«One cannot therefore say that God does not have mercy and justice also for Israel. He awaits. For centuries, after having prepared Israel for centuries to receive Christ and to acknowledge Him as such, for centuries, He has been waiting that Israel turns back onto the ways of the Truth and of the Life so as to open His arms and Kingdom to them.
God, good with the guilty people; as the Apostle coming from that people was good, loved by it for as long as he was of that people and faithful to the point of being fanatical about the ideas of that people, and then scorned and hated by it as a renouncer of the Hebrew Law and a deserter of the Synagogue and lineage.
Paul was good because he was a true follower, servant and apostle of Christ from whom he welcomed every teaching, and especially the one on love, so in contrast with his fiery and harsh temperament but which he preached and practiced heroically, by bending and by breaking himself and his I, as far as making of this struggle between nature and the will, an intimate, bloodless martyrdom, but no less sorrowful. He says, "The vow of my heart and the prayer that I say is that they be saved because I know they have the zeal for God but not according to true knowledge, and by ignoring the justice of God and by seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to the justice of God."
Paul, therefore, an expert on sin and on the causes which constituted the sin of the Hebrews who did not want to submit themselves to the justice of God by having committed this very sin himself before the fulguration on the road to Damascus, gives exact names, even if he does not openly say them, of the ill passions that corrupt Israel, and he acknowledges that they are the same ones that barred Adam from Eden and Paradise, for centuries, and just as, for centuries, they will bar the Hebrews from Paradise. They, pride, disobedience and avarice, are once again, the concupiscent fruits born from the poison scattered by the Serpent in order to corrupt the two Innocent ones.
He who is, had said to Moses His prophet, "I am the Lord your God. Do not have other gods, for I am a jealous God." He had, for centuries and through the prophets having come later, invited his People to acknowledge the Messiah, in His truth as the Saviour and celestial King, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Word of the Father and of the eternal Truth, and therefore, worthy of being adored as God, venerated as the Saint of saints, and to be listened and obeyed to in His teachings. However, these teachings, and the same humility of appearance and condition of Christ, irritated the concept that the proud Hebrews had made of Him, and above all, it irritated their moral lives.
They felt themselves to be "gods" not through a holy life, but through their strength of power. They were the Princes of the Priests. They were the Pharisees, the scribes, the Herodians, and the Sadducees. Jesus was only "the carpenter from Nazareth". They held their lessons in the Temple. "They have sat on Moses' seat" rather, as Christ says in Chap. 23, v.2 of Matthew. Jesus had had as a seat for 30 years, the bench of the carpenter of Nazareth: Joseph; for the other three years, except for a few brief appearances at the Temple in the feast days [prescribed by the synagogue] and a few rare lessons in some synagogue, He had as a seat and Temple and synagogue, the streets, the woods, the shores of lakes or rivers, market places, the courtyards of poor homes for the most part, and at times, those of the rich homes of Lazarus, Johanna and a few other friends of high rank.
For those for whom everything consisted in outward appearance and opulence, these humble origins of character, of appearance, of places, of teachings, the motives were many, many the pretences, rather, to not acknowledge in the son of the carpenter of Nazareth, the Son of God and the promised Messiah.
He had taught humility with His word and example, choosing His apostles amongst the humble people, and of the most ignorant and uncouth one amongst them, but good in his will, He made him the Head, the Rock, the Continuator and the first Pontiff. Only one amongst the twelve had the same likeness in thought, tastes, and character with those who sat on the seat of Moses. And he was the only one who betrayed Him.
Whether it be in chapter 18 of Matthew or in chapters 9 of Mark and Luke, and again, in chapters 10 of Mark and Luke, He, the Master of infinite Wisdom, had said when presenting a child to His elect ones, "If you do not become humble as this child, you will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The most (humble) one is the greatest one in the eyes of God who keeps sublime things hidden to the wise and the intelligent ones, and reveals them to the little ones because of their humility."
Even before Jesus, the divine incarnate Word of God, the Full of Grace and of the Holy Spirit, already made, even materially "one thing only" with God for having been pregnant with the divine Word, had sung, "God has scattered the proud, He has overturned the throne of the mighty, and He has exalted the humble." And in truth, it was God Himself who spoke from the lips of Mary In truth, it was the eternal Word, closed, the little embryo who was clothing Himself with flesh in Her virignal womb who placed this truth - and whom later, made Man and adult, would have preached this many times - on the lips of the Mother, Seat of Wisdom.
And with these lessons, He had indicated how one can become wise and masters of wisdom as well as children of the Kingdom, children of God, and saints of Heaven.
At other times, and in c. 22 of Matthew and in the 14th and 18th c. of Luke, He had taught that not all who are called remain elect, when, swollen with pride, they fail towards the benevolent King, and how the first seats in the Kingdom and in the Heavenly banquet are for those on Earth who were humble and charitable towards the poor, and how the prayer of the humble is appreciated by God, and disdainful that of the one who is proud and judges himself perfect only because he has the outward appearance of the Law.
The Master spoke for all. However, who did He bear in mind, who was indicated underneath the veil of the parables and the lessons? Peter: the humble one who had been exalted for his simple and great humility; Judas of Kerioth, who had been lowered for his arrogance, triple concupiscence, the exteriority of the Law, and his friendship with Christ and his reckoning as an adult - an astute adult - and consequently, even a sigh was made with a two-fold end. Peter: the child, even if an adult, to whom the spiritual Kingdom as Pope and the heavenly one as saint was given. Judas: the wise vainglorious one, who for having become malevolent to the infinitely benevolent King, was thrown out from the Kingdom of God into darkness and infernal torment.
One would need to meditate on the Gospel and on the nature of the apostles much more profoundly than what is generally done. One would draw answers and luminous lessons able to guide spirits of good will onto the paths of true Wisdom that leads to Heaven.
However, the Pharisees, scribes and Priests could not do this because they were proud, nor did they wish to do so because they considered themselves perfect in Wisdom. I have said and I repeat, "They possessed the perfect knowledge of the word of Wisdom, but they were absolutely devoid of the spirit of Wisdom. Therefore, they did not possess the truth, the light in order to see the truth, and charity in order to have the light of love to illuminate the truths of the Law of love." They had zeal, but the wrong kind of zeal because it was devoid of love, and therefore, of the truth on how to be zealous in serving God. They had their own law, all human, given to themselves by their very selves to which they were not able to renounce, because to renounce would have meant bowing their heads and stripping themselves of their own moral dress in order to accept other dictates of a law not in keeping with their tastes, as they were lovers of honours and supremacies.
And by whom was it proposed? By a Galilean man of the people. It was true that He professed Himself to be the Son of God and that He was mighty in deed and word before God. However, could proud Israel accept that which came from a man of humble condition, if - though knowing through certain historical truths how Moses had received, in the midst of flashes of lightning and divine fires, the Law of Sinai and every other command, and even knowing how God had revealed the future and messianic things to the Prophets - they had substituted the first, simple, perfect Law, an entire code of human precepts that unloaded the mighty ones from the burdens while they oppressed the poor, the little people, and if in the place of the spiritual Messiah just as He had been presented in the prophesies, the idea of a human Messiah had been constructed, a conqueror for Israel of all the Earth? It could not.
And therefore, it did not submit itself to the law of God, the same God who no longer amongst the bolts and to one man only — Moses — but to all the People, through the mouth of Jesus, His Word, and with a long and clear teaching, had come to instil in the people so that every believer could become just and have eternal Life and the Kingdom of God.»