The DaVinci Code & Gospel of Judas

"There is much talk about Judas' betrayal without realizing that it is being repeated" today, said Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa who gives homilies to the Pope. "Christ is being sold again...to publishers and booksellers". Fr. Cantalamessa made these comments on Good Friday because millions of people are being "crassly manipulated by the media" which is more interested in profits and sales than in truth.

Firstly, "The DaVinci Code" is a novel by Dan Brown. It is FICTION. It is not true. It is not based on facts. One of its main themes is that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. How can God be married to ONE PERSON? If Jesus was married, then he couldn't love anyone else like he loved his wife. Then, he wouldn't be God. This is heresy! As Fr. Stephen Brett said, it's "much more than fiction: it's blasphemy, heresy, and crudity powerfully packed for maximum sales and maximum damage to the Catholic Church..thuggery masquerading as theology".

You can see a brief, more detailed critique of the DaVinci Code at www.cfalive.org (click on "leaflets" and scroll down). The author of that site, Fr. Thomas Morrow, writes: "If Brown got it wrong on the Priory of Sion, the Knights Templar, the Gnostic Gospels, and the Constantine rewrite, his whole argument falls apart. The secret sacred feminine is just a late Gnostic idea that never caught on, because it had no basis in truth. And, of course, the marriage of Jesus is as absurd as it sounds".

Secondly, in light of the recent National Geographic display, "The Gospel of Judas", Pope Benedict XVI has reminded us of what kind of person Judas was and what he did to our Savior. On Holy Thursday, His Holiness said that for Judas, "only power and success are real; love does not count...And he is greedy: Money is more important than communion with Jesus, more important than God and His love. He also becomes a liar, a double-crosser who breaks with the truth".

"The Gospel of Judas" is a document from the 2nd or 3rd century that portrays Judas as Jesus' closest disciple. It presents Jesus as asking Judas to betray him, allowing Jesus to fulfill his mission, thereby gaining Judas the greatest seat in heaven among the disciples. This is in stark contrast to the real Gospels, in which Jesus said: "alas for that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!" (Mt 26:24).

Fr.Brett: "Those who have dismissed the need for the Catechism of the Catholic Church can now see what happens when alternative texts become the catechism of the suspicious".

No 'F-Bombs' on TV please!

Recently, I received a disturbing email describing the four major TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) plans to contest the FCC decency standards that prohibit them from using the 'F-word' and 'S-word' during primetime or "family hour" programming.

These networks are filing federal lawsuits aimed at abolishing existing FCC decency standards, claiming violation of thier First Amendment rights to free speach.

Anyone interested in filing the 'Center for Feclaiming America's petetion to the FCC should click here and fill out the form.

God Bless!

The Seven Last Words of Christ

"There was never a preacher like the dying Christ. There was never a congregation like that which gathered about the pulpit of the Cross. There was never a sermon like the Seven Last Words."
- Arch. Fulton Sheen, The Seven Last Words (the following is taken from Sheen's book)

Please leave any comments or questions.

The Seven Last Words of Christ
1. "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do"

His executioners expected Him to cry and curse like all those who had been crucified before Him. Instead, He cried out for the Father to forgive those who were executing and mocking Him (soldiers, Pilate, Herod, etc.).

Do I forgive 'those who trespass against' me?

2. "This day you shall be with me in Paradise"

"No one before (the thief on the right of Christ) was ever the object of such a promise, not even Moses, nor John, not even Magdelen nor Mary!"

Like the thief, do I give my sins to Christ who will then promise me Paradise?

3. "Woman, behold thy son"

'Thy son' is John, who represents us (the Church). "Woman!" is the 2nd Annunciation; "behold thy son" is the 2nd Nativity. We are born of Mary in the 2nd Nativity of the spirit; Christ is born in the 1st Nativity of the flesh.

It has been said that Jesus never denies His Mother anything. Do I ask my Mother to intercede to her Son for me, my friends and family?

4. "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

While He is still in union with the Father, Christ brings atonement to all those who have abandoned God, doubt God's presence in their lives, or are indifferent towards God.

Christ knows what I'm experiencing whenever I've been abandoned, rejected, lonely, hurt or isolated.

5. "I thirst"

Not said to anyone there at Calvary, or even to God. He says to all mankind, "I thirst...for love!"

Christ thirsts for my love; do I thirst for His?

6. "It is finished"

Christ triumphantly says this, like an artist who puts the finishing touches on a masterpiece. His work of Redemption is finished, but not complete (see Col 1:24). As the Mystical Body of Christ, we complete Christ's work of Redemption (by taking up our own Cross).

Do I accept crosses in my life with faith?

7. "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit"

Like the Prodigal Son who returns to his father's house, Christ is on the road back to His Father's House after spending His divine riches of power and wisdom on all humanity for 33 years.

Do I entrust my life to my Father in Heaven?

God or the Girl

'God or the Girl' is a five-part documentary series that follows four young men through the emotionally wrenching final weeks that lead up to the most important decision of their lives - whether to become Catholic priests or not.

Fr. Dan knows the guy that worked on this project - Greg Schlueter.

The show aires on A&E

Easter Sundat, April 16, 9-11pm - Episodes 1 & 2
Easter Monday, April 17, 9 - 11pm - Episodes 3 & 4
Sunday, April 23, 9pm Finale.

Check it out...

The feminine genius

Please come support our basketball team of DC priests and seminarians, DC 'Hood, this Friday night as we take on a team of adults and teens from Mother Seton parish in Germantown. Game is at 7 pm, April 7, Martin Luther King middle school (13737 Wisteria Dr., Germantown). All are invited!!
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We recently had an exchange on this site about women and the Church. At the end of the exchange, I made the point that the Church is the greatest promoter of the dignity of women of any organization in the world. While some people might question the significance of this, I present a small taste of the Church's insights about not only the true dignity of women, but also the genius and devotion that is characteristic of women.

Pope John Paul II exhorted women especially in many ways during his pontificate. He wrote about the dignity of women in his apostolic letter, Mulieris Dignitatem (1988). In this letter, the Holy Father wrote about "the distinctively 'feminine' response of faith...about the things of God" (15) and how "women show to Christ... a special sensitivity which is characteristic of their femininity" (16). Also, he points out that at the Cross, "the women proved stronger than the Apostles" (15) and "the women are first at the tomb" (16).

In an Angelus reflection in 1995, he referred to the feminine genius:
"Woman has a genius all her own, which is vitally essential to both society and the Church…[She]is endowed with a particular capacity for accepting the human being in his concrete form. Even this singular feature which prepares her for motherhood, not only physically but also emotionally and spiritually, is inherent in the plan of God who entrusted the human being to woman in an altogether special way".

Mary Ellen Bork, a Catholic writer, has commented on the Holy Father's writings and teachings about women. In his teachings, she writes, John Paul II "envisions femininity, renewed by spiritual life, as a dynamic active gift essential to family, society and the Church. What the pope calls 'the feminine genius' is a gift of openness to another person, the opposite of a self-centered focus on 'my rights'".

Mrs. Bork puts the Holy Father's insights in a more general framework. "As Pope John Paul II has taught, women have a key role in returning dignity to the sacrament of marriage and in preserving a culture that is worthy of the human person. These enormously important cultural tasks can be better served by women who are well formed in Christian values and well informed about the cultural battles in the policy arena.
It is as if women hold in their hands the threads that form the basic fabric of society and their efforts to weave these together in a unity will result in a stronger fabric that can resist the centrifugal pull of the culture".

In probably every talk or letter, John Paul II turned to the greatest Christian example of all time, the Blessed Virgin Mary. "Let us look at the Blessed Virgin's example... This is the "genius" of the woman! May Mary's thoughtful sensitivity, totally feminine and maternal, be the ideal mirror of all true femininity and motherhood!" (1995)