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Instead of being lead by God’s prophet, Samuel, the Chosen People themselves chose a foreign system of kingship. Here even God’s accession to the will of the people was blessed and horribly fulfilled in Christ’s kingship under a crown of thorns.
People need leadership from God. In the Old Testament, the corrupt spiritual leader was defined as a foolish shepherd. Christ went one step further in warning, not merely of foolish shepherds, but of wolves in sheep’s clothing. The contrast would be familiar to keepers of flocks. Good shepherds would lose not a single sheep. Bad shepherds would kill sheep when they were hungry. Wolves would kill, not just for hunger, but for the sake of killing, leaving a ravaged and scattered flock.
Even with the Romanized leaders in His time, Christ said to do what they taught, though not what they do. Those who rejected Christ’s messiahship on the basis of Moses’ Torah were told that they would be judged by Moses, his power and authority still in effect.
Christ created the Catholic religion in giving all the power and authority vested in Him by the Father to Peter and the Apostles. “Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell (crack troops stationed in fortified rooms by city gates) will not prevail against it.” Power and authority vested in God’s men rule Christ’s religion, and we are to do what they teach in Christ.
Religiosity is God’s religion without God’s power and authority; or without doing what is taught; or without oversight against predation. Each person can indulge in their own deadly masquerade to some degree, myself included. Some have a more systemic effect.
Luther removed himself from apostolic oversight. Luther rejected Christ’s call for “spiritual eunuchs” to serve His kingdom. Luther preached his wedding sermon with the counsel to indulge in sexual exchanges with others if one’s spouse wasn’t up to it, SOLA SCRIPTURA, just like the Old Testament patriarchs did.
Religiosity, cultural Catholicism, a false look of holiness without love and obedience given to God, is the corruption of which Christ warned. For example, the American bishops said Christ’s warning for those scandalizing the young of a judgment more irreversible than being drowned with a millstone in the ocean’s deep was a “prophecy” fulfilled in our time. The parallel corruption of the cultural Catholic laity is to carry on, refusing to demand accountability for the ravaged flock.
[b:15mnx3xi]May the Virgin Mary, pierced with a sword of sorrow that the thoughts of all may be revealed, expose all thoughts, cleansing them in the loving fire of her Son’s Sacred Heart. AMEN[/b:15mnx3xi]