ROMAN CHRISTENDOM: Pharisees

Here's the latest from Mr Anony-mouse who has not the courage to give a name:

'The Drama Geeks who contributed to the making of the bible back in the day would laugh their asses off if they knew fools like you all to this day still take their stories as some true word of a god. Religion is a control to keep the human race from dipping into a very dark place that we all can go without "fear" of a "maker". Those who understand this can control millions of people and get them to do what they want and usually get very wealthy from doing so. One of the fastest ways to make millions is to start a church or start preaching a religion to "followers". I suppose if your version of the bible had told you to do horrible things to yourself or eat other people you would also do so? Or is their a limit to your devotion to the writings by a fellow man of which is easily corrupted?'

I wonder what "dark place that we can all go without 'fear' of a 'maker'" he has in mind.

Nazism? Stalinism? Cannibalism? Murder? Rape? Child-molestation?

And this is guy who thinks that those who believe in religion and the Bible would happily do all manner of evil things if the Bible told them.

But, of course, the Bible doesn't tell them to do evil things or to "dip into a very dark place". Quite the opposite. As he, himself, admits "Religion is a control to keep the human race from dipping into a very dark place" and thus, by implication, irreligion has no control but allows men to "dip into a very dark place".

Foolish man! By his own words he condemns himself just as so many irreligious men have done before him.

Remember how St Augustine points to the folly of the Pharisees who were ready to bribe the Roman soldiers to say that Christ escaped alive from the tomb whilst they were sleeping. Foolish men who thought they could testify to something that happened whilst they were asleep!

So, too, similar self-contradiction here.

Then he seeks to excuse his folly by claiming that religion is only about making money. Now he simply adds ignorance to his folly.

In the true Christian religion the highest examples are the saints. How did they live? Did they use religion to exploit others and make money? Quite the opposite. They lived lives of poverty, chastity and obedience, modestly, patiently, humbly and in peace with their fellow man.

Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to live lives of humility, holiness and love of God

What of the monks and friars who seek to live the fullness of a religious life? They have to renounce all worldly goods, money, wealth, pleasure and power. They even make solemn promises called "vows" obliging themselves to live a life of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Where is the money-grabbing in this? Nowhere.

But, of course, anony-mouse will say that they were all hypocrites who only pretended to be poor, chaste and obedient. How does he know? Well, he simply doesn't know. He simply cannot accept that anyone would live like that because he couldn't do it himself and so he simply assumes that they were, and are, all hypocrites. If they were not hypocrites but really did live such a life it would be too great a challenge to his own life-style in "a very dark place" and that he could not stand. So he refuses to believe and chooses instead to mock and to hate.

Who, then, is the hypocrite? Who, then, is corrupt? And who, then, is the Pharisee?

And what happens to corrupt, hypocritical Pharisees?

Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness.
[Matt 23:27]

Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites... you shall receive the greater judgement.
[Matt 23:14]

Therefore, please pray for people like Mr Anony-mouse lest their scoffing hatred of goodness and holiness send them to a place of horror in the next life.

May they be saved by the grace and Divine Mercy of an all-merciful God. Let them respond to grace and no longer turn away from mercy.

Fresco of the Last Judgement. Michelangelo. Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

Mr Anonymous and others like him will have to choose, as must we all, where we shall spend eternity. Where shall you go Mr Anonymous on the Day of Judgement? To love, forgiveness and mercy or to eternal loss?

Think, pray and learn to love...

+++

This is Passion Week.

We begin the days when our Lord preached the most intensely and tellingly to the Jews, the Scribes, the Pharisees and the people, knowing that His hour approached.

Here He began to reveal Himself more fully than ever to His people and, in consequence, His enemies began more and more to compass His death.

Let us make the most of these last few days of Lent and read the lessons of Scripture in the Mass with careful attention. Let us savour the words of Christ as He prepares for His Passion.

He came down from Mount Olivet, St John tells us, and He began to teach in the Temple to the Jews - Pharisees and people - most not knowing that they beheld the very face of God!

The Pharisees sought to trick Him and brought the woman caught in adultery before Him and asked if He condemned her and He replied famously that he who was without sin should cast the first stone at her, writing in the sand as He spoke. He read their minds and silently convicted each of them of sin so that they went away and left the woman with Him. He did not condemn her but forgave, telling her to go and sin no more.

Thereafter, continuing His teaching in the Temple, our Lord further pricks the conscience and understanding of the Pharisees and they accuse Him of having a devil.

St John continues:

"48 The Jews therefore answered and said to him: Do not we say well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil? 49 Jesus answered: I have not a devil: but I honour my Father. And you have dishonoured me. 50 But I seek not my own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. 51 Amen, amen, I say to you: If any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever. 52 The Jews therefore said: Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets: and thou sayest: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death for ever. 53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Whom dost thou make thyself? 54 Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that he is your God. 55 And you have not known him: but I know him. And if I shall say that I know him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know him and do keep his word. 56 Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it and was glad. 57 The Jews therefore said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old. And hast thou seen Abraham? 58 Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I AM. 59 They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple."

[John 8:48-59]

"I AM" says the Lord!

In Hebrew this can be rendered "Yahweh", the sacred name of God Himself, rendered by the sacred tetragrammaton in Hebrew thus: YHVH.

It is a sacred word, thought to mean "I AM WHO AM" - recalling the words spoken by God to Moses in the account of the burning bush.

No Jew could even utter this without blasphemy....unless, of course, He was God Himself!

The Jews, when they prayed, said Adonai or "your Majesty", but in the royal plural. They sometimes used Elohim which means "God" but again in the royal plural. Nowadays they tend to say HaShem meaning "the Name" or Shem HaMeforash meaning "the Ineffable Name". One sometimes hears the made-up expression Ado-Shem which has no real meaning but is a merging of Adonai and Shem. Many Jews, in writing, will write simply "G-d" to signify their reverence for the Ineffable Name.

Catholics, too, used to have a great reverence for the Holy Name of Jesus, bowing whenever it was mentioned, but, alas, we see how much that devout and holy practice has fallen in desuetude like so many other good and pious practices. The Jews shame us since they continue to reverence the Ineffable Name whereas so many of us Catholics casually pronounce the Holy Name of Jesus with little or no reverence, still less with a bow of the head, even though Scripture says that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Philippians 2:10).

Therefore, when our Lord says "I AM", in this way, He is saying "I AM YOUR GOD".

Those who hear Him, believe.

Those who do not, seek instead to stone Him or kill Him for blasphemy.

For at this moment, Christ has revealed Himself for who He truly is - God Himself - and the Pharisees, refusing to believe, begin to seek His destruction.

When you next are to receive Holy Communion, try saying this when the priest holds up the Host and just before you receive: "Before Abraham was, YOU ARE!".

Just for an instant one glimpses a sense of the awe and majesty of our God who yet so meekly comes to feed Himself to His people in the humble form of bread. Marvellous idea!