[gromitt82]

IGNORANT WISEMEN

Generally speaking, our world, admires and respects intellectuals, scientists, scholars, erudite and experts. And I guess this is good, because it is worthwhile to get as much as we can out of human intelligence and take advantage of the work and efforts of those who are better qualified and knowledgeable.
Lack of wisdom and reflection has already caused too many disasters in the history of mankind.
This is why it is all the more surprising that Jesus rejoices, and even is grateful to His Father, because those that listen and understand Him are the simple and small ones, while the wise and experts normally rebuke Him.
Jesus has realized that His message is more welcome by plain people- most of them without any cultural background- than by experts in religious matters.
However, I think this phenomenon can be explained.
To understand and accept Jesus and His teachings does not actually depend upon our intellectual capacity or our philosophical and theological knowledge.
Jesus is not supposed to be accepted through reason but through our heart. The masters of the Law, who in those days were theologian, did not accept Jesus because His preaching and His behavior did not fit the idea they had of God and how they used to interpret the Scripture.
They really thought they knew all the answers about God – as it also happens, more often than not, nowadays – and consequently, they were not receptive to anything new.
They ignored that when it comes to God it is wise to always expect the novelty.
It is quite convenient that we may understand what we believe, and even more, that we can explain and communicate it. It is worth for us to be able to have a better knowledge everyday of our Christian religion.
But, we should realize, I think, that being a Christian does not depend on our intellectual knowledge, nor the quality of how we follow and abide by Jesus’ message can be measured with typical academic evaluations.
Thus, we are told that being a Christian is a matter of having rather a clean and open heart capable of discovering that in Jesus we can find all of God’s love for us, and he who does fully understand this is bound to find the path towards perfect happiness in the beyond.
Yet, what does not cease to amaze me is that, most of those who proclaim this obvious truth (including myself who writes it) , DO NOT TRULY AND FULLY abide by its message. Only, apparently or to show off!
But why? Maybe because today, like the Masters of the Law yesterday, we think we know ALL the answers…!
Gromitt82

[hauntinghelper]

So, what's the question?

J/K, well put gromitt82! I have found that the people who really put God into a box are the ones who receive very little from Him.

[dwashbur]

Agreed! A little example from my own life: I spent a total of 6 years basically cloistered while learning about the Bible and theology. Now, I wouldn't trade the knowledge I gained for anything, but when I got out of seminary I came to a startling realization: I couldn't speak English any more. This was driven home to me during a conversation with some people at my local church who were getting into the so-called "prosperity gospel." They were telling me about 3 John 2 and how it promises God's children prosperity. I started trying to explain how we need to understand the genres of the different biblical pericopes and see the difference between a salutation and an actual oracle.

They stared at me as if I had two heads.

A couple of weeks later, our pastor addressed the verse in one of his sermons. He said, "It's not a promise, it's a greeting." I saw lightbulbs come on over these people's heads. The difference between him and me was, he said it in English; I said it in Scholarese, a dialect that they didn't understand. The trouble was, that was now the only dialect I knew how to speak.

That was in 1982. Ever since, I have been on a personal campaign to take all that cool stuff I learned - much of which was wrong, as it turned out - and translate it into terms that real people can understand. As I have done that, and keep studying the Scriptures, I have come to a startling realization:

The more I learn, the less I know for sure.

I have narrowed my sure knowledge down to two facts: God exists, and Jesus rose from the dead. I hold on to those two facts when things get difficult (like they are right now), and when I need to understand the implications of them, I basically look up and say "Okay, now what?"

I can testify that I have a lot fewer ulcers with this approach. And just about every time I do that, He teaches me something new that reaffirms his love for me and the fact that nothing can snatch me out of His hand. The older I get, the more I find that those things are sufficient for me.

[Athos]

There is no question that we certainly get a sense from the Gospels that Jesus spoke to the "least of these" - the poor, the lame, the halt.

On the other hand, God gave us intellects to work things out in the "tangle of our minds". ("A Man For All Seasons").

God does not "forswear" His gifts, so there is room for the simple and the not-so-simple. Each has a part to play.

[dwashbur]

There is no question that we certainly get a sense from the Gospels that Jesus spoke to the "least of these" - the poor, the lame, the halt.

On the other hand, God gave us intellects to work things out in the "tangle of our minds". ("A Man For All Seasons").

God does not "forswear" His gifts, so there is room for the simple and the not-so-simple. Each has a part to play.

Exactly. That's why I don't regret the knowledge I gained from all that schooling. But it didn't really become useful for my fellow Christians until I figured out how to communicate that knowledge in terms that "the least of these" can understand. As with so many things in life, it's all about balance.

[gromitt82]

Agreed! A little example from my own life: I spent a total of 6 years basically cloistered while learning about the Bible and theology. Now, I wouldn't trade the knowledge I gained for anything, but when I got out of seminary I came to a startling realization: I couldn't speak English any more. This was driven home to me during a conversation with some people at my local church who were getting into the so-called "prosperity gospel." They were telling me about 3 John 2 and how it promises God's children prosperity. I started trying to explain how we need to understand the genres of the different biblical pericopes and see the difference between a salutation and an actual oracle.

They stared at me as if I had two heads.

A couple of weeks later, our pastor addressed the verse in one of his sermons. He said, "It's not a promise, it's a greeting." I saw lightbulbs come on over these people's heads. The difference between him and me was, he said it in English; I said it in Scholarese, a dialect that they didn't understand. The trouble was, that was now the only dialect I knew how to speak.

That was in 1982. Ever since, I have been on a personal campaign to take all that cool stuff I learned - much of which was wrong, as it turned out - and translate it into terms that real people can understand. As I have done that, and keep studying the Scriptures, I have come to a startling realization:

The more I learn, the less I know for sure.

I have narrowed my sure knowledge down to two facts: God exists, and Jesus rose from the dead. I hold on to those two facts when things get difficult (like they are right now), and when I need to understand the implications of them, I basically look up and say "Okay, now what?"

I can testify that I have a lot fewer ulcers with this approach. And just about every time I do that, He teaches me something new that reaffirms his love for me and the fact that nothing can snatch me out of His hand. The older I get, the more I find that those things are sufficient for me.

Two points of your thread have powerfully drawn my attention to.

“The more I learn, the less I know for sure”
“God exists and Jesus rose from the dead”

This is the exact description of how I feel now, when the day of my final and definite departure gets closer and closer.

As you know, the RCC undoubtedly is the most complicated of all Christian denominations. Surely, because it is also the older one and, consequently, has developed through the years, a most tremendous burocracy.

The RCC is probably also the most powerful from the standpoint of influence among governments and great corporations. In fact, I consider the RCC – God forgive me – one of the largest and wealthiest world’s multinationals.

And it is ruled like one!

In any multinational, profits are measured in terms of economic proceeds and influence in the market, which naturally, revert in more economic gains. Discipline and order are mandatory. There must be a CEO and several VPs surrounded by a cloud of secretaries, technicians, marketing executive and workers. Last but not least, you have the shareholders, whose vote is important when the shareholder meetings are convened. Democracy is not normally a system of government CEOs use in their organizations.

The RCC works basically much in the same way, with a few important exceptions, though.

It is by far the oldest existing organization. Therefore, its head office is the most spectacular and luxurious one. To the extent that it is a state ruled by an absolute monarchy, whose king’s word (the Pope) is supposed to be final.

It is hard for me to say whether its profitability is measured in economic terms. I would like to think it is not, although sometimes I wonder.

In theory, at least, its main target should be transmitting Jesus’ message all over the world. Keeping always in mind, as Jesus did, those needing more help and assistance.

But this is not unfortunately always the case. Although, as a catholic I prefer to believe I am wrong.

For it is also true there are (and always have been) scores of thousands of priests, friars and nuns that willingly sacrifice their lives to help and succor their fellow beings, in need anywhere in the world. These are the multinational workers who do their duty to keep the job. Our religious people also do it “to keep their job” i.e. to eventually attain the Kingdom of Heaven, in which they truly believe.

But not all their “bosses” share this belief or maybe they confide too much in fair doses of nepotism.

In the Fourth Circle of Dante’s Inferno, dedicated to Greed, we can find those whose attitude towards material goods deviated from the reasonable average. And there Dante includes many clergymen, cardinals and popes who hoarded all kind of riches.

Sadly, the history of our church, precisely due to its antiquity, is full of examples of greed, voracity, insatiability, avarice, craving, brutality, cruelty and covetousness. Quite normal if we bear in mind it is ruled by men!

The history started with Judas’ betrayal and went on with events like the first schisms of the Patriarchate of Alexandria; the great schism of the 11th century; the Crusades, of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries; the Albigensian crusade, beginning of the 13th; the several European religious wars of the 16th & 17th and the Inquisition, that spread over half of Europe, from the 16th to the 19th centuries, with several degrees of cruelty, and where the Dominican Order acquired a sad reputation because of the methods like to use; or the turpitude of several Popes, such as Alexander VI or Paul III, to mention only two of them...

If despite this colossal amount of nonsense the RCC has not completely disappeared it must be because of God’s infinite mercy and the fact that there have been, along its history, thousands of others who really understood and followed Jesus’ message…

And this why, in short, I coincide with your “motto” ““God exists, and Jesus rose from the dead” and that is good enough for me, at least, for my duration down here.
Gromitt82

[gromitt82]

There is no question that we certainly get a sense from the Gospels that Jesus spoke to the "least of these" - the poor, the lame, the halt.

On the other hand, God gave us intellects to work things out in the "tangle of our minds". ("A Man For All Seasons").

God does not "forswear" His gifts, so there is room for the simple and the not-so-simple. Each has a part to play.

True, there is room for everybody and God's Kingdom is available to ALL those who deserve it. The pity is that some of the not-so-simple ones believe that they are entitled to It, just because they think they belong in the elite of the "chosen"... and I think they are seriously wrong.
Gromitt82