FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
MODERNISM
(Part 82)
THE LAW OF GOD
June 12, 2024
Today’s gospel: Matthew 5:17-19
People in Jesus’ time, hearing his radical preaching and even his criticism of religious authorities, thought he was now proclaiming a new religion, overturning the Mosaic law. But instead, Jesus reiterated the importance and continuing effect of the law as handed down by God.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (v.17). There would be continuity. Teaching from God and tradition were important.
Today, modernists in the Church are overturning the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. And this is not just about small matters, but about the most crucial aspects of our faith.
Consider:
- Jesus issued the Great Commission and told his disciples to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Triune God. But modernists tell us not to proselytize, this is, to make converts. Thus they go against the very mission of the Church.
- Jesus, while mingling with sinners, told them to sin no more. But modernists do not confront grave sinners with their sin, choosing to just accept and accompany them. They offer false mercy.
- The Church had always considered active homosexuality a grave sin. But modernists bless same-sex couples, thus blessing the union, thus blessing the sin.
- Jesus told people to believe in the gospel. This is the gospel of salvation in Jesus, who is the only Savior. But modernists say all religions lead to the divine, and that all peoples, including grave unrepentant sinners and atheists, are part of the communion of saints.
Modernists therefore cause people to remain in their sin, or to break the commandments of God. They “will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” (v.19a). They may be hierarchs, or even the Pope himself, but they negate their exalted position as top leaders in the Church.
Jesus said that our righteousness needed to surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees (v.20a). These were top religious leaders, who taught strict adherence to the law but did not practice the same. Jesus called them hypocrites. Today we have modernist hierarchs who are heretical. Because of them, many will not be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven (v.20b).
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