A Meditation on the Sins of the Intellect

When I was in the seminary, my Moral Theology Professor, Fr. Robert Zylla (R.I.P.), encouraged us to meditate on the sins of the intellect during the third sorrowful mystery (The Crowning with Thorns). In his years of teaching he had surely witnessed the intellectual pride that could beset theologians and seminary students who figured they knew a few things. And added to this human tendency to intellectual pride was the rather prideful sense of the 20th century that we had somehow “come of age.” Dissent from church teaching was rampant and what came to be called the “hermeneutic of rupture and discontinuity” was in full flower. Many dismissed things merely because they were “old” and “pre-Vatican II.” Our advanced technology, tall buildings, terrifying weapons of war, and astonishing techniques of medicine had mesmerized us; we confused mere knowledge with wisdom. Knowing how to get to the moon and back is impressive, but only wisdom and humility, with lots of grace and mercy, can get us to Heaven.

Yes, the sins of the intellect must be consistently monitored and curbed with proper humility and docility (the Latin root docile means to be teachable) to the teachings of the Church. Garry Wills, a noted dissenter during those heady times, coined the phrase Mater si, Magistra no (Mother yes, Teacher no) to indicate that there was no need for him or others to accept the Church’s teaching authority. So sad, yet so emblematic of our times. Many today simply sniffle and dismiss the need for any teaching from the Church.

Our intellect is our greatest strength yet also our biggest struggle. We think we know a few things. And we do know a few things, very few. And insisting that we know so much, we shut down and will no longer listen to the Wisdom of God in His Church, time-tested, stretching back for millennia, the glory of the saints, and a treasure more precious than gold for those who love the Law of the Lord.

For meditation during Holy Week, I read through Jesus of Nazareth, Part II (Holy Week) by Joseph Ratzinger. In it, he writes of the dangers and sins of the intellect as he meditates on Jesus’ words from the cross, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Consider this teaching on the sins and limits of the intellect from one of the great intellects of our time:

Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). … The theme of “not knowing” returns in St. Peter’s sermon in the Acts of the Apostles … “Now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers” (3:17). … The theme of not knowing also appears in one of St. Paul’s autobiographical reflections. He recalls that he himself “formally blasphemed and persecuted and insulted Jesus” then he continues, “But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim 1:13).

This combination of expert knowledge and deep ignorance certainly causes us to ponder. It reveals the whole problem of a knowledge that remains self-sufficient and does not arrive at Truth itself.

We encounter the same combination of knowledge and failure to understand in the story of the wise men from the East. The chief priests and the scribes know exactly where the Messiah is to be born. But they do not recognize him. Despite their knowledge, they remain blind (Matthew 2:4–6).

Clearly this mixture of knowledge and ignorance, of material expertise and deep incomprehension occurs in every period of history. For this reason, what Jesus says [from the cross] about ignorance … is bound to be unsettling for the supposedly learned today. Are we not blind precisely as a people with knowledge? … Ignorance diminishes guilt, and it leaves open the path to conversion. But it does not simply excuse, because at the same time it reveals a deadening of the heart that resists the call of Truth [pp. 206-208].

Consider well, especially as you pray the third sorrowful mystery (the Crowning with Thorns), the sins of the intellect; it would make Fr. Zylla happy. As a parting thought, I ask you to ponder the danger described by St. Paul: For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools (Rom 1:21-22).

Save us, Lord, from our foolishness and transform our minds!

I’ll admit this video is a little on the light side given the topic, but the point is that we don’t even understand those closest to us. How, then, can we understand that which is above us?

Spiritual truths are spiritually discerned, which is why man will never know God with the intellect. Man can know about God through the intellect, but knowing about Him through theology, is not knowing Him experientially, through a relationship with Him.

1 Corinthians 1:18-31 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 2:1-16 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Sure I do.

I was raised Catholic.

Catholics think they have to eat Jesus to have Him give them life and get Him inside them.

They have to do penance to earn forgiveness and pardon.

They pray to Mary to protect them from *Jesus, my judge*.

*Jesus, my JUDGE*???? For real? What a warped and perverted view of Jesus. He is the SAVIOR of those who trust in Him, who came to seek and save the lost, a FRIEND of sinners, our elder brother.

Yup, Catholic relationship with Jesus is coming groveling to Mary to beg for forgiveness from God and Jesus.

Now, where did I tell you that because you are Catholic that you can’t enter into a relationship with Jesus? Where did I do that? Provide the post number and post it. I’d like to see that.

Also, by telling me that your relationship with Christ is more than I could ever understand, you are passing judgment on MY relationship with Christ. You have no concept of what I understand about Jesus and a relationship with Him because you can’t read my mind.

So you are doing the very thing you just condemned me for.

As a person who used to be a Catholic, you might want to re-visit Catholic doctrines and see if it's the doctrines which are false, or rather if it might have been your misunderstanding of them.

" Catholics think they have to eat Jesus to have Him give them life and get Him inside them."

This is not true. Although the Eucharist is a privileged way, given by Christ Himself, to approach this kind of intimacy with Him, it's not the only way.

Paul teaches us that "Christ dwell(s) in your hearts through faith... through being rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:17). Spiritual Communion (when you are unable to receive the consecrated elements) is real Communion, as any Catholic should know.

Where two or three are gathered together in His name, there He is in the midst of them.

(John 14:23)
Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him."

"They have to do penance to earn forgiveness and pardon."

This also is a misconception, since no one can "earn" forgiveness. Penance (as in the requirements following a sacramental Confession) is intended to --- when applicable --- do literal repair for the damage you've done. (Stole money? Return it. Smashed his car? Repair it. Insulted your mother? Apologize. Need to get closer to Christ? Read next Sunday's gospel before Sunday) and demonstrating your changed heart. Matthew 3:8 - “Produce therefore fruit that is fitting of repentance.”

You can have forgiveness from God and still be obliged as a matter of justice to make reparation for the evil you did. A repentant inmate in prison may be forgiven by God, but still needs to serve out his sentence. The repentant criminal on the cross next to Jesus, was forgiven: but Jesus did not take him down from the cross, because he admitted he deserved it by his evil deeds.

"They pray to Mary to protect them from *Jesus, my judge*."

Once again, this is a matter of intercessory prayer. I pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy every day, asking God to grant mercy to me and to the whole world. Mary is also a member of the Communion of Saints, just as I am. Just as, I presume, you are. Like us, she, too, makes intercessory prayers.

*Jesus, my JUDGE*???? For real? What a warped and perverted view of Jesus. He is the SAVIOR of those who trust in Him, who came to seek and save the lost, a FRIEND of sinners, our elder brother"

He is also the Judge of the living and the dead.(Matthew 25:31-46) You know the Bible well enough. I'm sure you know what I'm referring to, and don't even have to look it up.

There's also this:

Acts 10:42
"And He (Jesus) ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead."

2 Corinthians 5:10
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."

Acts 17:31
"...because [God] has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."

John 5:22, 27
"For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son... and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man."

So is it that the New Testament "warped and perverted" about this? Or that Catholics are "warped and perverted" because we believe the New Testament?

None of this takes away from the fact that Jesus is our Savior and Friend. In fact, that's one of the amazing paradoxes of God's Divine plan: the the Judge is also, so to speak, our Brother and Defense Attorney!

I need to think about that some more.

John 12:47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

The Judgment seat of Christ is a judgment of our works, not for salvation. Only the saved are before the Judgment seat of Christ and that is only for rewards for works done.

Besides the prayer to which I was referring was this.......

Third Novena Prayer ( 3rd. Saturday)

O Mother of Perpetual Help, thou art the dispenser of all the gifts which God grants to us miserable sinners; and for this end He has made thee so powerful, so rich, and so bountiful, in order that thou mayest help us in our misery. Thou art the advocate of the most wretched and abandoned sinners who have recourse to thee: come to my aid, dearest Mother, for I recommend myself to thee. In thy hands I place my eternal salvation, and to thee I entrust my soul. Count me among thy most devoted servants; take me under thy protection, and it is enough for me. For, if thou protect me, dear Mother, I fear nothing; not from my sins, because thou wilt obtain for me the pardon of them; nor from the devils, because thou art more powerful than all hell together; nor even from Jesus, my judge, because by one prayer from thee He will be appeased. But one thing I fear: that in the hour of temptation I may through negligence fail to have recourse to thee and thus perish miserably. Obtain for me, therefore, the pardon of my sins, love for Jesus, final perseverance, and the grace to have recourse to thee, O Mother of Perpetual Help. 3 Hail Marys.

http://motherofperpetualhelp.blogspot.com/2007/06/three-novena-prayers.html

Fearing Jesus put in the same category as our sins and demons. Nobody needs to or ought to fear Jesus. THAT is a warped and twisted view of Christ.

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