"What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?You have among you many a purchased slave,Which—like your asses and your dogs and mules—You use in abject and in slavish partsBecause you bought them. Shall I say to you,“Let them be free! Marry them to your heirs!Why sweat they under burdens? Let their bedsBe made as soft as yours and let their palatesBe seasoned with such viands”? You will answer,“The slaves are ours.” So do I answer you.The pound of flesh which I demand of himIs dearly bought. 'Tis mine and I will have it.If you deny me, fie upon your law—There is no force in the decrees of Venice.I stand for judgment. Answer, shall I have it?"The Merchant of VeniceAct 4, Scene 1
Dear Fred,Thanks for your email.I do not think Pope Francis is a scold.To some people, his startling directness and off-the-cuff candor may seem scolding, especially on issues long "off limits" --- like pondering a reasonable process for re-marriage, or Democrats identifying themselves as bribed agents of corporatocracy which, of course, they are.In my view, a scold is someone who combines scorn and coldness.By this definition, anyone who emphasizes mercy cannot be a scold.
Says Francis: "The world is made more just... by mercy."Scolds rely on harsh, punitive judgment.
Within the Christian tradition such judgment is eager to condemn others to eternal perdition.
"You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own imagewhen it turns out God hates all the same people you do."
Fr. Tom Weston S. J."Who am I to judge?" ... which, when contextualized, is to say: "Who am I to judge the unsearchable heart of another?"Matthew 7:1-5
Common English Bible
Judging
7 “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. 2 You’ll receive the same judgment you give. Whatever you deal out will be dealt out to you. 3 Why do you see the splinter that’s in your brother’s or sister’s eye, but don’t notice the log in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother or sister, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when there’s a log in your eye? 5 You deceive yourself! First take the log out of your eye, and then you’ll see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s or sister’s eye.I suppose there is a chance that eternal perdition (as traditionally construed) is a reality and therefore some scolds will claim that their criticism constitutes an indispensable warning.However, finger-wagging is pathognomic of scolds, a pose that does not truly invite metanoia/conversion but, instead, delights in the prospect of another's perdition, much as some people delight in "kicking the dog" because it's the only remaining alternative before realizing the need to kick themselves.“I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.” Dorothy Day
Throughout the church -- and throughout Judeo-Christianity's collectively-written scripture -- we witness an ultimately untenable tension between those whose sense of justice depends on punishment, vengeance and retaliation and those who believe that justice - at least in its fullest sense - depends on mercy, love and compassion and, furthermore, that only by lavishing mercy, love and compassion on others will these graces be granted us.
Except for "the vengeful," I see no one responding to Francis with anything but warmth.Francesco is not a cold man: in his presence no one shivers.Even when Francis angers people, they are warmed in the process.
Francis leaves no one cold.
***Politically and religiously, conservatives have "always" had the upper hand in institutional life, perhaps because juiceless conservatives are the only people dry enough to dedicate themselves in saecula saeculorum to the monolithic maintenance of institutions, even those -- particularly those? -- that have outlived their usefulness.Will Rogers spoke truly: "I do not belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat.""The new thing under the sun" is that the liberal impulse -- notwithstanding the vengeful, punitive ranks of jihadi and Christian fundamentists -- is becoming so attractive that ever fewer people wish to devote themselves to the prissiness, rigidity and bitter blowback of putting all one's eggs in a basket named Spite.Since its publication in 1850, The Scarlet Letter has gone from The Moral Norm to a laughable error perpetrated by essentially vengeful people with the psycho-spiritual attractiveness of Iranian mullahs.Overnight, "righteousness" has gone from "an honorable cause" to a risible self-indulgence.
Blessedly, new translations of the Bible replace the word "righteousness" with "justice" and "righteous" with "just," embedded in the contextual understanding that "justice" and "economic justice" are inseparable.Just yesterday I bemoaned our lost ability to use "Shylock" as shorthand summary for justice-without-mercy: nowadays, to refer to someone as Shylock elicits a quick charge of anti-Semitism.Damn the torpedoes!Scolds are Shylocks, drooling at their pound of flesh, even if -- perhaps especially if -- execution of justice induces death by collateral damage.Scolds anticipate the delight of looking down from the parapets of heaven onto scenes of eternal torment.Scolds are not interested in redemption of "the other" but in demonstration of "justice" vouchsafed by damnation.In that frozen posture of undying malice, they risk their own damnation, sowing the seed whose fruit they will most likely to reap. (I no longer believe in eternal damnation and only use the term here to see if I can make the worm turn.)
G.K. Chesterton On Charity, Hope And Universal SalvationG.K. Chesterton Quotations... And More
Pax On Both Houses: Compendium Of G.K. Chesterton PostsPax tecumAlan
I have always "liked" this rendition of Shylock.László Mednyánszky (1852–1919)Shylock and the English "Edict of Expulsion," 1290 A.D.
I have published our correspondence at http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/07/is-pope-francis-scold.html under the title, "Is Pope Francis A Scold?"
On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 11:26 AM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:I love Francis but I do not support his harsh judgment against humanity. It would be like having a friend who is seriously overweight and telling that friend "you're fat and ugly and you better lose weight or you'll die." ........ I would not say something like that. I would begin by telling my friend how beautiful she was and how much I loved her, and then i would describe her many positive qualities and then after telling her all that, I would touch on her weight problem -- if she was willing to listen to me on that topic......... In contrast, Francis is a scold.... I do not dispute the issues he raises, I only speak against his negative tone.
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