Gospel Reflection For The 1st day of April in the year of Our Lord, 2024
Gospel
Matthew 28:8-15
8 And they went out quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, running to tell his disciples. 9 And behold Jesus met them, saying: All hail. But they came up and took hold of his feet, and adored him. 10 Then Jesus said to them: Fear not. Go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, there they shall see me.
11 Who when they were departed, behold some of the guards came into the city, and told the chief priests all things that had been done. 12 And they being assembled together with the ancients, taking counsel, gave a great sum of money to the soldiers, 13 Saying: Say you, His disciples came by night, and stole him away when we were asleep. 14 And if the governor shall hear this, we will persuade him, and secure you. 15 So they taking the money, did as they were taught: and this word was spread abroad among the Jews even unto this day.
Many of the common people of the Jews were very receptive to the Gospel. The elites knew their guilt, and desperate to hold onto power, they began to persecute the first Christians. The Apostles were dragged before the Sanhedrin and accused of, “setting the world on fire” with their new teaching of the divinity of Christ. Truly, Christianity spread with such amazing speed and power that it can only be called miraculous. Within 300 years Rome, the most powerful nation on earth, was converted to the religion of poor, uneducated Jews. This was unheard of! But very quickly after the conversion of Rome, Christianity would spread throughout Europe. Countless pagan religions were overthrown and largely forgotten in what, historically speaking, was the blink of an eye. The entire history of the world was changed.
It is said that the so called Enlightenment re-introduced much of pagan, and especially Greek and Roman, mythology to the educated classes. That is not entirely true, because if you read the Christian writers of the middle ages, they were quite educated in the history and mythology of the civilizations that came before. Abbot Walafid Strabo comes to mind. Abbot Strabo was an important figure in the 800s. He was influential in the Church, he was tutor to the grandchildren of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, and he was a prolific writer. While he wrote many religious documents, he is best remembered as the author of the first book on herbal medicine in the Christian era. This book, Hortulus, was written in poetry and contained many whimsical references to Greek mythology and a good deal of humor. The real myth is that Christians in the middle ages were uneducated in Classical Culture.
Regardless, by the late 1800s, at least, the neo-pagan and occultist movement gained popularity in the elite universities of Europe. It was embraced by much of the Progressive (socialist/communist/racist) movement and became influential in Nazi Germany and pre-World War 2 America. While the moneyed elite were fascinated with seances and satanism, much of Europe was becoming obsessed with Germanic, Aryan mythology, the “old Norse Gods” and the Druid religion. Christianity was seen by the elites as old fashioned (ironically), and a moralistic religion imposed upon Europeans. This gave rise to anti-Catholicism, antisemitism and atheism. Having rejected Christendom, wars, revolutions and genocides were inevitable.
We are still feeling the effects of this great loss of faith today, especially in America and Canada where it took a little longer to truly subvert our Christian culture. The parallel to the elites in today’s readings, who rejected Christianity and spread lies to ensure their power is stark. We must make every effort to ensure that our political and religious leaders adhere to the teachings of the Church and hold true Christian values. History shows us what happens when a nation rejects God and His Church…. And it is horrific.
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Gospel passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible.