Religious Leadership

Does a Christian understand himself to be a religious leader? If so, he would take immediate recourse to the works of mercy since he would understand that his entrance into bliss will be determined both by his fulfillment of them and his instructing others in the same.

Anything short of this is poisonous to the people—leaven to beware of.

The hypocrisy of the Pharisees prevents it.

Hypocrisy is play-acting, a falsehood. That defect can surface in several ways. But in the end—it’s a falsehood, a deception. This lie will send the Christian’s endeavor into a tailspin very quickly.

To promote an act of religion while committing an act of irreligion is corrosive of the soul in the highest degree.

It will be good to understand why Our Lord is so adamantly opposed to this sin in the pharisees. Why does it draw his unflinching wrath?

Sure, there’s “fake it till you make it.” That’s not the problem. The problem is connected with scandal.  It’s also connected with the role the Church is to play in shining the light of Christ to the nations. He’s counting on the Church’s fidelity to that all the members of the body can enter in. The role of the Church in the world is a corollary to the role of the hierarchy in the Church, as well as that of the apostles in the hierarchy and of Christ among the apostles and of the Father in sending the Son.

Let’s develop this.

Clergy

If Our Lord is so harsh wish the chief priests, scribes, elders, Sadducees and Pharisees, that is, with the hierarchy of those who are under the Old Law, how much greater will his expectation be for those responsible for instructing the people under the New Law?

I don’t see how those of us who know better can have any other response than to redouble our efforts in the apostolic work of the Church.

He holds them to account and warns them they will have a harsher judgment. We, knowing this, don’t suppose he’d ever talk to us that way.

It’s not that he’s not merciful. Of course he is. He displays that in abundance with his miracles healing the sick and forgiving sinners. And ultimately with the display of the fullest measure of his loving devotion to his father’s plan for man’s forgiveness. He is merciful. Perfectly. But who will tell them of his mercy? Or worse, will we, who know of his mercy, withdraw the news of it leaving those entrusted to us to figure it out on their own?

What is his harshness to the clergy other than a warning to you and me of what we can expect for our disregard for those whose souls he gave us to watch over and to care for. 

You chose dishonor

Sights, for the moment, are set on “Render unto Caesar.”

Let’s calibrate.

He’s addressing the Pharisees as a part of the final showdown ahead of his passion. They and the Sadducees try trap him.

The Religious leadership is corrupt. Jesus speaks harshly to them because speaking words of comfort to them will have no avail and only prove his teaching to be easily dismissible. That’s not the case when a popular religious teacher whom many regard as a prophet directly rebukes you and your colleagues in-charge as deserving the most serious punishment for failing in the responsibility entrusted to them.

They are fearful of the crowds. They attribute their fear of the crowds to their fear of the Romans who will suppress any uprising with their total destruction. They’re fearful all around. But, in the end, they forget to fear the only one whom the must fear, the Lord.  As a result they will lose everything.

It’s like Churchill’s famous judgment of Chamberlin, “You chose dishonor and you will have war.”

JC is a partisan.

He’s a partisan. But not like you and me. We get bought and sold. He remains faithful to the mission, to the end.

He won’t be distracted by what distracts us. We’re worried about earthly possessions. He’s worried about our eternity. We’re inhibiting the mission through our self concern. He treats us as an enemy for the sake of the rest who’s eternity we’re jeopardizing.

Epiphany

1/6/23

A retrospective on the Epiphany.

Yes, this idea is whacko, that we transfer the feast to the Sunday. It opens more questions than it answers. I’m not sure what the initial answer is supposed to be to begin with? That the faithful already weren’t celebrated the feast on Jan 6th, so this it salvage some recognition of the feast…? The rest of the Christian world doesn’t seem to have a problem with January 6th. Or for December 25 plus January 6th, for that matter.

This year January 6th is on a Friday. Therefore, a day of penance. Set aside, for the moment, the consideration of the importance and merits of a day of penance. Observe, rather, that they [Bishops] took away a one of the greatest dates for feasting & rejoicing on our Calendar in favor, this year, of a day of penance. Why not, for instance, keep the date and simply remove the obligation to attend Mass? Or why not altogether keep it a Holy Day of obligation. It there are too many on account of the January the First, we may have to take a look of that.

We seem to be missing out on a feast. It’ll come back, eventually.

The Twelfth Day

1/5/23

The Twelfth Day of Christmas.

Tonight is Twelfth Night.

Tomorrow, in most parts of the Christian World, is the Epiphany of the Lord.

Here we are, calling it “Twelfth Night,” which is what it’s been called for at least Five Hundred years.

The people celebrate and rejoice, with the encouragement of the civic and ecclesial governors. But not just randomly and raucously. Although reports of seemingly unrelated para-rituals involving elves in dress-up, reindeer and house-calls continue to preponderate. The purpose of counting to Twelve in Christendom has everything to do with the Incarnation and Our Lord making the use, according to his good will and pleasure, of one of his favorite numbers.

There are twelve days from Christmas (inclusive) to the Epiphany (exclusive). Go ahead and count them up—I’ve counted them twelve thousand times, just to make sure. If you include Christmas in the count then you exclude Epiphany, or vis a versa. You can’t include both, otherwise you come up with thirteen. Including Christmas makes sense and accords with scripture telling of His circumcision on the eighth day, which is the Gospel for the Octave of Christmas, January the First.

The Eighth Day is another favorite of the Lord’s. But that’s for another time.

Pinpointing, with the utmost probability, the exact days of these historical realities is beyond the capacities of the best scientists. The cultural History of the Church however has offered these two dates, 12/25 & 1/6. Separately, it seems, at first depending whether you’re from the East or the West. But ultimately, as consolidation happens and the mingling of cultures, we get them both. And probably pretty early than later in the first millennium. This gives everything enough time to become engrained in local custom and thus inexplicable beyond the well worn “we always did it this way.”

Baptism

The feast of the Epiphany is coming quickly. This year I’m appreciating the connection with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. We’ve rediscovered this old blessing of Holy Water which is offered on the vigil of the feast. I think we were momentarily distracted by the power of the exorcism associated with the blessing that we lost sight of the reason for the water to begin with. The Baptism of the Lord is, in the East, the great Theophany. Why do they get such a kick out of it? The real shame is our own not-knowing why we ourselves get no kick out of it. We could hardly be bothered by the Lord’s baptism. Is it that we’re partied out by now? It could be. That too would be a real shame. We’re celebrating without knowing why. If we keep it up, at this rate Christmas itself will become a bore for us. It’s not good. We bless the water and distribute it as a reminder that we share in the baptism which was instituted by Jesus Christ, with everything that implies. God shines in the Lord’s Baptism, the Spirit descends. The Father’s voice is heard. The Son receives in this world the glory he deserves.