Minutiae

Mark 12:18-27

         I am at a loss. Where in the Ten Commandments is the part about a brother must marry his brothers widow?  In a similar fashion, where is the part about Limbo anywhere in scripture?

         These are examples of what religions do to a perfectly good message from God. They rationalize, make laws from thin air and make arguments and treatises to support their rules.  No one is more aware of this than I having spent my time in the seminary. I am sure I don't know the half of it though. I am sure my friend the canon lawyer coud make my head spin like Linda Blair.

         In the end, I am happy to see that the Catholic Church finally did away with Limbo. However logical they tried to make it sound, it really was against the message and lived experience of a loving God. Would a loving God deny an unbaptized baby the joy of heavenly reward because through no fault of its own it was not Baptized?  What is amazing is how long it took to do away with Limbo. As far as Judaism, I am sure there is no longer a requirement to marry your brothers widow.

          These are man made rules. We need only obey the rules God clearly gives us and any infraction is between you and God - no one else. I am not arguing against getting rid of good moral and conscience formation, just against silly man made rules.

          There s a wonderful man named Thomas Merton that I am quite fond of. Even as a Roman Catholic he was welcomed worldwide by many and varied faiths. Thomas Merton would say (paraphrasing) that we could never reconcile religions or carry on a conversation with each other when dealing with the minutiae of each faith, all the rules and rubrics. These are man made and are not the essence of what God reveals to us and wishes us to know. When we cut to the core of God's love, we can have fruitful  conversations with anyone of any faith. This is what Thomas Merton was able to do and why he was so welcomed.

           The minutiae of religions may perhaps be appreciated by God for their efforts to please Him are not  necessary. When we make rules and rubrics, the focus of faith it causes division,  paints a bad image of God and cause wars, animosity and creates a self righteousness that Jesus clearly railed against.

         I would suggest we should all get to the core of our faith, our relationship with God, with Jesus as brother and savior. I also might suggest picking up a book by Merton. It is a reward you richly deserve.

         

Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; and the second married her and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her.’

Jesus said to them, ‘Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.’