His daughter or son.
Blessings,
Cami little handmaid
The Final Confrontation
Today, Monday, December 28, 2020, is the feast of the Holy Innocents; the little boys who were martyred when Herod had his soldiers kill them in his evil pursuit to kill the Messiah, whom he feared would overthrow him.
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the Child and His Mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the Child, to destroy Him...Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the Wise Men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region, who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the Wise Men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: "A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more." (Matthew 2:13, 16-18)
My first thought, when I began to meditate on this Scripture and this feast, was of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla's (the future Pope John Paul II) prophetic words at the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia in 1976:
We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel."
I would like, audaciously, to add to that statement, using a couple of Pope John Paul II's later terms, which he wrote of in his encyclical, The Gospel of Life: ...between "the culture of life and the culture of death." In the past several years that confrontation has become more fierce.
That confrontation actually began millennia ago in the Garden of Eden, where there was a battle between the Creator/Father God and His enemy, the serpent. When Eve, and then Adam, surrendered to the serpent's temptation to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God had forbidden, by disobeying God, they separated themselves from the source of Life, and death came into the world.
Countless times in the history of the world, Satan, the murderer (John 8:44), has fought God, in a long, ongoing war, a vain struggle to overcome God's Life, to make death victorious. The whole truth is that every day, countless times a day, in every person who has reached the age of reason, that struggle continues as a struggle between good and evil, obedience to God and disobedience, sin and virtue, life and death.
According to the World Health Organization, there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions performed in the world annually. Based on that fact, it appears that Satan is winning his war against Life. But as Christians, in faith we know that Satan can never defeat God.
In an article from a National Right to Life (NRL) publication, "the number of abortions (in the US) has been coming down, falling substantially in the past three decades. There were 1.6 million abortions in 1990, meaning that the number has dropped to almost half..." to 874,100 in 2016 (according to the Guttmacher Institute's figures). NRL considers Guttmacher Institute's figures more accurate than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but both organizations show a downward trend in the number of abortions.
To refer back to the words of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in 1976,
"We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel vs. the anti-Gospel."
And I repeat that we are now facing the final confrontation between the culture of life and the culture of death. Since it is the final confrontation, the victory of God will be eternal. When that total victory will come, we do not know. But, brothers and sisters of life rejoice in God's promise, for His promises never disappoint!
"...so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
(Romans 5:21)
Cami little handmaid
12-28-2020
feast of the Holy Innocents
I had a fire in my heart to write this on this feast of the Holy Innocents, which is so special to me. I pray that God give you the graces He has in mind for each of you as His daughter or son.
Blessings,
Cami little handmaid
The Final Confrontation
Today, Monday, December 28, 2020, is the feast of the Holy Innocents; the little boys who were martyred when Herod had his soldiers kill them in his evil pursuit to kill the Messiah, whom he feared would overthrow him.
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the Child and His Mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the Child, to destroy Him...Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the Wise Men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region, who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the Wise Men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: "A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more." (Matthew 2:13, 16-18)
My first thought, when I began to meditate on this Scripture and this feast, was of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla's (the future Pope John Paul II) prophetic words at the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia in 1976:
We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel."
I would like, audaciously, to add to that statement, using a couple of Pope John Paul II's later terms, which he wrote of in his encyclical, The Gospel of Life: ...between "the culture of life and the culture of death." In the past several years that confrontation has become more fierce.
That confrontation actually began millennia ago in the Garden of Eden, where there was a battle between the Creator/Father God and His enemy, the serpent. When Eve, and then Adam, surrendered to the serpent's temptation to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God had forbidden, by disobeying God, they separated themselves from the source of Life, and death came into the world.
Countless times in the history of the world, Satan, the murderer (John 8:44), has fought God, in a long, ongoing war, a vain struggle to overcome God's Life, to make death victorious. The whole truth is that every day, countless times a day, in every person who has reached the age of reason, that struggle continues as a struggle between good and evil, obedience to God and disobedience, sin and virtue, life and death.
According to the World Health Organization, there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions performed in the world annually. Based on that fact, it appears that Satan is winning his war against Life. But as Christians, in faith we know that Satan can never defeat God.
In an article from a National Right to Life (NRL) publication, "the number of abortions (in the US) has been coming down, falling substantially in the past three decades. There were 1.6 million abortions in 1990, meaning that the number has dropped to almost half..." to 874,100 in 2016 (according to the Guttmacher Institute's figures). NRL considers Guttmacher Institute's figures more accurate than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but both organizations show a downward trend in the number of abortions.
To refer back to the words of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in 1976,
"We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel vs. the anti-Gospel."
And I repeat that we are now facing the final confrontation between the culture of life and the culture of death. Since it is the final confrontation, the victory of God will be eternal. When that total victory will come, we do not know. But, brothers and sisters of life rejoice in God's promise, for His promises never disappoint!
"...so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
(Romans 5:21)
Cami little handmaid
12-28-2020
feast of the Holy Innocents
Little Handmaids of Our Sorrowful Mother
www.sorrowfulmother.net
www.sorrowfulmother.net
And Mary said, "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." (Lk 1:38)
“Articles for Heart Mind Soul” is a forum for Original Articles providing Catholic and Conservative Commentary by Contributing Writers: Informing Hearts – Instructing Minds – Inspiring Souls.