DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Sunday, November 25, 2018

So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.  If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” – John 11:47-50

Holy causes can take an unholy turn; holy concerns can lose its holy conscience.  It happened in the time of Christ and it is still happening in the times in which we live.

Amazing how the mind will twist-and-turn in its struggle to justify an evil by rationalizing it as good.  Amazing how a religious movement like the Pharisees and their call to return to the old ways of law-and-order can convince itself to commit evil in the name of the cause.  Amazing how a religious institution such as the Jerusalem/Temple Council can talk itself into doing the unspeakable evil in order to protect its own power.   It happened in the time of Christ and is still happening in the times in which we live.

Political ideology so often takes control over a soul, and in so doing, bends a conscience to serve its cause.  Eventually, the inner sense of the good and godly is overwhelmed by the voices and logic of the ideology.  But it is not only political ideology but also theological systems that push to the background that inner sense of the good and the godly, sacrificing conscience out of fear that their doctrinal construct will be proven insufficient.  Enslaved by the political ideology or the theological system, galvanized by the harangue of the leader and the zealotry of the crowd, the soul is not longer guided by that image of God within that can sense what is truly good and godly.

A word of counsel, my Loved Ones, let not the crowd or the charismatic leader shout down that still, small voice within the core of your soul, no matter how cleverly they have rationalized doing evil in the name of God.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz