Posted on 08/30/2023 1:59:26 PM PDT by ebb tide
One of Pope Francis’ closest advisers, Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, has been accused of “heretical blasphemy” after portraying the Lord as a flawed human being in need of conversion from “nationalism” and “rigidity.”
Writing in Il Fatto Quotidiano Aug. 20, a highly secular left-wing Italian daily, Father Spadaro reflected on the Gospel story of the faith of a Canaanite woman and concluded that Jesus was healed and freed “from the rigidity of the theological, political and cultural elements dominant in his time.”
The story, from the Gospel of Matthew (15:21-28), concerns that of a woman from the pagan region of Canaan who begs Jesus to heal her daughter possessed by a demon.
Jesus initially refuses to help her, saying that he was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel. However, the woman persists, begging Jesus and even comparing herself to dogs, who are allowed to eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table. Jesus is eventually moved by her faith and heals her daughter.
The Church Fathers and Church tradition have always interpreted the story as a powerful reminder of the importance of faith. The woman did not give up on Jesus, even when he seemed to be rejecting her. She continued to believe that he could help her daughter, and in the end, her faith was rewarded.
But for Father Spadaro, along with other modernist and heterodox preachers before him, Jesus initially has a prejudiced and exclusionist view in the Gospel story, but is converted by the Canaanite woman, making it a story of what today is called “radical inclusion.”
However, the Italian Jesuit goes further, ascribing to Jesus many human failings, including “rigidity,” “nationalism,” irritation and callousness. These are then transformed into acceptance and liberation from “the dominant theological, political, and cultural elements of his time.” Such a transformation of the Lord, Father Spadaro says, is “the seed of a revolution.”
Father Spadaro’s reflection is significant given the audacity with which he ascribes to Jesus such deficiencies, thereby undermining Church teaching on Christ’s divinity, but also because of the Italian Jesuit’s closeness to the Pope, and that he is editor of the historically prestigious Jesuit periodical La Civilta Cattolica.
Here below is my translation of his text (emphases mine) which was first brought to wider public attention by the Italian website MessainLatino:
Jesus is in Gennèsaret, on the right bank of Lake Tiberias. The locals had recognized him, and word of his presence had spread throughout the region, by word of mouth. Many brought him the sick, who were healed. It was a land where people had to welcome and understand him. His actions were effective. But the Master does not stop. Matthew (15:21-28) — who writes for the Jews — tells us that he goes towards the northwest, the area of Tire and Sidòne, that is, to the Phoenician and therefore pagan area.
But behold, cries are heard. They are from a woman. She is Canaanite, that is, from a region inhabited by an idolatrous people that Israel looked upon with contempt and enmity. The story therefore claims that Jesus and the woman were enemies. The woman cries out: “Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David! My daughter is very tormented by a demon.” The body of this woman, her voice, erupts as if at the scene of a tragedy. Impossible for Jesus not to react to the chaos that abruptly interrupted the journey.
Instead, no. “But he did not speak to her, even a word,” Matthew writes laconically.
Jesus remains indifferent. His disciples approach him and plead with him in amazement. The woman was stirring those who also misjudged her! Her cries had broken the barrier of hatred. But Jesus does not care.
“Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us!” His own plead with him, trying to discreetly use the excuse of her insistence and the annoyance that her presence would have caused to the hearth [sic!] of the Lord .
The silence is followed by Jesus’ irritated and callous reply: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. The Lord’s hardness is unshakeable. Now even Jesus plays the theologian: the mission received from God is limited to the children of Israel. So, there’s nothing to be done. Mercy is not for her. She is excluded. There is no discussion.
But the woman is stubborn. Her hope is desperate, and she breaks down not only any supposed tribal enmity, but also opportunity, her own dignity. She throws herself in front of him and begs him: “Lord, help me!” She calls him “Lord,” that is, she recognizes his authority and his mission. What else can Jesus expect to do? Yet he replies in a mocking and disrespectful way towards that poor woman: “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs,” that is, to domestic dogs. A lapse in attitude, manner, humanity. Jesus appears as if he were blinded by nationalism and theological rigour.
Anyone else would have given up. But not the woman. She is determined: she wants her daughter healed. And she immediately grasps the only fissure left open by Jesus’ words, where he had referred to domestic dogs (and therefore not stray ones). They share their masters’ house, in fact. And so with a move that desperation makes cunning, she says: “It is true, Lord, and yet the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Few words, but well posed and such as to upset the rigidity of Jesus, to conform him, to “convert” him to himself. Indeed, without hesitation, Jesus replies: “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And from that instant his daughter was healed. And Jesus also appears healed, and in the end shows that he is free, from the rigidity of the dominant theological, political, and cultural elements of his time.
So what happened? Outside the land of Israel, Jesus healed the daughter of a pagan woman, despised for being Canaanite. Not only that: he agrees with her and praises her great faith. Here is the seed of a revolution.
***
MessaInLatino summed up Father Spadaro’s descriptions of the Lord Jesus Christ as follows:
– indifferent to suffering;
– irritable and insensitive;
– inscrutably harsh;
– unmerciful theologian;
– mocking and disrespectful towards the poor mother;
– showing a lapse in attitude, manner and humanity;
– blinded by nationalism and theological rigorism;
– rigid, confused and in need of conversion;
– sick and imprisoned by rigidity and the dominant theological, political and cultural elements of his time;
– glorifier of the pagan faith.
Here is St John Chrysostom’s homily on Jesus and the Faith of the Canaanite Woman.
See also this helpful article by Nicholas LaBlanca in which he unpacks similar modernist and heterodox interpretations of this Gospel story.
***
Matthew 15: 21-28:
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Don’t be rigid, but be ‘docile to change’ as Jesus was, Pope tells pilgrims (8/21/23)
“We can ask ourselves a few questions, beginning with the change in Jesus,” Pope Francis said at the conclusion of his address. “For example: Am I capable of changing opinion? Do I know how to be understanding and do I know how to be compassionate, or do I remain rigid in my position? Is there some rigidity in my heart? Which is not firmness: rigidity is awful, firmness is good.”
...
However, the view that Christ did not intend to heal the daughter, but “changed his attitude” when faced with the woman’s faith, differs from the interpretation of St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom. They wrote that Christ intended to heal the woman’s daughter, but delayed stating his intention in order to elicit greater faith and more persistent prayer, and in order that the woman’s persistent faith might be an example to others.
Ping
I fail to see a named person who has decided to call a well recognized priest a heretic? Who??????
I think the Jesus was testing the faith of that woman.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
Fr. James James Martin, S.J. is also a “well recognized priest” and scores of named persons have called him a heretic.
What’s your point?
Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He repeatedly exposed the legalism of the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees. The idea that Jesus was “converted” by a pagan woman or anyone else is ludicrous. Jesus always placed the Spirit of the law above the “traditions of men” and letter of the Law. He wasn’t converted! He was the one who was converting! He corrected! He clarified! He proclaimed the Truth because He is the Truth! He needed conversion? /s I don’t think so !!! The priest who believes and teaches that Jesus needed conversion is indeed a heretic and rightly needs correction!
Jesuits haven’t been Catholic for decades
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