The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-07-31
Continued from page IL
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

a minatory malediction against eleven
kinds of criminals. The twelfth SEN
tence is this Cursed be the man
that abideth not in the words of this
law and fulfilleth them not in work"
To extend this malediction to every
one that abideth not in all things in
the book of the Law" is a decision of
the Pharisees. We have another ver-
sion of the same Halacha in st. John
VII. 40 where the Pharisees say: But
this multitude that knoweth not the
Law are accursed." This version
confirms the opinion that st. Paul is
quoting the Law exactly Christ may
well be said to have delivered the
Christians Jews from this awful bur-
den, that is, this extension. But the
malediction for the deep and indel-
ible sins mentioned in Deuteronomy
! for aught | know, remains still. If
the Pharisees perverted the Galatians,
was it not right for st. Paul to quote
to the latter the Pharisiac tradition
Of the Law and thus show them into
what depths they had fallen, what a
yoke they had put on?
In the letter to the Romans st. Paul.
as pointed out before, gives an accu-
rate description of the Jews, whom
he had in mind (Rom. II. 1929. They
are Pharisees. Opening chapter
seven, he says: "KnoW We not, breth-
rem (for | speak to them that know
the Law" They are still Pharisees.
In his attack on the Law, he goes on
Ito say; Il had not known desire, if
the law did not say: Thou shalt not
desire" (Rom. VII. y. Now there is
no such law in the Bible. Again the
reference is misleading. There is the
law: Thou shalt not desire thy
neighbours wife, nor his house, nor
his field-nor anything that is his"
| (Deut. V. 2D. But to pass from these
few particulars to universal, Thou
shalt not desire" is to pass from a
| light yoke to crushing weight. The
Law of Moses forbade unjust desires;
this law of the Pharisees stified all
desire, good, bad and Indifferent, or,
as st. Paul puts it, "all manner
of DESIRE" Again we have a con-
| firmation that he is quoting the law
exactly. 1t was in accord with their
fatal propensity to impose, what Our
Lord called, heavy and insupportable
burdens" (Math. XIII ~. 1t was
| this Law with its unnatural oppres-
siveness that become 1.-The occasion of
sin" 1.-The Commandment unto death"
to the young, ardent, impetuous Saul,
| eager to clutch at the stars. The
| translation rendering the sentence
given above in this wise: Thou
shalt not lust AFTER which agrees
neither with the Hebrew nor the
| Greek, nor with the state of child
| hood, from which Saul, the son of
Pharisees, was emerging, when it was
first Numbered into his ears, has given
an unfortunate turn to all the COM
mentaries on chapter seven of the
Epistle to the Romans. The desire
mentioned it not necessarily bad.
The great Augustine commenting on
| this chapter changed his opinions over
and over again. The confusion reign
ing among commentators shows that
there was no tradition on the point
that is was the very point that Peter
| left as it Was-"hard to be under
stood The anguish is relieved, the
| bone is put back into it's socket, when
we take st. Paul at his word, that he
was superabundantly learned in the
Halachoth of the Pharisees and
when we see in this sentence not
a commandment of the Decalogue
but the usual abnormal extension of
a commandment. But if he is not
speaking of the commandments of the
| Decalogue, it follows that he is not
speaking of the works enjoined by
those commandments nor in general
enjoined by the Law of Moses, as such,
but only of the works enjoined by the
| Pharasaic Traditions. Instead of be-
| ing as dark as night he is as clear as
day. All his thoughts are nicely bal
anced. He tells what is Scripture and
what is written, that is, decreed 1--WE
have discussed the writing of the Hal
achoth); he distinguishes between the
| Law of Moses and the commandment
| (Which the Pharisees had elaborated
into their neyer-ending code); he sets
apart sin-the evil propensities born
in man-from transgression after the
| similitude. of Adam. He is writing of
himself and not of the human race,
and telling us how that code, which
made him a fanatical pursuer of the
Pharisaical sanctity ('without judg-
ment and mercy and faith" as our
Saviour said, killed him and made
him ruthless prosecutor. Pharisaism
killed the spirit of Saul because it
Slapped the vitality of the Mosaic Law.
Perhaps we may see the process bet
ter in parable.
Pharisasm in Figure.
Beneath the Southern Cross, beside
a giant tree there ofttimes grows
twining vine, that contains such pos
sibilities of death-dealing power as are
never seen in this northern land. To
his tiny neighbor, at first so slender
and so weak, the giant lends his
strength to lift her towards the light
of heaven above the trees. With cum
ming, clinging coils the little vine
creeps around and around the great
trunk. What at first was delicate be-
comes strong, what at first was slen-
der becomes rough and stout, while
the eager serpentine head ever grow
ling and ever winding sWirls upwards.