The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 1 (of 2)Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Religion
The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 1 (of 2)
Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Catherine, of Genoa, Saint, 1447-1510
And as to reverence for tradition we get: “Think not that I have come
to destroy the law or the prophets; I have come not to destroy but to
fulfil.” And this respect extends to existing religious practices:
“Beware,” He says, “lest you do your justice before men, to be seen
by them,” but then describes the spirit in which they are to practice
their “_sedaka_,” this “justice” which they are to do, with its three
quite traditional divisions of alms-deeds, prayer, fasting, the three
Eminent Good Works of Judaism. And again: “If thou offer thy gift upon
the altar,” the doing so is in nowise criticised.[10]
Indeed there is no shrinking from the manifestation, on the part of the
crowd, of new and even rude forms of trust in the visible and external:
“A woman who had been suffering from an issue of blood during twelve
years, … coming in the crowd behind Him, touched His garment, for she
said: ‘If I but touch His garments I shall be saved.’ And straightway
the issue of blood was dried up”; and the crowds generally “put the
sick in the open places, and begged Him that they might but touch the
hem of His garment; and such as touched it were healed”; and this “hem”
consisted doubtless in the blue tassels, the Zizith, worn by every
religious Jew at the four corners of his cloak.[11]
And the twelve Apostles, whom He sends out with special instructions,
“going forth preached that men should repent, and went casting out many
devils, and anointing many sick with oil and healing them.” Indeed
there is, as the act preliminary to His public ministry, His baptism in
the Jordan; and there is, as introductory to His Passion, the supremely
solemn, visible, and audible act which crowns the Last Supper.[12]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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