Catholic Exchange

The Simplicity of the Holy!

Written by

Mark Shea

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Matthew 27:66

So they went and made the sepulchre secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

There is an odd paradox about sin and sanctity. Sin is enormously clever about small things and colossally stupid about big ones.  Sanctity is often quite unclever about small things and colossally wise about big ones.  Nowhere is that that more in evidence than in the enormous ingenuity of the men who laid their plans, schemed their schemes and plotted their plots against Jesus.  For his part, in his simplicity Jesus did not open his mouth against the legal clevernesses ranged against him.  And so, quite simply, the Holy One died and was buried.  Yet even after he was dead, no tombstone was to be left unturned in making sure that their ingenious plot against him completely extinguished the memory of him.  It was all intricate and perfect till a small and overlooked detail spoiled the elaborately stupid plan:  Quite simply, the Holy One rose again!

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One response to “The Simplicity of the Holy!”

  1. Warren Jewell Avatar
    Warren Jewell

    One bizarre ‘little’ detail the Sanhedrin initially considered was the additional murder of Lazarus. Such weird detail would have its problems in that they ‘had less on Lazarus’ than Christ, by their lights; and Christ was their main preoccupation.

    I have to think this odd detail was lost in their confusion over Christ’s Resurrection. Many of them must have experienced an “Oh, oh – now we’ve put our foot into it” moment. And, arguments between the non-resurrection Sadducees and the pro-resurrection Pharisees probably hit a new peak. Again, caught up in such meaningless little details of contention when they should have spent time on the big picture of assuring their own salvation and resurrection.

    Such details of minutiae sometimes wrangle Christian versus Christian, and one Catholic against another. We are just SO stupid.

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