The Gates Of Hell Shall Not Prevail - Homily

 

Matthew 16:18 "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Following Peter's magnificent confession of faith, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus prophecies, the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church which is built on the rock of apostolic faith. But we have to ask, has this prophecy been fulfilled or do we wait for a later date? At first glance it seems that we do, because the infernal gates seem most prevalent. Some stats via The Esther Project:

Some 70 million Christians have been killed since the foundation of the Church. Half of these were killed in the 20th century alone. Between 100,000 - 160,000 Christians are killed every year in this century, our own, which saw over a million martyrs (killed) between 2000 and 2010. In the meanwhile 217 churches are destroyed every month. And the response of the religious leaders in the West, in what was once Christendom? Silence or worse.

Witness the ersatz diversity hire Archbishop of Canterbury wandering around Africa, offering to pay them 100 million GBP in reparations for slavery. Don't say bribe. Or Pope Leo, wafting around North Africa on a "we apologize to Muslims" tour, All this while the head chopping Jihad savages are literally killing our people. So it looks as though we're waiting for a future fulfillment of Christ's prophecy because the gates of hell seem pretty prevalent, right about now. But not so fast, the problem with this point of view is that it's completely wrong.

Gates, per the above, aren't actively offensive, they're not demonic combined arms battlegroups which sally forth from the fastness of hell to wreak havoc on the Church. On the contrary, they're defensive, designed to keep the damned in and the Church out, to lock in death and prevent life. They're designed to withstand the charge of the Church and her Head, Christ. Have they succeeded or prevailed? 

No. They have not, do not and will not. From the moment of Our Lord's sacrifice on the Cross the hellish gates are shattered as Christ defeats death. Hell is harrowed, it has no more power over Christ, the true rock on which the apostolic rock of faith is founded. The same gates which have no power over the Church today and every day, over the Church that is the Body of Christ and lifts the faithful up to life, the very ark of salvation. Those gates which, at the end of time, will be consigned to the lake of fire.

So we see that Jesus' words have, are, and will be fulfilled. Does this mean that the faithful won't be killed by the devils and the people they inhabit? No, they killed Christ. Does it mean that Christians, people who live in Christ, won't be mocked, imprisoned and tortured on account of their Petrine faith?  No, they did the same to Christ. But it does mean this, that in Jesus we have life, victory over the iron gates of hell itself, victory over death.

Turn, then, with renewed faith to Peter's confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," and in that confession find life.

In Nom.,

LSP

Take Note You Heathen

 

The Nicene Creed. Heretics wilt and melt before this and pull weird stunts.

Cheers,

LSP

Sunday Homily

 

"Faith without works is dead," says St. James the Apostle, much to the annoyance of Luther who felt the letter an "Epistle of straw." Of course it was, to a former Augustinian friar who held that good works were "like fleas on the skin of a dead dog." Tell us what you really think, Martin.

Still, and Luther aside, we instinctively get what James is telling us. If you believe in something and that belief isn't enacted then it's not worth much, it ain't right. Worse, it starts to take on the sulpherous, pharisaical odor of hypocrisy. And our instinct's not wrong, faith which isn't animated, which doesn't move is dead, immobile. It doesn't "profit."

James drives it home:

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food. And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

 

What doth it profit to be full of belief, such as to move mountains, but be devoid of faith's animating principle, which is love, the Holy Spirit. Benedict XVI puts it well:

Being “just” simply means being with Christ and in Christ. And this suffices. Further observances are no longer necessary. For this reason Luther’s phrase: “faith alone” is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love. Faith is looking at Christ, entrusting oneself to Christ, being united to Christ, conformed to Christ, to his life. And the form, the life of Christ, is love; hence to believe is to conform to Christ and to enter into his love.

 

Right on, let's act accordingly, and be sure that the raging, nihilist hatred of Devil and his anti-kingdom, to say nothing of the gates of Hell, shall not prevail.

Keep the Faith,

LSP

Private Mass

While not able to worship publicly at this time, I did offer the Mass this morning on all our behalf. This service is known as a Missa sine populo (Mass without the people) or a Private Mass. 

However, the grace in this worship is very far from private and ripples or reverberates throughout the whole Church, not least our part of it.

This is because all of us are joined to Christ and one another in a mystical, spiritual communion. As the Apostle Paul teaches us, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." (1 Cor. 12:13) And so the blessing of even one faithful Communion at the Eucharist extends to us all.

Please know that you were all offered up at the Altar of Our Lord this morning and rest assured of my daily prayers. May God bless, preserve and keep you. 

Be strong in Him and take courage, for Christ has "overcome the world,"(Jhn. 16:33) and neither death nor Hell itself have any power over us.

With much love and every blessing,

LSP