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What do all the false Christs of our age have in common?

On the Readings for Sunday, September 3, 2023

(us.fotolia.com/Leo Lintang)

Readings:
• Jer 20:7-10
• Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
• Rom 12:1-2
• Mt 16:21-27

There is but one true Jesus of Nazareth, the Incarnate Son of God. But there are many false Christs said to be “the real Jesus” or the “authentic Christ.” These imposters are as varied as they are numerous: there is Jesus the personal guru, the political revolutionary, the amoral mystic, the Greek Stoic, the socialist, and even the Buddhist.

What unites these “other Christs” is that their handlers and creators either deny that their Jesus died on the Cross or insist the Cross had no supernatural meaning and salvific value. There is a simple reason for this: Satan knows that Christ without the Cross is not Christ at all.

St. John Chrysostom, commenting on the passage in Matthew’s Gospel heard in today’s readings, wrote, “Peter had learned that Christ is the Son of God. But he had not learned of the mystery of the cross and the resurrection.” As we heard last Sunday, Peter had grasped, by the grace of God, that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He correctly named and identified his Master. But he failed to understand how the Messiah would bring about the salvation of mankind.

The exchange between Jesus and Peter is startling, even shocking. It is supposed to be, for it reveals the stark divide between two ways of living. On one side—that of Satan—is the belief that man is able to actually guide and control the Creator. This can be seen in the popular notion that we can harness and direct the power of God if only we use the right techniques or achieve some sort of elite spiritual enlightenment. Practitioners of this come in many forms, ranging from New Age salesmen to televangelist con men.

On the other side—that of the Savior—is the belief that man is sinful and fallen, desperately in need of healing and redemption. Salvation comes from God, and we receive it through humility and death. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me,” Jesus states emphatically, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it…”

Just a few verses earlier Jesus had given Simon the name of Peter, or “Rock.” But the Rock suddenly panicked and crumbled when he heard Jesus speaking of suffering and dying. Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, in his commentary on Matthew’s Gospel, refers wryly to Peter as “Satanic rock.” When Peter opposed God’s plan of salvation, “Jesus gives Peter still another new name: he calls him a satanic skandalon,” that is, an obstacle and a scandal. When Peter lives by faith, he is a solid rock; when he lives according to his own wisdom, he is a stumbling block.

Years later Peter wrote, in his first epistle, of being a “living stone,” and surely he must have been thinking in part of the Lord’s rebuke. He compared those who live by faith with those who “stumble by disobeying the word” (1 Pet 2:7-8). He further warned that the devil, the father of disobedience, “is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet 5:8). It is by self-denial, acceptance of the Cross, and following closely in the footsteps of Christ that we are kept safe from the devil. Our self-made wisdom cannot save or protect us.

The same contrast between man’s flawed thinking and God’s perfect knowledge is addressed by Paul in today’s epistle. In the opening chapter of his letter to the Romans (1:18-32), he described pagan worship as irrational, idolatrous, immoral, and self-aggrandizing. But Christian worship is rational—that is, in keeping with Divine wisdom—holy, and focused on the true God. It consists of being transformed by God so we can know “what is good and pleasing and perfect.”

The false Christs of our age are just that: of this age. They have nothing to do with the Cross because Satan hates that bloody sign and instrument of his destruction. But for those who embrace and carry it, the Cross is life.

(This “Opening the Word” column originally appeared in the August 31, 2008, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)


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About Carl E. Olson 1243 Articles
Carl E. Olson is editor of Catholic World Report and Ignatius Insight. He is the author of Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?, Will Catholics Be "Left Behind"?, co-editor/contributor to Called To Be the Children of God, co-author of The Da Vinci Hoax (Ignatius), and author of the "Catholicism" and "Priest Prophet King" Study Guides for Bishop Robert Barron/Word on Fire. His recent books on Lent and Advent—Praying the Our Father in Lent (2021) and Prepare the Way of the Lord (2021)—are published by Catholic Truth Society. He is also a contributor to "Our Sunday Visitor" newspaper, "The Catholic Answer" magazine, "The Imaginative Conservative", "The Catholic Herald", "National Catholic Register", "Chronicles", and other publications. Follow him on Twitter @carleolson.

16 Comments

  1. Every knee will bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth – and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of The Father.

  2. Many take on the aura of Messiah. Sometimes subtly. It’s pertinent you mention Peter who assumed that aura insofar as insisting on correcting Christ. Who responded “Get behind me Satan!”. Peter became an outstanding saint when he realized the efficacy of humility and its relation to the Cross. And upon that very Cross Peter confirmed this. Today its a “Paradigm Shift”. Cardinal G Mueller said “We cannot correct Christ”. Cardinal Caffarra, “Satan is hurling at God ‘the ultimate and terrible challenge,’ to show he is capable of constructing an ‘anti-creation’ that mankind will be deceived into thinking is better than what God has created” (May 19 2017 Rome Life Forum). Pretense is not humility, falsely exhibited as merciful in efforts to remove the Cross as the singular means of Man’s salvation. A paradigm shift of virtuous conduct centered on accommodating Man. Virtue, defined by Aquinas as the virtuous mean between excess and defect always relates to some good, giving alms, fortitude. Whereas Justice, which incorporates all the virtues has no mean as such. Justice is evident only when a human act is ordered to God. For Man that is done solely with the humility needed to embrace the purifying enigma of the Cross.

  3. The cross ought to live within the human heart of every baptized Catholic.

    Mr. Olson’s “Who Is Really…” may lead to Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s laud, which may then lead to Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s homily for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost [equivalent to but not equal to the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time].

    [If Prof. Grondelski would want to search for pearls among weeds, he could compare/contrast corresponding new revised lectionary-liturgical assignments to the old. I’d look forward to learning the results of his research!]

    Fr.Zuhlsdorf, following the old calendar and lectionary, reads and sermonizes on Chapter 5, verses 16-24 of St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the Epistle assigned to the Tradition of the unrevised lectionary.

    16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[a] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

    19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

    There’s the bouncer! Hiding in the book on the ambo!

    If Francis and friends think the bouncer is easily dispensed, I wish them Godspeed, and the sooner the better.

  4. Never better articulated, Carl. Thank you. We (or at least our current Pope and his Vatican bureaucracy) seem to have lost our understanding of Catholicism as a “way of living” based on “the belief that man is sinful and fallen, desperately in need of healing and redemption”– a way of living not based on “the belief that man is able to actually guide and control the Creator.” By the way, the earliest Christian communities actually referred to their Christianity as “The Way.” See Acts 19:9 and 23, Acts 22:4, and Acts 24:14 and 22.

  5. “It is by self-denial, acceptance of the Cross, and following closely in the footsteps of Christ that we are kept safe from the devil. Our self-made wisdom cannot save or protect us.”

    Mr. Olson, thank you for writing that. For some reason, I needed to hear those words today.

  6. The reason Jesus calls our first Pope, St. Peter, ‘Satan’, is because Peter is talking and thinking like the secular world talks and thinks. Matthew 16:23 He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

    I have heard that our Catholic Church has had a number of, “You are an obstacle to me”, antichrist Popes over the past 2000 years. We know that Faithful to Jesus Catholic leaders prevailed over these, fallen from the faith, betrayers to Jesus, antichrist Popes. Can anyone give us stories as to how Faithful to Jesus Catholic leaders prevailed over antichrist Popes of the past, in order for them to keep the Catholic Church Faithful to Jesus?

    The eyes of the Body of Jesus’ Catholic Church, are our Catholic leaders.

    Luke 11:34
    The lamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is sound, then your whole body is filled with light, but when it is bad, then your body is in darkness

    Matthew 18:9
    If your eye is your downfall, gouge it out and cast it from you! Better to enter life with one eye than be thrown with both into fiery Gehenna.

    Jesus Commands His Church, that if Her eye is Her undoing, She is to gouge it out and cast it into hell. Catholic Anathema is Jesus’ lips binding sinners to their sins, which cuts evildoers off from the body of the Church and casts them into hell, for the protection of Jesus’ Church on earth.

    Matthew 18:5
    “Whoever welcomes one such child for my sake welcomes me. On the other hand, it would be better for anyone who leads astray one of these little ones who believes in me, to be drown by a millstone around his neck, in the depths of the sea. What terrible things will come on the world through scandal! It is inevitable that scandal should occur. Nonetheless, woe to that man through whom scandal comes! If your hand or foot is your undoing, cut it off and throw it from you! Better to enter life maimed or crippled than be thrown with two hands or feet into endless fire. If your eye is your downfall, gouge it out and cast it from you! Better to enter life with one eye than be thrown with both into fiery Gehenna.

    • The eye is cited in the Fall of Man. That Adam and Eve saw that the forbidden fruit was desirable. Once they ate the fruit their eyes were opened and they saw their nakedness. They lost their Original Righteousness, and were no longer robed in the Righteousness that came with Original Righteousness. In losing Original Righteousness their eyes were no longer sound which caused the weakened will and darkened intellect, and led to concupiscence.

      • Hello GregB,
        I am thinking that even if Adam and Eve gouged out their eyes, they would still blindly seek out sex with one another. On the other hand, if you gouge out of the Body of the Church, an antichrist Catholic leader who is leading the Church into darkness, especially an antichrist Pope, this would rescue the Body of the Church from having Her whole Body being pulled into hell.

        In the Book of Revelation, Jesus refers to His Catholic Bishops as ‘lampstands’. This is because Jesus is the Lamp and Light to the world, Whos Light shines out to the world through His Catholic Church. If Catholic leaders switch to teaching Satan’s will, then the whole Body of the Catholic Church goes into darkness. Jesus describes a Catholic Church filled with only darkness, Luke 13:34 The Simile of Salt. “Salt is good, but if salt itself loses its taste, with what can its flavor be restored? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”

        Luke 11:33
        “No one who lights a lamp hides it away or places it [under a bushel basket], but on a lampstand so that those who enter might see the light. The lamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is sound, then your whole body is filled with light, but when it is bad, then your body is in darkness. Take care, then, that the light in you not become darkness.

        Matthew 6:22 The Light of the Body.
        The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.

        Matthew 5:13 The Similes of Salt and Light.
        You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.

        Matthew 18:9
        If your eye is your downfall, gouge it out and cast it from you! Better to enter life with one eye than be thrown with both into fiery Gehenna.

        • Matthew 26:31
          ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed’

          USCCB NABRE Bible Note for Matthew 26:31
          Will have…shaken: literally, “will be scandalized in me”; see note on Mt 24:9–12. I will strike…dispersed: cf. Zec 13:7.

          Zechariah 13:7 Oracles Concerning the End of False Prophecy
          The Song of the Sword.
          Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the one who is my associate—oracle of the LORD of hosts. Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. In all the land—oracle of the LORD—two thirds of them will be cut off and perish, and one third will be left. I will bring the one third through the fire; I will refine them as one refines silver, and I will test them as one tests gold. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them; I will say, “They are my people,” and they will say, “The LORD is my God.”

          Matthew 24 The Destruction of the Temple Foretold
          USCCB NABRE Bible Note for Matthew 24:9-12
          Matthew has used Mk 13:9–12 in his missionary discourse (Mt 10:17–21) and omits it here. Besides the sufferings, including death, and the hatred of all nations that the disciples will have to endure, there will be worse affliction within the church itself. This is described in Mt 24:10–12, which are peculiar to Matthew. Will be led into sin: literally, “will be scandalized,” probably meaning that they will become apostates; see Mt 13:21 where “fall away” translates the same Greek word as here. Betray: in the Greek this is the same word as the hand over of Mt 24:9. The handing over to persecution and hatred from outside will have their counterpart within the church. False prophets: these are Christians; see note on Mt 7:15–20. Evildoing: see Mt 7:23. Because of the apocalyptic nature of much of this discourse, the literal meaning of this description of the church should not be pressed too hard. However, there is reason to think that Matthew’s addition of these verses reflects in some measure the condition of his community.

          • In Revelation 2:5, Jesus tells His Catholic Apostolic Successor, ‘Angel’ of Ephesus, “Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”

            Ask yourself, Just how does Jesus pull a Catholic Apostolic Successor’s “lampstand”? I think Zechariah 13:7 Oracles Concerning the End of False Prophecy, explains this clearly.

  7. Thanks Carl. The Way to Union with God is by Way of the Cross. We follow Christ anywhere, despite being tempted to leave Him by seeking the union of Divine Communion without purgation. Even Synods can seek to bless or tolerate sin without repentance, as if God was to be faulted for His Perfection. Hell always involves quitting on God’s grace. The Way to Heaven is Heaven (St. Teresa of Avila). But first we must pick up our cross, follow Christ, and persevere as we pass through Purgatory.

  8. The Cross is the Supreme Absolute Love, Freedom and Intelligence of God that brings Eternal Life right in the middle of this temporal world and for all eternity. Of all sins, Radical Homosexuality is the most stupidifying, pervasive, infectious, nefarious sin as it goes straight against that Supreme Love, Wisdom, Freedom and Intelligence of God on the Cross.

    There’s no greater Love, Intelligence and Freedom than that of the Cross, there’s no greater anti-Love, anti-Intelligence and anti-Freedom than that of the anti-Cross. The language of demons is the anti-Cross language. If you have any doubts, read the horrible anti-Cross language of Fr. James Martin, twisting the Bible and Tradition infinitely worse than Martin Luther ever did. Do not read it if your faith is weak. Turn to Jesus and allow his Cross to fill you with Eternal Life and you’ll come to never fear suffering and death. The Cross is our Life, our protection and our strength.

  9. Thank you Carl you help me to truly understand the Gospel. I always after reading your article more fully am aware of what Jesus was and is teaching us. The most important thing in life is to deny oneself and take up my cross and follow Jesus. In this world today you can feel alone. Following Jesus has always been hard we who believe and desire to follow Jesus are told we are judgemental and do not judge least you be judged when you point out that a sinful act is wrong! One doesn’t even speak condemning toward the specific person just acknowledge say for example stealing is wrong when in the news you see groups of people together wiping out a Department Store. I am told not to condemn wrong doing unless I know the reasoning for the crime. This happens in my Catholic Bible Class!. So Carl to read The Catholic World Report everyday helps me to learn the truth Jesus taught us. God bless you.

  10. St. Martin of Tours was praying in his cell one night when a splendid figure crowned with a golden diadem and clad in imperial robes appeared before him. He calmly scrutinized the apparition but remained silent. The visitor scolded him: ” I’m Jesus Christ, Martin. Bow down and worship me.” “Martin replied: “Begone, Satan! I do not believe in a Christ who comes without the mark of his wounds.” The figure vanished.

    • Thank you.

      It would be pleasant to think that while Satan may appear in various forms, he is not allowed to counterfeit the wounds of Christ.

2 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. What do all of the false Christs of our age have in common? - Catholic Daily
  2. What do all of the false Christs of our age have in common? - Catholic Crossing

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