Kakistocrat

I know an entry like this will make some people cringe, but the fact is, when I want to talk about Stevie Smith, or Giovanni Guareschi, Graham Greene, or take pot-shots at James Joyce, no one else seems interested. When I instead suggest that certain individuals are exploiting the message of salvation or that perhaps Pius XII’s canonization should not proceed until the archives have been made available to credible historians, comments seem to be higher. So read this as a strategic continuation to New Testament Anti-Judaism, where I over viewed the various types of New Testament Anti-Judaism, and called the reader to be familiar with it when he/she encounters it, so as to rise above it.

The Beatitudes (which begin the Sermon on the Mount) have a message for a variety of types of people (the poor in spirit, the gentle, those who mourn…), but they culminate in a ninth message, a more specific one, which instead of speaking in generalities as the previous eight have, instead use the pronoun ‘you.’

Observe:

Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you. (Matthew 5:11-12).

This repeated charge (the persecution of the Prohpets) is a peculiar one, precisely because the persecution of the prophets, while certainly occurring, was hardly commonplace, and when it did occur (in the case of Elijah, for example) it came not at the hands of the people, but of the monarch.

Clues to Matthew’s intention may be gleaned from Luke’s rendering of this passage, and by noting the differences something is suggested about the intention of each.

Happy are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as a criminal, on account for the Son of Man. Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, then your reward will be great in heaven. This way the way their ancestors treated the prophets. (Luke 6:22-23).

The Lucan Jesus calls his listeners to ‘dance for joy’ on the day that, on account for the Son of Man, they are hated, driven out and denounced as criminals. This day has come for the audience of Luke. On account of the Son of Man, they have begun to be excluded from the synagogue, and with such an excommunication, the pax romana will no longer protect a Christian person. This forms part of the reason why Luke may have written his Gospel, namely, to show that followers of Jesus are not a threat to the Roman Empire. Matthew’s audience however has already left the synagogue and exclusion is not their current problem, for its very presupposition justifies the author in not mentioning it. Though exlcusion has occurred, what is and will continue to occur is persecution, and in having Jesus comfort his apostles by telling them that the prophets were perecuted in a similar manner, Matthew’s intention is clear. He is simply telling his Christian audience to expect to be treated with hostility by the Jewish community, and had the missionaries of his day, met, in the Jewish people, a more positive and receptive audience, he would have had no need to relay this slightly differently worded beatitude. His message is primarily pastoral, and in comforting those who are being persecuted, he is reminding them that one with God is a majority.

Matthew’s revisionist history (about the fate of the biblical prophets) is employed simply to pass the persecuted Christians off in the same light as the Biblical prophets. It has no interest in whether the claim actually happened. Inclusion of this passage (and the creation of it, I suspect, apart from Jesus) is solely strategic, and while still slanderous against the Jewish leadership, and therefore problematic, it is neither abrogating nor subordinating in itself. However, once extended into the greater context, it cannot be overlooked that if Christians have already been excluded from the Temple, and if the apostles are to be seen as echoing the prophetic voices of those who in the past spoke within the Jewish community, then there is the suggestion from Matthew, that God is now speaking through voice that are outside the Jewish community, because they have been rejected by them. One can easily understand why the Jewish people can be sensitive to this, and certainly an accusation by them about the nature of Matthew’s polemic, and the suggestion that it is abrogating, when seen in this light, cannot simply be passed over as oversensitive.

K.

Perhaps related to our recent discussions on human salvation, I may have received a ‘Guest Article’ for this blog, which, as its content, may have read, ‘Chantal Kreviasuk can go to hell,’ but if I did, I probably wouldn’t have posted it, partly because it’s mean-spirited, but particularly because I am not sure how many readers would have any idea who this particularly envious Winnipeg artist is. So instead, I will put forward some reading recommendations for the summer, and in light of the fact that reading tastes differ, I have chosen a variety of plot lines, though I have limited myself to the genre of fiction, and I have made good authorship a prerequisite to those books I will now recommend. Here goes:

1. The Power and the Glory (1940), by Graham Greene

In a southern state of Mexico, an anti-clerical purge (rather regular during the 1920’s and 30’s in Mexico) has the last priest on the run. He is heading towards the northern border, across which his Bishop has already journeyed, as have those priests who have escaped with their lives. However, this last priest is a ‘whisky priest’ and is in many ways morally inferior to the general literary depiction of priests during the first half of the 20th century. While the Church originally considered censuring the book, they did wisely retreat, for the book is itself a powerful testament to the sacraments of the Church, and suggests that the graces attached to such gifts are not, and cannot be, outweighed by the particular frailties and sinfulness of those who administer them.

Though fictional, the characters in this story have taken on lives of their own. The following letter was written to the genius author Greene in 1960, by a teacher in San Lorenzo, California:

One day I gave ‘The Power and the Glory’ to an even more specialized reader—a native of Mexico who had lived through the worst persecutions. She was so moved by your story that she volunteered to come into my classes with souvenirs of the period—photographs, communist propaganda, etc., to fill in the background of the story. She confessed that your descriptions were so vivid, your priest so real, that she found herself praying for him at Mass. I understand how she felt. Last year, on a trip to Mexico, I found myself peering into mud huts, through village streets, and across impassable mountain ranges, half believing that I would glimpse a dim figure stumbling in the rain on his way to the border. There is no greater tribute possible to your creation of this character—he lives.

2. A Burnt-Out Case (1960), by Graham Greene

The central character of ‘A Burnt-Out Case’ is Querry, rather, the Querry, a world famous architech, who has lost the ability to see meaning in his work, or experience pleasure in his life. Querry, a burnt-out case, arrives anonymously at a Leper colony in the Congo where Doctor Colin, an atheist physician administers medical care, and a cast of priests and religious brothers oversee all else.

3. The Heart of the Matter (1948), by Graham Greene

‘The Heart of the Matter,’ centers itself around the moral change in the character of Scobie, a colonial police officer in a West African town during World War II. I would recommend it, but am not sure what else to say, except to say that true to the genius Greene’s form, issues of faith and love are dealt with such complexity, that in matters of both, as Scobie find development, those who witness Scobie may instead see a behaviour that has degenerated.

4. The Honorary Consul (1973), by Graham Greene

‘The Honorary Consul,’ was one of the genius Greene’s favourites, and in fact, I find it a particularly good read when placed beside certain other books (about dreams or journeys of coming of age, for example) that are of questionable literary merit, but are still paraded around as the genius Greene’s books are.

The Honorary Consul is Charley Fortun, a divorced (though he quickly gets remarried, this time to his favourite prostitute from the nearby brother), self-pitying alcoholic, who misuses his figure-head position for his own gain, and is kidnapped as a result of his being mistaken for the ambassador.

The story is set in an unnamed town near the border of Paraguay, in northern Argentina, and features a very interesting crew of kidnappers, most particularly its leader, the rebel priest Father Leon Rivas.

5. Travels with my Aunt (1969), by Graham Greene

‘Travels with my Aunt,’ has the most peculiar cast of characters, even by the genius Greene’s standards. There is the 86 year old Aunt Augusta, who travels with her black lover Wordsworth (who calls her his ‘lil bebe gel);Curran, the founder of a Church for canines; O’Toole, a CIA agent obsessed with statistics (particularly those that monitor the length of time it takes to urinate); his hippie daugther Tooley; Mr. Visconti, who has been wanted by Interpol for twenty years; and the central character, Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, who unexpectedly get caught up with each.

For those emotionally disappointed by the typical Greene ending (as I am almost every time), ‘Travels with my Aunt,’  is a relatively more pleasant experience, though the trade off is that the characters, however interesting, do not force us to invest something in them, as do characters like the whisky priest, Father Rivas, and especially Querry.

Plenty more could be said about each novel, and perhaps more will be in the comment section. Until then, I think this will suffice.

K. 

The centrality of the role of Jesus in human salvation is often subverted by those who wish instead to place primary importance on the human’s acceptance (often nothing more than intellectual assent) that Jesus is Saviour.

While those responsible for this shift are gracious enough to engineer heaven’s acceptance of those who die young, or those developmentally challenged, grace really should extend beyond these exceptions.

A. Those Before Christ

Jesus came 2000 years ago, and if it is conceded that the Old Testament works out an approximate 4000 years before Jesus, then Christian history, and by extension the awareness of Jesus as Saviour, is only a fraction of human history. When modern scientific attempts to calculate human history are taken into account, Christian history becomes even more fractionally insignificant.

Does anyone really suppose that all such people (unaware of Jesus) are damned?

How are such people to be saved?

B. After Christ (I)

We may say that knowledge of the inhabited lands was rather limited in ancient days the same way future generations will characterize our assessment of the solar system (or other things, I am sure) as limited. In the Midieval Era ‘the world’ essentially meant that which surrounded the Mediterranean as well as the neighbouring territories. Thousands of years passed after Jesus, and countless millions will have lived without having heard his message.

Does anyone suppose all such people (unaware of Jesus) are damned?

How are such people to be saved?

C. After Christ (II)

Finally it may be conceded that a lack of awareness of Jesus persists today. The Christian West is no more, and the great cities of Christendom have lost their Christian base. Where there is still statistical strength, substance is nominal. Many others have simply turned away, while still others have never been compelled to join particular Christian faith communities.

Though there have been great advancements in the technology of communication, in many ways the majority are still placed along a before Christ (B.C.) time-line. They may have heard of who he is, but not in the right way, for the transformative nature that Jesus will have in a persons life will not have been seen by them in others who profess faith.

Can such people really help having no faith or awareness of Jesus?

Are such people damned by consequence?

How are such people saved?

Conclusion

I wonder if readers can agree with the following

-that it is a mistake to reformulate Biblical passages like No one comes to the Father but through me to No one comes to the Father but by professing faith in me, or If you say with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord then you will be saved to If you say with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, then only then will you be saved, for these verses transfer the focus of salvation from God’s grace to human assent to particular statements of faith

-Pius IX:

We must hold fast to the truth that no one is guilty in the Lord’s eyes of this sin of not belonging to the Church if he lives in invincible ignorance of the true religion. But who would presume to think that he could determine the cases in which it is no longer possible for such ignorance to exist, when all these cases are different according to the differences of nations and of countries and of the circumstances of individuals.

Perhaps the degree of awareness of Jesus can only be seen by God, as the Pope suggests, and perhaps there are often circumstances that solidify certain stages of recognition, and perhaps all such people should instead be entrusted to the grace of God rather than to the judgements of those who often feel they are in a privileged position, but who themselves will also one day be judged.

K.