{"id":426,"date":"2013-10-17T15:23:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-17T20:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=426"},"modified":"2013-10-29T15:26:30","modified_gmt":"2013-10-29T20:26:30","slug":"the-key-to-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=426","title":{"rendered":"The Key to Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 28th<\/sup> Week in Ordinary Time<\/h2>\n

St. Ignatius of Antioch<\/h2>\n

Rom 3: 21-30; Luke 11: 47-54<\/h2>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

So, Jesus tells the Scribes \u201cYou have taken away the key of knowledge\u201d- the key of knowledge.\u00a0 Pretty firm words to the religious leaders of the time.\u00a0 What does it mean?<\/p>\n

Well, some say that the key to knowledge is Faith, Faith in the Lord and in the Covenant He had made with His people in the scriptures that had been passed down to them.\u00a0 The Scribes and Pharisees had tried to replace faith in the word of God with faith in their own interpretation of scripture.\u00a0 And their interpretation emphasized the externals- complying with the letter of the Mosaic Law rather than understanding and complying with the Spirit of the Mosaic Law.\u00a0 For example, it was more important to wash your hands on the Sabbath than to feed the poor on the Sabbath.\u00a0 Thus, they had taken away the key to knowledge, faith in the Lord that was in the heart.<\/p>\n

Others say that Jesus was referring to himself as the key to knowledge.\u00a0 Indeed, the Scribes and Pharisees fought Jesus and his message with a vengeance.\u00a0 And they were plotting to \u201ctake away\u201d Jesus from the people at this very critical time when Jesus was preaching and converting the people.\u00a0 Jesus message was all about believing in the heart, and knowing what was written in the heart, a message of love of God and neighbor above all else.<\/p>\n

What does all this have to do with us?\u00a0 Has someone taken away the key to knowledge from us, and replaced it with a morality which emphasizes literal compliance with the law rather than compliance to the message of God written in our hearts?<\/p>\n

One way to recognize whether we have fallen into that trap is to understand how we act in our daily lives.\u00a0 Do we think that all we have to do is just behave nicely and salvation is ours?\u00a0 Maybe we come to Mass each week, receive Communion, don\u2019t overtly lie, steal, or fight and just stay safely in our current environments while poverty, corruption, fraud, deception and violence are going on all around us.\u00a0 In other words, are we being \u201cgood\u201d according to the interpretations of the law we have all learned and leaving the rest to someone else?\u00a0 Because, you see, isn\u2019t that the same as believing that we can save ourselves by doing strictly what the law requires of us, and nothing more?<\/p>\n

Now Paul says today, \u201cWe are justified by faith, and not just works of the law\u201d.\u00a0 And by Faith, he means not just believing but living our Faith.\u00a0 And the Faith that we are to live is one that is written in our hearts; it calls us to love and care for one another, so much so that we cannot ignore what is going on around us.\u00a0 Jesus didn\u2019t eat and socialize just with his disciples.\u00a0 Rather, he ate and socialized with people outside his circle of disciples; he talked to and cared for the outcasts of the society of his day including lepers, sick people, possessed people, tax collectors, widows, Samaritans, publicans, prostitutes, and foreigners.<\/p>\n

Much has been said about Pope Francis in the media recently.\u00a0 He is calling for the Church to go outward, outside the walls rather than always emphasizing the law.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t that we shouldn\u2019t know the law and do what it says.\u00a0 But rather, we should get beyond that and go out and bring others, those who are separated from us, back into the fold. \u00a0\u00a0How?\u00a0 Not by preaching the law over and over to them, but by our example, an example of love.<\/p>\n

Can you and I do it?\u00a0 You bet we can.\u00a0 We are in the middle of 40 days for life.\u00a0 Some of our parishioners are out there every day praying in front of Planned Parenthood\u2019s Tampa Avenue Facility.\u00a0 No one person is out there all the time, they all take shifts.\u00a0 And all they do is pray.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0And you know what?\u00a0 People notice.\u00a0 They drive by and honk their horns in approval.\u00a0 And it\u2019s been going on now for several weeks.\u00a0 So people even stop, and they tell our folks that they are impressed by the goodness, honesty, and sincerity of what they are doing.\u00a0 Indeed, these prayerful folks have not lost the keys.\u00a0 They are people of Faith filled with the message of Christ.\u00a0 We can do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time St. Ignatius of Antioch Rom 3: 21-30; Luke 11: 47-54 Dc. Larry Brockman So, Jesus tells the Scribes \u201cYou have taken away the key of knowledge\u201d- the key of knowledge.\u00a0 Pretty firm words to the religious leaders of the time.\u00a0 What does it mean? Well, some say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[245],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions\/427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}