“Where Did This Man Get All This?”

“Where Did This Man Get All This?”

Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Now the priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD. When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the LORD bade him speak to all the people, the priests and prophets laid hold of him, crying, "You must be put to death! Why do you prophesy in the name of the LORD: 'This house shall be like Shiloh,' and 'This city shall be desolate and deserted'?" Jeremiah 26:7-9

“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. Matthew 13:54C-57A

Piety

"Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.

"Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption," the new section continues.

"Consequently, the church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that 'the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,' and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide." (The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2267)

Study

The Sanskrit writes: Necessity changes a course but never a goal.

Jeremiah had to do a course correction.  He pulled no punches n his message from the Lord.  In return, the people began to plot against him and threaten him with a death sentence – which was not carried out. His message did not change but expanded. In a few verses, we hear Jeremiah’s reaction to the threats:

Now, therefore, reform your ways and your deeds; listen to the voice of the LORD your God, so that the LORD will have a change of heart regarding the evil he has spoken against you.  As for me, I am in your hands; do with me what is good and right in your eyes. (13-14)

The fear of what the Lord would do to them prevailed and the death sentence was lifted. Christ, however, was not so fortunate. After he stirred up the people with his teaching, the plot against him began to gather steam.  Initially, the people were concerned because as the “carpenter’s son,” Jesus did not get schooled in the same way as the rabbis, Pharisees, and others. His authority was in question by the ruling class from the outset.  Just like Jeremiah, the priests and prophets felt threatened and wanted to turn to execution.

Action

Capital punishment is in the news in several ways. 

Yesterday, Pope Francis revised the Catechism to say that any use of the death penalty is inadmissible. According to Catholic News Service:

Building on the development of Catholic Church teaching against capital punishment, Pope Francis has ordered a revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to assert "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person" and to commit the church to working toward its abolition worldwide.

The catechism's paragraph on capital punishment, 2267, already had been updated by St. John Paul II in 1997 to strengthen its skepticism about the need to use the death penalty in the modern world and, mainly, to affirm the importance of protecting all human life.

While many welcomed this development, others challenged the Pope’s ability to update Church teachings.  This news comes as several Americans await the implementation of the death penalty on their sentence and Catholic judges and governors hold some influence in the final decision to move forward.

The state of Nebraska is scheduled to execute death row inmate Carey Dean Moore August 14 using an untested drug concoction.  The Department of Corrections has not revealed to the source of these drugs. 

Decades worth of statistics shows that the violent crime rate is consistently higher in death penalty states than in non-death penalty states.  Now is the time to speak out against the use of the Death Penalty in Nebraska and throughout the nation.

According to CNN, “for decades, Catholic who support capital punishment, including the senators and representatives in the chamber the day the Pope spoke), had an "out" when it comes to church teaching: The Catholic Catechism, the church's book of moral and religious teachings, had allowed the use of capital punishment in some instances. Any other opinions, even the Pope's, were just that, opinions, and not necessarily binding on Catholic consciences.

But that is no longer the case since yesterday’s announcement. 

"Pope Francis has said several times that he considers the death penalty inadmissible," said John Thavis, former Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service. "Now, however, he has enshrined it in official Catholic teaching. That's going to make it much more difficult for politicians to dismiss this teaching as 'the Pope's opinion.'"