Upon This Rock

"The gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matt 16:18), that is what we Catholics hold on to. The Church will last until the end of time. It is indestructible and the Truth it holds will remain available until Jesus returns.
Monsignor Pope explains the literal and figurative meaning of the words. I remember Jeff Cavins describing the place where Jesus spoke these words to Peter. It was upon a huge rock and below it was a cavelike opening which was believed by the locals as the entrance to hell and exit of the devil as it goes about prowling bringing souls to hell.



In spite of this confidence in the Divinely instituted Church which is the Catholic Church, we are still aware of the confrontation between good and evil. We wonder if it is possible to be on the wrong side of who we follow. Fr. Dwight Longenecker writes how to recognize the Antichrist based on the writings of Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

Abp Sheen wrote:
The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers. He will not wear red tights, nor vomit sulphur, nor carry a trident nor wave an arrowed tail as Mephistopheles in Faust. This masquerade has helped the Devil convince men that he does not exist. When no man recognizes him, the more power he exercises.

His logic is simple: if there is no heaven there is no hell; if there is no hell, then there is no sin; if there is no sin, then there is no judge, and if there is no judgment then evil is good and good is evil. But above all these descriptions, Our Lord tells us that he will be so much like Himself that he would deceive even the elect–and certainly no devil ever seen in picture books could deceive even the elect.

this is the temptation to have a new religion without a Cross, a liturgy without a world to come, a religion to destroy a religion, or a politics which is a religion–one that renders unto Caesar even the things that are God’s.In the midst of all his seeming love for humanity and his glib talk of freedom and equality, he will have one great secret which he will tell to no one: he will not believe in God.

Because his religion will be brotherhood of Man without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counter church which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. . . .