Pope again denounces 'doctors of law,' focus on rules rather than God's mercy [CC]

[phil19034]

Then I guess I don’t understand who the Holy Father is attacking. We must live the Law if we wish to keep Christ’s commandments. Yet, it seems that he continuously attacks those of us who do so, accusing us of being Pharisaical. So what does he want us to do? Just live as we please and as long as we are “good” people we can be assured of God’s mercy? The Law requires that we love God and our neighbor - the Pope himself stated this in the article. This is the greatest commandment. It is a Law. Just what is the Pope saying? Why can’t he be more clear when he speaks? Why on one hand does he emphasis the sacrament of confession, and then on the other continue to hold “mercy” as if it is a concept entirely disjointed from the moral law? Who would even desire to seek mercy if he didn’t have the guilt of the violation of the law on his conscience? I am longing for real, solid, unequivocally clear Catholic doctrine to flow from Rome like it did in the past. What is going on over there?

When Pope Frances talks, he’s not speaking to just Catholics. He’s speaking to all people, Protestants, Orthodox, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc.

There is a heresy of denying God’s Mercy (which grew in the Church after the Protestant revolution) but then there is a heresy of relativism and confusing mercy with misplaced compassion.

There are many sedevantants who stick to the law with out mercy. There are many fundamentalist Protestant groups and Eastern Orthodox who do the same thing. And then we all know that the Muslims do this all the time.

We also have some political leaders and people in law & order focused on the law without true mercy.

Finally, Catholics are not just in the United States. While many (most) Catholic Parishes in the US may need to focus more on the law, I’m sure there are parishes in other parts of the world that might need to focus more on mercy (especially where clericalism is still the norm).

You also have to remember, that while much of the West is suffering from the heresies of modernism and relativism, North America and Europe took different paths to get where we are and had different issues. The details of the issues in the Church are different around the world.

Finally, in English speaking parishes… If we were as merciful as we should all be, our parishes would be places of more fellowship and feel less “cold.”

When I was at the Papal Mass in Philadelphia, I was in the ticketed section with thousands of devout Catholics. The fellowship was AWESOME, people offering to share their food, blankets, chairs, etc to total strangers. It was an atmosphere of family. It was what our parishes should feel like.

So yes… We need more Mercy but WITHOUT loosing the law.

Finally… I think Catachesis drives our love and respect for the law, but being truly evangelized drives our sense of mercy. We fail when we don’t have both.

I pray this is helpful.

 

[dans0622]

This is a better article title than in another thread about the same homily: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=983102

And, I am once again happy that I only have a license in law and am not a doctor of the law.

Dan

 

[Thomas_White]

“Woe to you lawyers for you have taken away the key of knowledge: you yourself have not entered in, and those that were entered in, you have hindered” (Luke 11:52).

The “doctors of law” have not entered into the kingdom of God and have taken away the key of knowledge. The key of knowledge is then not strict adherence to the law and the righteous condemnation of others. Pope Francis, in his recent homily, spoke of this attitude as a hinderance to both self and others. What then is the key of knowledge?

 

[TMC]

“Woe to you lawyers for you have taken away the key of knowledge: you yourself have not entered in, and those that were entered in, you have hindered” (Luke 11:52).

The “doctors of law” have not entered into the kingdom of God and have taken away the key of knowledge. The key of knowledge is then not strict adherence to the law and the righteous condemnation of others. Pope Francis, in his recent homily, spoke of this attitude as a hinderance to both self and others. What then is the key of knowledge?

The “doctors of law” asked Jesus this question. His reply:

and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Matt 22:35-40

 

[Vic_Taltrees_UK]

And yet --of course I’m just one person in just one place at just this time–I have never met these legalistic Pharisees either in church or outside of church. I haven’t seen my priests, bishops, lay people etc in the last 40 odd years insisting on ‘rules’. …

I have known some who make great play of not offering me any rules but there are evidently unspoken ones.

Anyway this is an “awesome” thread all told.

 

[PaulinVA]

Then I guess I don’t understand who the Holy Father is attacking. We must live the Law if we wish to keep Christ’s commandments. Yet, it seems that he continuously attacks those of us who do so, accusing us of being Pharisaical. So what does he want us to do? Just live as we please and as long as we are “good” people we can be assured of God’s mercy?

My impression of the Church is that it is a place of laws and burdens, many of them man made.

The Law requires that we love God and our neighbor - the Pope himself stated this in the article. This is the greatest commandment. It is a Law. Just what is the Pope saying? Why can’t he be more clear when he speaks? Why on one hand does he emphasis the sacrament of confession, and then on the other continue to hold “mercy” as if it is a concept entirely disjointed from the moral law? Who would even desire to seek mercy if he didn’t have the guilt of the violation of the law on his conscience?

Well, that’s a good way to put it. If there is no law, there is no sin, if there is no sin, there is no need for reconciliation.

I am longing for real, solid, unequivocally clear Catholic doctrine to flow from Rome like it did in the past. What is going on over there?

I was raised that the Catholic faith was singularly between a person and God. The communal aspect of Mass and the faith in general in the past 40 years has been confusing. We are supposed to have a personal relationship with our savior, and accept his mercy, but at the same time talk ad naseum about this or that being a sin.

 

[Thomas_White]

The “doctors of law” asked Jesus this question. His reply:

Matt 22:35-40

Agreed. The key of knowledge is not the key to knowledge but is from or of knowledge (e.g., the first two commandments). The key opens the door to the kingdom.

 

[kelvinf]

Watch Bishop Barron’s keynote address at the World Meeting of Families. He does a great job of explaining this.

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=oYL5dW7c13k

If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing (it’s 53 minutes), start it here at minute 35: youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=oYL5dW7c13k#t=2104

God Bless!

Nice and very interesting. Started watching from 35:

Like the explanation about the “gates of hell will not prevail against you”. Also what he said about Vatican II…

Great preacher!

 

[clem456]

I think that Papa means it is far easier to be a legalistic type Pharasee than to learn to be merciful and walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

It’s distressing when people take the Pope’s words in a rigid judgmental fashion, as if they are aimed at one group of people or another. The Pharisees might be the most understood group of people ever. And the word pharisee is almost meaningless anymore, the way it is abused and used prejudicially against people today who defend orthodoxy.

I guess I try not to see people in such legalistic black/white terms.

 

[LongingSoul]

Agreed. The key of knowledge is not the key to knowledge but is from or of knowledge (e.g., the first two commandments). The key opens the door to the kingdom.

Haydocks Catholic Bible Commentary on Luke 11 52 says this…

You have taken away the key of knowledge. A comparison of a master that locks others out. As if Christ said: you pretend, as masters and teachers, to open and expound the law and the prophets; and by your false doctrine and interpretations, you neither observe the law, nor permit others to observe it. See Matthew xxiii. 13. (Witham) — The key of knowledge is faith; for by faith we come to the knowledge of truth, according to that of Isaias, How shall they understand, if they have not believed? Cap. vii, (according to Septuagint) these doctors of the law took away the key of science, by not allowing the people to believe in Christ. (St. Cyril in St. Thomas Aquinas)

 

[clem456]

Then I guess I don’t understand who the Holy Father is attacking. We must live the Law if we wish to keep Christ’s commandments. Yet, it seems that he continuously attacks those of us who do so, accusing us of being Pharisaical. So what does he want us to do? Just live as we please and as long as we are “good” people we can be assured of God’s mercy? The Law requires that we love God and our neighbor - the Pope himself stated this in the article. This is the greatest commandment. It is a Law. Just what is the Pope saying? Why can’t he be more clear when he speaks? Why on one hand does he emphasis the sacrament of confession, and then on the other continue to hold “mercy” as if it is a concept entirely disjointed from the moral law? Who would even desire to seek mercy if he didn’t have the guilt of the violation of the law on his conscience? I am longing for real, solid, unequivocally clear Catholic doctrine to flow from Rome like it did in the past. What is going on over there?

He’s not attacking anyone. His job as a pastor is to call people to conversion.
That’s all. If the Pope’s words gnaw at me (they do), I probably need to listen and pray about it.

The Pope is not proposing an either/or in regards to morality/mercy.
It’s both/and.
The two are inseparable. Same as in faith/works. Not an either/or, a both/and.

 

[Thomas_White]

Haydocks Catholic Bible Commentary on Luke 11 52 says this…

You have taken away the key of knowledge. A comparison of a master that locks others out. As if Christ said: you pretend, as masters and teachers, to open and expound the law and the prophets; and by your false doctrine and interpretations, you neither observe the law, nor permit others to observe it. See Matthew xxiii. 13. (Witham) — The key of knowledge is faith; for by faith we come to the knowledge of truth, according to that of Isaias, How shall they understand, if they have not believed? Cap. vii, (according to Septuagint) these doctors of the law took away the key of science, by not allowing the people to believe in Christ. (St. Cyril in St. Thomas Aquinas)

I think the key of knowledge provides (for example) the meaning of the first two commandments, and that this understanding does not come from merely a reading or even by the ‘understanding’ of the intellect. In a sense, this is a matter of faith rather than objective knowledge. This is, I think, in the category of faith when defined within a dualism and by the limits of language, in the way of St. Thomas. But the understanding is more of mysticism than of knowledge and concerns the limits and perils of a legalistic approach to spirituality.

 

[Maximilan_Kolbe]

He’s not attacking anyone. His job as a pastor is to call people to conversion.
That’s all. If the Pope’s words gnaw at me (they do), I probably need to listen and pray about it.

The Pope is not proposing an either/or in regards to morality/mercy.
It’s both/and.
The two are inseparable. Same as in faith/works. Not an either/or, a both/and.

Yeah, seems to be the case as it has always been.

You can’t ignore the laws and precepts of the Holy Spirit and expect salvation (thought it may be granted under God’s mercy). You can’t spend a lifetime skipping Mass, stealing, contracepting fornicating, indulging in pornography and expect because you have a kind heart, you are serving God living as Christ lived. The Church’s laws and teachings are not up for negotiation.

You can’t passionately follow the laws and precepts to the letter without love and mercy in your heart and expect to be living as Christ lived. You can’t spend a life never missing Mass, never cheating on your taxes, never being an adulterer, but otherwise treating others with loathing and disdain and expect that you lived as Christ lived.

 

[J_Peterson]

Hurt by his words? Hurt?

He is talking about loving God and one’s neighbors…and the mercy of salvation.
How can those great words hurt your feelings? I would imagine his words would make all Catholics happy.
He is not saying for you to live your faith any “differently” than generations before you–unless, of course, you don’t live your faith as above…loving God, your neighbors, and embracing the mercy of salvation.

.

His words make me happy. I’m not sure why someone would be hurt by the possibility of salvation. Unless it’s a situation like the good brother in the story of the Prodigal Son? There is a reason Jesus returned to that theme, and I think this is it.

Religion doesn’t make us good people. At most it makes us realize we are not good people. To think that I may be able to make it to heaven despite my flaws is the opposite of hurtful.

 

[clem456]

…
Religion doesn’t make us good people. At most it makes us realize we are not good people. To think that I may be able to make it to heaven despite my flaws is the opposite of hurtful.

Bingo.
Christianity is not designed for security and comfort, in this life anyway. The faith journey should make us uncomfortable, as we realize how far we are from God.

Pope Francis challenges believers to a deeper faith. A true shepherd prodding the sheep.

 

[FollowChrist34]

And yet --of course I’m just one person in just one place at just this time–I have never met these legalistic Pharisees either in church or outside of church. I haven’t seen my priests, bishops, lay people etc in the last 40 odd years insisting on ‘rules’.

And I can’t help but notice that you couch your proposition as if there are ONLY two possible positions --as if the ‘legalistic type’ (i.e., those who even talk about rules) are the diametric opposites of ‘those who are merciful and walk in the footsteps of Jesus’.

Isn’t that rather unfair?

Were there no Christians whose mercy and following in Christ’s footsteps coexisted with them pointing out that one must ALSO strive to abide in the boundaries God Himself gave us, lest we wander away into the wilderness?

Wait, that was pretty much all Christians until ‘modern’ times. . .

Excellent post, striking at the heart of the matter. The post of a Christian indeed.

Actually I think there is one “rule” I have come across from time to time - DON’T judge and be merciful to all - this is applied preferably as loosely vaguely and nicely as possible ad infinitum…The Pharisees don’t cross my path that much at all except for the Internet, other Catholic media, blurbs about what certain “conservative” bishops say about this or that (my interpretation of who the Pharisees are…). Parallel universe to the Catholic parishes on the ground. That is why this “dialogue” and “opening” up at the top of the hierarchy is so surreal to me. It’s like asking for a glass of water in the middle of the ocean.