Reflection on November 18, 1981

https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb64.htm

I was thinking that the Pharisees might have liked Christ answer because it was in agreement with them, but the footnotes point out that Christ teaching was also at odds with their understanding, so He didn’t make any friends after all.

As I mentioned last time, because Christ is debating against a theology that formed based on a literalist view of Scripture, I wonder if you could use His same comments against those that have the same literalist view of Scripture today. Christ says that they don’t know Scripture. I think it is important to understand what “know” might mean here. There are many Protestants that have large chunks of the Bible memorized and can quote Scripture at the drop of a hat. But does that mean they actually know it? Do they understand what it is teaching? Do they understand what one verse means in the context of all the verses? I believe that you can take any one verse and twist it to mean any one thing you might believe. That is obviously not the point of Scripture. It is meant as a whole, the Word of God is unified, it is complete, it is without error, and it cannot contradict itself. Scripture itself talks about using Scripture and Tradition, so to say that all you need is Scripture, you don’t “know” what it means. The Scripture says you need to take issues to the Church, so to think you can interpret it on your own means you don’t “know” what it means. I think you could use Christ retorts against a Sola Scriptura.

Christ also says that they do not know the power of God. I wonder if it is not so much they do not know the power of God or they have a misunderstanding of their own power. It still boggles my mind that people can think they can read Scripture and come up with their own interpretation and think that it is sufficient enough to guide their lives. They refuse to believe that God would have established an earthly Church that would be there to guide them. I don’t know if this is a lack of belief in God’s power or a inflated view of their own. The two might go hand in hand. It takes humility to allow God into your life, to take control, to guide you. When you are so full of yourself, you really have no room for God, therefore you cannot know His power.

God is God of the living. I was thinking about this. Is God the God of the living because He is outside of time or some other reason? God is outside of time, therefore every moment is present to Him. Therefore, every person that ever was, is, or will be is living to Him. God is not God of the dead, but of the living.

I see a lot of the Protestant ideologies in the Sadducees. Christ says they do not know God, they do not worship the God He comes from, but have created their own god through their misinterpretations. There are some that go as far as to call Protestant heretics or heathens. I don’t know if the god they worship is God or an idol. I think that is a tricky question. I think if you limit their worship to idolatry because what they worship is not God in all His Truth, you are limiting the power of God as well. God can do a lot with the little we give Him. If you go that far with Protestants, you have to go that far with Catholics in name only, you could go that far with sinners in general, which would include us all. There may be some in the Protestant church that rise to a level of being heathen because of their inner motivations, but I don’t think it is a brush you can paint them all with.