The Catholic

"Standard"

Praise be to God I don't go to a Catholic Standard church- I go to a Jesuit one. They are really smart guys.

In today's homily I had an Epiphany- perhaps part of the Clerical world does get it.

The Wedding of Cana is part of the tripartite Epiphany which ties the Christmas season into then Easter. First we have a baby born- fast forward- now we are at the Baptism of the Lord then a wedding. Why is not much there in between? Because a man was not a man fully until married in Jewish Tradition and before any man could get married he underwent a water purification ritual.
So we don't have in scripture recorded much of what Jesus did before his wedding at Cana. You heard me right, his wedding at Cana. He pops up at John the Baptist's Mikvah, then he is at a Wedding. His wedding.
Your 'ministry' publicly if you hoped to be a Rabbi listened to by anyone significant did not really start until you were married. If you were one of those exceedingly rare creatures that had a ministry as such and were not married you were like a Jeremiah, or an Elijah prophet-John the Baptist-someone a bit touched- someone wearing camel skins literally crying in the wilderness hailing something to come- You are not the "IT" man, you are the crazyman in the desert that people hear, half think are mad and the others are so intrigued they will listen. You don't get the respect of Pharisees and higher authorities as a spiritual superior unless you are a married man.
No Pharisee is going to go to a kid for spiritual advice. Nicodemus is not going to sit at the feet of some kid who hasn't been married even to learn about what he means when he says a man must be born again to enter into the kingdom of spirit- because Nicodemus is not going to listen to a kid to tell him anything about being a superior man when he isn't even one yet himself.

But the masses of Jews are not going to follow in the hundreds or thousands or five thousand some self proclaimed Rabbi who is not married-because he is a child if he is not yet married. That is how significant marriage is considered was considered in the first century Jewish world. Marriage was a sacred part of fulfilling the covenant plan and commandment to be fruitful and multiply. This is the world that Jesus came into. He chose it-at that time. The top ten commandment against adultery and the capital punishment for adultery speak to the serious significance that marriage held in the law of that world at that time.
[Let the marriage bed be undefiled]

And so from the three wise men visiting a baby we fast forward-to the ritual cleansing of Jesus where his father from heaven says "this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased" then the wedding at Cana. Jesus' wedding.

And what is Myrrh. That third gift we always associate with the burial anointing herbs and oils. Myrrh is an exotic herb also given at Jewish weddings- as a love enhancing aid. It is used as a burial herb so God will find the dead body appealing enough to embrace it.
So it had two symbolic and useful meanings when the wise men-the Magi gave it as a wedding gift.

And this is not some fanciful deluded speculation. This is scripturally, historically sound interpretation-because it is true.

Jesus did not need a baptism because he needed spiritually cleansing from original sin. He had no original sin. That was the point-blemishless atoning lamb. He needed one as a man under the law to take a bride.

Now the Catholic Church hierarchy would have the world believe-a billion people believe- that marriage is some lesser sacrament than "orders" or "consecrated life" or celibate clerical state. Some in the catholic world reject that- but that appears to be the party line. Because anyone who takes a wife as a man is out of a job. It is called Matrimonial Discrimination in some Human Rights statutes. They literally fire you from your post if you 'scandalize' them for falling in love with a woman and marrying her. The catholic world starts a vicious rumor mill in some cases-they demonize Love.

There are few things more perniciously of the devil than this infested in the church. Don't think that all these pederasty scandals are anything other than purely demonic. From the pit of hell itself. In the center of the authority structure over a billion people.
There are few things that inspire more perversity, more twisting of the heart of Jesus than to demonize Love. It is so profoundly missing the message you wonder why they are even there.
It is such a misplaced prioritization.
BECAUSE GOD IS LOVE

The hierarchy cannot exist for itself or it exists for it's own ego and empire and not for Jesus. It is claptrap lip service to the Lord rather than manifesting his Kingdom. In persecuting women who are in Love with priests they are nothing more than spiritual wife-beaters, drunk on their own empire and ego. It is demonic at its core of the church.

The Catholic Standard, which is the Washington DC Archdiocese paper ran a 'special' this issue in which 50 photographs of the Cardinal are in a paper of thirty-some pages. I counted no less than four photos of the Archbishop -now Cardinal - of Washington, DC essentially his paper on one page alone. It is his 25 year being ordained I believe so it is all about him as a 'special.' My question is- is he running for Pope or something? It is the saddest piece of self-aggrandisement for a "servant-leader" if ever there was one. It makes it clear that the church views its hierarchy as political people rather than spiritual religious ones.

The Jesuit paper on the other hand ran a beautiful long central piece on the mission trip to Haiti quoting the spiritual benefits of the parishioners in going and what blessings they hoped to impart to such an impoverished place.

You could see the White House doing -putting out such an issue if Obama had 25 years of practicing law yet maybe. Naawww- he wouldn't even do that. It's a service profession.

Jesus never wrote an autobiography. There is not one "Gospel of Jesus according to Jesus" in the entire Bible. He was self effacing- didn't operate like a politician- hid in the hills to pray often. And he was a rock star- THE ROCK STAR of all ages. He didn't make one scribe an Apostle. We don't know of "the Apostle Simon the Scribe"- no we know of a bunch of fishermen, a tax collector and a doctor named Luke. He didn't have a journalist follow him around to catch his quote. No, sometimes we hear of him saying things like- don't tell anyone yet I did that.

Click your heels three times and say...

There is no male nor female in Christ Jesus
There is no male nor female in Christ Jesus.
There is no male nor female in Christ Jesus.

You are not in Pittsburgh anymore.

The church is at a cross-roads and has a choice. It can continue to operate like spiritual wife-beaters. Or it can follow Jesus the Lord, giver of all Life.

More thoughts

You know who his wife is. There was one woman standing next to his mother at the foot of the cross who was also at his Tomb with burial herbs and oils. Only a family member can touch a dead body without being ritually unclean under Jewish law. Jesus after the resurrection came to life on earth again and the FIRST person we are told he spoke to was this same woman whose instinct was immediately to run and hug him-and he has to tell her to stop because he hasn't yet ascended-his body wasn't huggable apparently in that stage-it was a body that could and did walk through walls-such as at the room where the last supper was held when he later met the apostles there.
You know who his wife was.
You also know why her identity was so obscured - because they would have killed her too, just like the wife of Peter. He would have wanted to save his wife. He battled seven demons to get her (you know that the devil goes full force after people who are really significant in the Kingdom) so he wasn't going to lose her to a bunch of Romans.
If your husband were killed in that manner, hung out to dry for all the town to see in such a humiliating way- how do you think that they looked at her? What vicious gossip mill hung around Jerusalem everywhere she stepped thereafter? Can you imagine the wives of the Pharisees- ?? She thought she was something didn't she. We showed her!
She would have left town for good after that- because she would have been told that his body wasn't in Jerusalem any more- by him. And he was going to be with her wherever she went.
She went Far Far away- all the way to France.

Bishops must be the husband of one wife.
Because if you are going to represent something-represent it.