"There is much talk about Judas' betrayal without realizing that it is being repeated" today, said Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa who gives homilies to the Pope. "Christ is being sold again...to publishers and booksellers". Fr. Cantalamessa made these comments on Good Friday because millions of people are being "crassly manipulated by the media" which is more interested in profits and sales than in truth.
Firstly, "The DaVinci Code" is a novel by Dan Brown. It is FICTION. It is not true. It is not based on facts. One of its main themes is that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. How can God be married to ONE PERSON? If Jesus was married, then he couldn't love anyone else like he loved his wife. Then, he wouldn't be God. This is heresy! As Fr. Stephen Brett said, it's "much more than fiction: it's blasphemy, heresy, and crudity powerfully packed for maximum sales and maximum damage to the Catholic Church...thuggery masquerading as theology".
You can see a brief, more detailed critique of the DaVinci Code at www.cfalive.org (click on "leaflets" and scroll down). The author of that site, Fr. Thomas Morrow, writes: "If Brown got it wrong on the Priory of Sion, the Knights Templar, the Gnostic Gospels, and the Constantine rewrite, his whole argument falls apart. The secret sacred feminine is just a late Gnostic idea that never caught on, because it had no basis in truth. And, of course, the marriage of Jesus is as absurd as it sounds".
Secondly, in light of the recent National Geographic display, "The Gospel of Judas", Pope Benedict XVI has reminded us of what kind of person Judas was and what he did to our Savior. On Holy Thursday, His Holiness said that for Judas, "only power and success are real; love does not count...And he is greedy: Money is more important than communion with Jesus, more important than God and His love. He also becomes a liar, a double-crosser who breaks with the truth".
"The Gospel of Judas" is a document from the 2nd or 3rd century that portrays Judas as Jesus' closest disciple. It presents Jesus as asking Judas to betray him, and allowing Jesus to fulfill his mission, thereby gaining Judas the greatest seat in heaven among the disciples. This is in stark contrast to the real Gospels, in which Jesus said: "alas for that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!" (Mt 26:24).
Fr.Brett: "Those who have dismissed the need for the Catechism of the Catholic Church can now see what happens when alternative texts become the catechism of the suspicious".
3 comments:
I understand your argument and I can see the manipulation from the media etc. etc and I was pretty shaken when I read what the Gospel of Judas revealed. I also understand that it was written by the Gnostics who twisted the Catholic truth. However, the teachings of the Catholic Church are based on the fact that Jesus gave his life to save us from our sins. If everything that was to happen to Jesus was determined by God beforehand, I think Jesus says this over and over again maybe not as I have written it, then someone had to turn in Jesus. Judas was that someone. What would have happened if Judas had not turned in Jesus? Would our Catholic believes be the same? The Church always puts tremendous emphasis on the betrayal of Jesus by Judas as the turning point for our faith and religion. Was God's plan cut short when Judas turned Jesus in or was Judas's betrayal part of HIS plan? And if Judas was part God's plan,as the Church often proclaims, I can see why the Gnostics see Judas as the chosen person who would fully reveal Jesus. The one who would fulfill God's plan. I may have never understood the Catholic church's perspective on this but according to what the Catholic Church emphasizes about Jesus's betrayal I do not see anything wrong with what the Gospel of Judas says about Judas. It should not change the way we see things, Judas was part of God's plan--at least that is what I have always heard the Catholic Church say. But then again I am struggling with all the teachings of the Catholic Church. I have been a Catholic forever but I certainly do not understand Catholicism.
Thanks for your comment. There are very large issues involved in all of this: God's Will, our free will, Salvation history, etc. God never wills any evil; He allows it. He didn't will Judas to betray his Son. He allowed it. He never wills anyone to reject him or his love; his will is for everyone to love him and choose him.
He knew Adam and Eve would commit Original Sin long before they did. He knew his chosen people, the Israelites, would disobey Him time and again long before they ever broke one of his Commandments. He knew Judas would betray his Son long before He ever did. (btw, his omniscience does not impose on our free will; we are truly free creatures)
Scripture does mention very often the sacrifice of Christ as necesary for our salvation. And, it most certainly is. Jesus himself says, "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?" (Lk 24:26).
Was it necessary for Judas (or someone) to turn Jesus in in order for him to suffer and be crucified? That's a good question. There are occurrences before Judas' betrayal where the Jewish leaders tried to kill Jesus, and chances are, they would have eventually killed him without Judas' help. Now, the Old Testament prophets foretold Judas' betrayal, but that doesn't mean that God willed it to happen. One of the things it means is that God was preparing them (and their descendants) for what would happen to their Savior.
Jesus' suffering, passion, and death are a result of sin. The only good that occurs from it is what God the Father brings about through the Spirit as a result of it. The good is tremendous good: namely, our salvation. Ok, now we're into big stuff, and it might seem totally confusing. So, let's take a step back.
When God created the world, it was all good. Everything that God made was good; evil did not exist. God's Perfect Plan is that we would CHOOSE HIM always. God gave us free will so that we might choose him. But, a result of free will is that we might choose to REJECT HIM. The first time that occurred (Orig Sin) is when evil entered the world. In his omniscience, God knew that some of us would reject him, and he saw every sin that would ever be committed by his children before he created any of us. He created us to be free, as he is free, but he knew that we would abuse that freedom. He never wills it; he allows it. He wills us to love him and to be with him for all eternity; but, he can't force us to love him. Love that is forced is not true love. "God wills all men to be saved".
So, all of the sins throughout the Old Testament are not part of God's Plan. His Plan is the Covenant, and for his people to be faithful to it. He does all that he can, sending prophets to teach his people, and reveal his Will to them. But, the prophets are rejected. All of them. He does not will this; he allows it because he has made his people free to accept or reject him.
Then, we get to Jesus, and he is rejected. In Mark 12, Christ tells the parable of the wicked servants - the vineyard owner is the Father, the servants are the prophets, and the owner's son is Christ. The tenants kill the servants, and then the son. "Now what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and make an end of the tenants and give the vineyard to others" (Mk 12:9-10).
The parable is directed at the Jewish leaders; they and the Roman soldiers (and all of us sinners) kill Christ. They nail him to the cross and crucify him; they take the active role, he accepts what they do. The parable shows that the Father will not be happy with those who kill his Son, among other things.
Jesus then quotes Psalm 118: "the stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone; this is the Lord's doing, and we marvel at it". 'The Lord's doing' refers to the rebuilding of the Temple, a messianic reference to Christ's Resurrection. The Lord brings good out of evil; life out of death. Good Friday is good because of the good that God brings out of it, not because of the evil that is done to Christ.
So, the big picture here is that WE have made a mess of God's creation- namely, ourselves. He became one of us to clean up our mess. We are so messed up that we made him THE MESS - all the junk, filth, trash that our sin is. God knew that we would do this, and because of his supreme love for us, he allowed his son to become the mess in order to make it clean. Christ took on sin and death so that he would win victory over it for us, and allow us to truly win victory over it ourselves with his Grace.
Greg-
It seems that Catholics face a strange conudrum in reacting to The Davinci Code; we come off as reactionary and belligerent fundamentalists when we react, but many people refuse to see the truth when we do not.
As a recent convert to Catholicism, I really do not understand the uproar over the novel. I can't help but that that, just as those who publically denounced The Passion of the Christ probably helped its ratings soar as high as they did, Catholic reacting to the book are partially or largely responsible for its success.
Which, I suppose, raises the question I wanted to ask in the first place. What is the appropriate way to react when someone has an objectively wrong state of facts, especially when they are using those facts to define their beliefs?
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