Pope Leo XIV 2-sharpened
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Every morning as I watch Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now," I feel sickened by the reports from Gaza. No doubt that most reading these words have similar experiences. And why not?
In Gaza as everyone knows genocidal Zionists are systematically causing the deaths of untold thousands of children and their mothers. The Zionist monsters starve, bomb, and even gun down their victims as they line up at distribution sites where food is used as bait. The brutes are causing a manmade drought intentionally aimed at depriving infants of water for the formula they cannot live without.
You know the result.
The Zionists do all that in blatant contravention not merely of all human values and international law, but of the Jewish tradition itself. Their genocidal atrocities also contradict the teachings of the one Christians identify as the greatest of the Jewish prophets and whom they worship as the incarnation of God himself.
For that reason, it's impossible for me to understand how any of that can be squared with the teachings of Yeshua and his critical understanding of his beloved Jewish tradition. It's impossible for me to comprehend how self-proclaimed pro-life Christians (so concerned about unborn fetuses) can stand by in silence and even applaud when tens of thousands of children along with their mothers, fathers, and grandparents are slaughtered before their very eyes.
Where's the specifically Christian protest from Yeshua's followers? Apart from his general calls for a ceasefire, how come the new pope isn't showing more leadership on this question?
Contrast their and his relative silence with the prophetic words of Episcopal bishop Mariann Edgar Budde directly confronting her president and vice president on behalf of the most vulnerable in her own country. She was vilified and dismissed by Christians and Jews as disrespectful and overly political.
However, she was only following in Yeshua's footsteps. After all, he confronted the leaders of his day as hypocrites, whited sepulchers, snakes, and broods of vipers (MT. 23:1-39). And he in turn was only following the examples of great Jewish prophets like Amos, Isaiah, and Elijah. All of them today would be called anti-Semitic, and "self-hating Jews."
I write such painful words because this Sunday's "Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul" celebrates another pair of self-hating Jews. Their following of Yeshua caused them to be seen as enemies of their people and of the Roman imperial power of their day. As a result, they were imprisoned and were ultimately victims of capital punishment.
And they in turn were only following the example of Yeshua himself as I've already said. He suffered ostracism, imprisonment, torture, and execution for his own unstinting opposition.
But wouldn't outspokenness be dangerous for a new pope who's just getting his papacy off the ground? Wouldn't it be too polarizing and politically alienating for him to speak directly to Netanyahu, Trump and Vance the way Bishop Budde did? Even more, wouldn't it be unthinkable for him to actually go to Gaza on papal pilgrimage?
In the context I've just described, the readings for the day suggest that those who claim to inherit the tradition of Peter and Paul and of Yeshua's prophetism should never fear danger, ostracism, or political alienation. They should be the first to put their lives on the line, to risk imprisonment and even death to oppose those who prove unfaithful to the holy Jewish faith. Today's readings assure the Divine Spirit of the universe will always have their backs.
The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles describes Peter's harrowing escape from prison. The second reading has Paul claiming that he was "rescued from the lion's mouth." That was a clear reference to the famous story of Daniel in the lion's den.
Yes, the founders of what became Christianity were the enemies of their days' Jewish authorities - the same "leaders" who were also the sworn enemies of the One identified in today's selection from the Gospel of Matthew as "the Christ" - i.e., as God's anointed one.
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