Jesus fulfilled over 300 Messianic Prophecies. When He completed His Work on Earth, many people hated His followers for obeying The Church-Creating Word of Jesus to His First Catholic Pope:
“And I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”
Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59 explain why some anti-Catholics hated Jesus and the first Catholics! “Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people.” Many pseudo-intellectuals were jealous because they could not win their “debates” because of the greater “wisdom and spirit with which he spoke.”
The ancient formula: Jealousy + Envy = Cain has described pretentious pseudo-intellectuals for the past 2,000 years! “When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and Stephen said,
‘Behold, I see the Heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.'”
Jerusalem’s anti-Catholic pseudo-intellectuals hated to hear that Stephen, or any Catholic, could see God and that they could not! They did what every envious pseudo-intellectual has done in some form since Cain killed Abel (Genesis 4:1-10) and Korah tried to kill Mose (Numbers 6:1-41): “They cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city (Jerusalem) and began to stone him.”
As St. Stephen was dying from their wounds, “he called out” what every Catholic martyr has said to anti-Catholic persecutors for the past 2,000 years: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
St. Stephen was a living fulfillment of the Prophecy in Today’s Psalm (31:3-4,6, 8 and 8:16-17): “Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”
Jealous pseudo-intellectuals are proud to not be among those illuminated in Psalm 118:26-27, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; the Lord is God and has given us light.”
Stephen’s murder was the first Catholic fulfillment of This Prophecy of Jesus in Mt. 10:17-22: “Jesus said to His Disciples, ‘Beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for My sake, as a witness before them and the pagans.'”
Jesus prophesied that many would become anti-Catholic for personal gain. “Brother will hand over brother unto death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of My Name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.”
There is no greater blessing on earth than to Be Catholic and have our souls blessed with only “keys to The Kingdom of Heaven” that Jesus died to leave on earth in His Seven Catholic Sacraments.
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “If today you hear His Voice / Become Catholic and Rejoice!”
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