“Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; that build the sepulchres of the prophets, and adorn the monuments of the just, and say: ‘If we had been in the days of our Fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of them that killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell? Therefore behold I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city: that upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.”
God desires of you, Theophila, small acts of love done in secret, little flower petals that brighten days and lighten loads, more than the grand act done for ostentation: “He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater” (Luke 16:10). The scribes and Pharisees, however, incur a “woe unto you” here because they neglected their neighbor while building monuments to the prophets, which all would see: “He that stoppeth his ear against the cry of the poor, shall also cry himself and shall not be heard” (Proverbs 21:13). It is marvelous to do great, beautiful things for God: “Go up to the mountain, bring timber, and build the house: and it shall be acceptable to me, and I shall be glorified, saith the Lord” (Aggeus 1:8), but not at the expense of the little acts of love that can make the hum of love in your day uninterrupted: “God is love: and he that abideth in love, abideth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). Friendship with the saints is an extraordinary gift: “You are fellow citizens with the saints, and the domestics of God” (Ephesians 2:19), but this should not come at the expense of the love of your earthly neighbor: “If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother; he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not?” (1 John 4:20). It is seen here that the religious leaders would kill the prophets of their own time for rebuking them: “But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused the prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, and there was no remedy” (2 Paralipomenon 36:16), with those that followed honoring the prophet that was killed, while themselves rejecting the prophets of their own time, repeating the mistake of their fathers. It is a look into those that lay out the faults of others, even those that are no longer alive: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned” (Luke 6:37), while not looking at their own faults, looking to mend them by conversion and acts of love: “Cast out first the beam out of thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). Jesus then points out that those that were saying that they would not have been partakers of the blood of the prophets were the “children of them that killed the prophets.” Now, because “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father” (Ezechiel 18:20), it is a look into the resemblance of the scribes and Pharisees to those that persecuted the prophets rather than a tie of lineage. Therefore, you can do the opposite, Theophila, because if you don’t know how to best express your own love of God, you can take example from great saints and how they let the love song of their life be played: “If thou know not thyself, O fairest among women, go forth, and follow after the steps of the flocks, and feed thy kids beside the tents of the shepherd” (Canticle 1:7). Walk in the footsteps of those that came before you, that they may bring you to the Bridegroom, and He can then lead you in the dance of life: “You yourselves do bear me witness, that I said, that I am not Christ, but that I am sent before him” (John 3:28). He then prophecies that they will fill up the measure of their fathers, showing that He knows what is in their hearts and the actions they were going to do, which was the slaying of Him and the persecution of His Apostles: “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for he would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him” (John 7:1). This is all deeply contrary to the love of neighbor that so radiated from Christ, and Jesus brings forth the venom of hate that so poisoned the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees by calling them serpents and vipers: “Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7). Just as a viper bursts out of its mother to go live, so too did the scribes and Pharisees condemn their fathers: “The eye that mocketh at his father, and that despiseth the labour of his mother in bearing him, let the ravens of the brooks pick it out, and the young eagles eat it” (Proverbs 30:17); to sin against the most fundamental love, that of the family, what loveless good works can mend the heart so full of guile? The fundamental building block of holiness is to love: “For this is the declaration, which you have heard from the beginning, that you should love one another” (1 John 3:11), and from this springs righteousness. Therefore, when these are lacking, to honor the saints is to build on sand: “And every one that heareth these my words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof” (Matthew 7:26-27). However, even in rejecting Christ, He in His reckless love will not stop sending envoys of love to His people, raising up prophets, who are those that can expound the deep mysteries of the faith: “Be zealous for spiritual gifts; but rather that you may prophesy… He that prophesieth, edifieth the church” (1 Corinthians 14:1); wise men, who are filled with the delights of knowledge: “A wise man shall be filled with blessings, and they that see shall praise him” (Ecclesiasticus 37:27); and scribes, who know the history of Israel and the Law, but are not weighed down by the letter, but animated by the spirit that fills them: “For the letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth” (2 Corinthians 3:6). This is seen in the idea that the doctor understands the historical context, the preacher the moral context, and the contemplative the deep context of love, but to grasp all three is beautiful wisdom, for they need not be mutually exclusive: “And this I pray, that your love may more and more abound in knowledge, and in all understanding: that you may approve the better things, that you may be sincere and without offence unto the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:9-10). Thus, it is seen that the Apostles, those who were prophets, wise men, and scribes of the art of love were scourged, both by whips and by the tongue, by those who claimed these titles under the Law, and so too, Theophila, when someone that may be well-read but does not hold to the Catholic faith scourges you for your simple love, let your heart sing to your Beloved, for this is the portion you have been promised: “My chalice indeed you shall drink” (Matthew 20:23), and bears a great reward: “Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven” (Matthew 5:11-12). When someone berates you for your love, it is a sin against justice, but to bring you to death or shedding of blood more so, and Lady Justice will not suffer torn garments without reproach: “How long, O Lord (holy and true) dost thou not judge and revenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Apocalypse 6:10). Origen brings forth an insight into the killing of Zacharias, whose name means “the memory of God,” and to destroy this is to shed the blood of Zacharias. Therefore, this can range from one killing a Christian to try to wipe out God’s presence on earth to the willful turning of the mind in prayer to distraction, the greater being the temple, the lesser the altar. “Abel” means “mourning,” and to slay your emotions in favor of a perceived religiousness or under an inflated intellect is to trample upon your heart. Tears are a gift, Theophila, and they may range from tears of contrition to those of devotion in knowing how loved you are. You are called to bloom out like a flower, receiving the sun of the light of love, not putting this down for discernment, service, or wisdom, but to simply let yourself be loved. Finally, Jesus says these things will come upon “this generation,” because there is no greater grace than Christ, for in Him God is manifest, a relationship of love with God can come about, and to despise this is not simply wicked, it is utter foolishness: “If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha” (1 Corinthians 16:22). Therefore, to see the errors of the past and not move to the victorious side of the Catholic Church, and within that garden cultivate the love of Jesus: “My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the bed of aromatical spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies” (Canticle 6:1), is to incur the punishment of His Precious Blood, which was shed that you and Him may love one another.