The Amazon Synod. Puissant Progressivism invades the Jungle.

https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2019/06/exclusive-full-text-of-amazon-synod.html#more

ABS just read the pathetic pile of progressive crap prepared for the poor people of the jungle. Well, at least he tried to but it is SO pathetic - The Catholic Church as a United Nations NGO - that he couldn't finish but he did want to post his initial reactions;

# 19 The Amazon is a source of revelation ?  NO. IT. ISN'T.  GOD IS.

# 24 Communism as communitarianism

# 26 traditional culture (paganism,)

# 29.. The aboriginal people of the amazon were murdering savages in Pre-Columbian times and they would likely had wiped themselves out were it not for the arrival of the spanish missionaries.

There was no ancestral wisdom but Francis worships the jungle absent any Divine Revelation. 

He is not even a Christian

# 30 A New Pentecost - I thought Vatican Two was a new pentecost; just how many are we to be burdened with?

# 33 Yes, let’s bring back the worship of false Gods

# 34 Sorry , Francis. Jesus created His Church to TEACH, RULE, and SANCTIFY not “learn” from those who live in a jungle. It is THEY who need the Good News you refuse to give them

Ah, here it is “liberation”  Commie crap masquerading as christianity

# 36. Yes, but Jesus brought her the truth. He did not respect her false religion or spiritual errors *

# 37 This worship of dialogue is an excuse not to Teach. Jesus sent His apostles out into the world to Teach and Baptise all nations -He never told His apostles to dialogue with pagans and accept their errors as legitimate

# 38 Pull the other one..It was NOT the “people” of the Amazon who initiated this commie plan. It came from a decadent and demented Hierarchy which has reduced itself to a pathetic Anthropocentric United Nations type NGO.

The pagans then living in the jungle had no prophetic voice of the Gospel because they had NEVER HEARD THE GOSPEL.. 

And what is the putative petrified doctrines? DOGMAS THAT THIS NON-CHRISTIAN PRELATE HATES

Respect for pagan deities - can the embrace of witchcraft be long in coming..?

#40. Nope, sorry Francis. There can only be one Pentecost. It was a one time event but we know You want to destroy the Church and rebuild it in your own image.

# 41. No, that is NOT what Luke 14: 31-32 is about. 

What a despicable deceiver he is

# 42. The Church of Francis is all about dialogue but never about Salvation and Sanctification. Is he even Christian?

It is a reasonable question because he never shows any concern for the souls of the poor folks in the Amazon jungle.

# 44. Francis has a plan of conversion but it is not a metanoia having to do with individual souls but, rather, it is his plane to convert the church to his sad re-paganisation plans

$ 45 Bull shit. The Aztecs were killing their enemies in large numbers EVER SINGLE DAY as the way they worshipped their false God (Satan).

# 49. Francis loves him some aborigines - not their souls, mind you -but their separation from the Europe he clearly hates

# 56 “ancestral wisdom”  Good Lord, man. Abdicate and move there NOW

# 79 “promote women to leadership roles in the Church” as if feminism has not done enough damage already.

A progressive program to dissolve the necessity of Holy Orders for ministry masquerades behind the rhetoric of family oriented this and that

# 98, Yep, here it is Witchcraft promoted under the guise of Amazonian Indian Theology.

These are the rhetorical pieces of scat from Satan. What Christian worthy of the name wants to preserve and promote paganism?

* The incident of Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman. Was the essence of the encounter "dialogue?"

Well, of course, a dialogue there was but not isn the senes that Francis means- a dialogue of two equal authorities. The Church and the pagans of the jungle.

It is helpful to think about what really heaped as per The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide. Every time - EVERY SINGLE TIME - you hear Francis reference the Bible - READ THE GREAT COMMENTARY OF CORNELIUS A LAPIDE or rue the day you choose to accept what Francis says at face value;

A woman of Samaria: of the district, not the city of Samaria. She came from the city of Sichar, which was near the well. 

Jesus saith to her. Jesus took the initiative in conversing with her. For He knew that the woman, being a Samaritan, would not do so, but would dislike Him as being a Jew. But “He who desired to drink thirsted for the faith of the woman,” says S. Augustine. Observe the wonderful affability and charity of Christ in seeking to enter into conversation with a wretched harlot, that He might convert her, and through her a whole city. 

Ver. 8.—For His disciples, &c. The word for gives the reason why Jesus asked drink of the woman; because His disciples, from whom otherwise He would have sought food and drink, had gone into the city to buy food. For Jesus wished to drink beside the well, and to drink from it, just as poor travellers are wont to do, especially in Syria and Arabia, and other hot countries where there is a scarcity of water. This happened by Christ’s tacit providence, that His disciples being all gone away into the city, He might by Himself be able more easily, in talking with this immodest woman, to spare her shame, and disclose her immodesty, and so convert her to faith and modesty. 

Ver. 9.—The woman therefore saith, &c. Therefore in Greek and Hebrew often merely marks the beginning of a sentence. Here, however, it denotes an inference from the preceding question of Christ. 

Jesus had asked the woman for water; the woman therefore replied to His question, How is it, &c. The woman recognised Jesus to be a Jew from His dress and speech, which Christ, out of good feeling to His country, accommodated to that of his fellow-countrymen. 

For the Jews, &c., i.e., have no intercourse, do not use the same bed, or cup, or vessel, as though they were impure and abominable on account of their schism. These words may be either those of the Evangelist, or of the Samaritan woman. In either case they are very appropriate. Learn from this example how we ought to shun the friendship, looks, and conversation of heretics; for “their speech doth eat as doth a cancer,” saith S. Paul. 

(Francis demands The Church learn from heretics)

Ver. 10.—Jesus answered, &c. If thou knewest the gift of God. This gift is (1.) common, what God has given to every man, “if thou knowest that I am Christ, the Saviour of the world.” 2. Especial to thyself, what God now manifests to thee through Me, that through My conversation thou mayest have an opportunity of salvation, that thou mayest believe in Me, and so be justified and saved. So Maldonatus. 

Thou perchance wouldst have asked, Greek, σὺ άν ήτησας αυ̉τὸν, i.e., thou surely wouldst have asked. For α̉ν here is an expletive and confirmatory particle. The Vulgate, however, has forsitan, perchance, to denote the free will of the asker. 

And He would have given, &c. Christ leads her from earthly water to spiritual water.  (Franics wants to lead us to the Amazonian aborigines to contemplate the earth and water with them and ignore the Salvation and Sanctification by Jesus Christ) .Let religious and apostolical men do likewise. Observe, as a stagnant lake, or pool, is termed dead, because it moves not; so, on the contrary, flowing water is called living water, especially that which leaps forth, as it were, from fountains, as though animated by a living spirit. 

Moreover, Christ’s evangelical doctrine is here called living water: so are the Holy Ghost and His grace. So S. Cyril, and other authors passim. It is called water (1.) because, like water, it cleanses the soul from sin. Indeed, it gives the soul new beauty and adornment, which water does not do: according to the words, “Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Again, though water washes, it likewise weakens and destroys. For we see that clothes which are washed, are cleansed indeed, but are worn away. But it is not thus with the Holy Ghost, for He cleanses the soul, and at the same time gives it greater strength. And the more the soul is washed the stronger it becomes. 

2. Because the Holy Ghost and His grace cool the heat of concupiscence, and all the other passions of the soul. 

3. Because it quenches spiritual thirst. 

4. Because as water fertilises the earth, trees, and plants, so does grace render the soul fruitful in good works and all virtues.  (But, Franics is not concerned with Grace but the naturalism of people and their environment) But grace does a greater work than water: for it elevates the soul, so that it not only produces natural good fruit, but the supernatural fruit of faith, hope, and charity, according to the words, “He that abideth in Me, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” Again, water from a pear-tree produces pears, from a rose-bush roses. But grace brings forth in one and the same soul the fruits of all virtues, and that in a soul which before was so polluted by sin that it produced nothing but the evil fruits of wickedness. 

Moreover, the Holy Spirit and His grace are called living water. 1. Because the Holy Ghost liveth in Himself with the fulness of His Divinity a blessed and Divine life, and imparts this His own life to the believing soul. Indeed, the Holy Ghost, with the Father and the Son, is uncreated and essential Life Itself, from which the natural and supernatural life of all angels, men, animals, and plants flows as from a fountain, yea, an ocean. 

2. Because the grace of the Holy Spirit is the form by which life is lived according to the Spirit. Therefore grace is, as it were, the soul of the soul; the soul, I say, of virtue and holiness. 

3. Because by His grace the Holy Ghost, who is Life Itself, dwells within us, and quickens us. 

4. Because He effects that the soul shall be continually renewed unto what is good, ever arranging new steps in the heart, by which it mounts to better and higher things, according to the words in the 84th Psalm, ver. 6, “He hath disposed ascensions in His heart.” (Vulg.) For as S. Ambrose says, “The grace of the Holy Spirit knows not tardy efforts, but constrains the soul to ascend with the Blessed Virgin the hills of virtues.” 

5. S. Augustine says, Living water is so called, because it flows in such a manner that it is united with its fount or source. What is called dead water is that which is cut off from its source. (Sadly, that is the putative faith of this sad and progressive Pontiff. He has cut himself off from Grace) Grace therefore is called living water because it is never separated from its fount, which is the Holy Ghost. Just as the Holy Ghost Himself is inseparable from His source, which is the Father and the Son, and ever liveth most closely united with them in the Divine Essence. Wherefore although the Holy Ghost pours Himself into the soul, yet He departeth not from the Father and the Son; yea, He causes the Father and the Son to enter into the soul together with Himself, that they all may dwell therein, as in their temple, according to the words (John xiv. 23), “If any man loveth Me he will keep My word, and My Father will love him: and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” So S. Cyril (lib. 2, c. 22), “He calls the grace of the Spirit living, because it is life-giving; and because it is united to its source, and makes us to be united.” For grace always depends upon the Holy Spirit, and by it the Spirit dwells in us, and is united with us, and by it we are united to Him, according to the words, Your members are the temple of the holy Ghost (1 Cor. vi.) 

6.The water of a fountain being brought down into the valleys by means of pipes, can again from them, by the continuous rush of the water from the fount, be drawn to as great a height as its original source. This is proved by constant experience. In like manner heavenly grace, like a fountain of gifts and virtues, flowing down from the Holy Ghost out of heaven, makes us to leap back as it were thither as high as its source, even to God and heaven. The water which I shall give him shall be in him a fount of water leading up into eternal life (John v. 14, Vulg.)  (But Francis wants our souls, and the souls of the Amazonian poor, focused on his anthropocentric communitarian - communist-  ideology).

Ver. 11.—The woman, &c. The Greek is, Thou hast not α̉ντλημα, a pitcher, or waterpot. Observe, the fountain is here called a well, and is said to be deep. Rupertus writes that its depth was forty cubits. 

Ver. 12.—Art Thou greater, &c. Observe, the Samaritans were Assyrians whom Salmanasar had brought into Samaria instead of the original inhabitants, the ten tribes of Israel, whom he carried away into Assyria. These Assyrians, however, wished, when the Jewish state was in a flourishing condition, to be accounted Jews (Jos., Ant., lib. 11,cap. ult.), both because they dwelt in the portion of the Holy Land which had been allotted to the tribe of Ephraim, and because they were commingled with the Israelites who had been left in the country. Another reason was because they partly followed the Jewish religion. For they worshipped the God of Israel, together with the Assyrian idols (2 Kings xvii.) This then was why the woman called Jacob our father, as though the Samaritans were Israelites, and descended from him. The meaning then is, “Jacob had no better water than this, for if he had had, he surely would have drank of it, both himself, and his children. If thou, therefore, 0 Jesus, art able to give, or to find better water than this, Thou must needs be greater than the Patriarch Jacob, our father.” So S. Chrysostom. By degrees did Jesus raise the woman’s mind, so that she should at length acknowledge Him to be the Messiah. For from what He had said, If thou knewest who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water, the woman conjectured, or suspected, that Jesus was making Himself to be greater than Jacob. 

Ver. 13.—Jesus answered, &c. Jesus modestly points out to this woman, who was extolling the water of her own well, that His living water must be far better, because it would quench all, even future thirst. From this He tacitly left it to be gathered that He was superior to Jacob. As S. Chrysostom says, “He did not say that He was greater, because He would have seemed to be boasting of Himself, not yet being known; but this meaning lay hid under His words. For He said not simply, I will give thee water; but taking no notice of Jacob’s water, He praises His own, wishing to show its difference from the (different) nature of the givers of the gifts, and how greatly He excelled the Patriarch.” S. Cyril adds, “He showed that sensible and earthly water was infinitely inferior to that which He would have her understand” (that He would give her). 

Whoso drinketh, &c. Tropologically, S. Augustine: “The water in the well,” he says, “is the pleasure of the world in a dark abyss, which men draw with the pitcher of desire. For this makes men always to thirst, because cupidity is insatiable.” (That is what Francis desires for what he wrongly imagines is his church. )

But whose shall drink, &c. Meaning, He that shall receive from Me living water, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, shall no more thirst for justice, the friendship of God, virtue, or holiness, because he shall already have them through grace. We must understand, unless he should wilfully squander and lose this water of grace by deadly sin. This is Christ’s antithesis: Common water, 0 woman, such as thine out of this well, when drunk, only quenches thirst for a brief space, because it does not remain in the body. But this water of Mine, which is the grace of the Holy Spirit, is in itself of such efficacy, that if it be even once tasted, it will suffice to banish thirst for ever. For it will always abide in the soul, the same and immutable. For the habitual grace of the ordinary Law of God, brings with itself at set times prevenient helps, that is to say, the impulses of exciting grace, which, as they are needful, so also they suffice, for retaining the spiritual vigour of the soul, and also its perseverance unto salvation. This is the teaching of the Council of Trent (Sess. 6, c. 16).  (Francis is indifferent, at best, to this truth. He truly thinks the poor living in the jungle are our superiors and we need to seek their wisdom instead of teaching them the wisdom of there Lord and savior).

You will ask, Why then is it said in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, “They that drink me shall yet be thirsty?” For this would seem to be contrary to what Christ here says of His grace, He shall nor thirst for ever. I answer that the meaning of “they that drink me shall yet be thirsty,” is, they shall desire to be still more filled with that wisdom of God which they already possess. They will wish for an increase of the wisdom and grace of God. Thus S. Ignatius the martyr, when, being condemned to the lions, he came into the amphitheatre of Rome, said, looking round at the spectators, “I am come hither to die for my Jesus, for whom I thirst unquenchably, that I may be united to Him in heaven.” 

Observe, that the Holy Spirit by His grace begins to fulfil in this life all the thirst and desire of the soul, but in heaven He does this perfectly. Also He extinguishes the thirst of pride and concupiscence. Lastly, in heaven He altogether takes away all the hunger and thirst of the soul, every defect and trouble, through the glory and endowment of impassibility, according to the words, “I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall appear” (Ps. xvii. 15): also, “They shall not hunger nor thirst any more; neither shall the heat, nor the sun smite them” (Isa. xlix. 10). As the Gloss says, “He promises the fulness of the Spirit, which shall be in the resurrection, because with Him is the fountain of life with which they shall be inebriated. Heavenly glory therefore makes up all defects both of soul and body, all desires, and all thirst. “For beatitude is a perfect state through the aggregation of all goods,” says Boethius, according as it is said, “Thou shalt give them drink out of the torrent of Thy pleasure (Ps. xxxvi. 9). 

Ver. 14.—But the water, &c. . . . waters leaping up (Syriac). The allusion is to those fountains which flow with such an impetus, the water behind pressing on that which is before, that although they be brought down into the valleys, yet by means of pipes they ascend to the level of the original spring. Thus the grace of the Holy Spirit draws the soul to its source, which is God and heaven. For grace is the seed of glory. The Arabic translates, The water which I will give, shall be in him water which shall bring a flood of eternal life. Grace then propels, as it were, a man to heaven, and never rests until it carries him where there is no thirst, nor defect, nor misery, but where all is abundance, and all is happiness. For this is the meaning of everlasting life. For this fountain of grace which is in the soul is derived from its original Spring, which is the Holy Ghost in heaven, even like a fountain which, being artificially conducted, bursts forth in a square, or garden, but is derived from its original spring in some mountain. 

2. It shall be in him a fount, because, as Theophylact says, the water of grace which Christ instils into the faithful soul is being ever multiplied in it. For the saints receive the seeds and beginning of good through grace, but they themselves “trade” with it, and work for its increase, that, as it were a fountain, it may abound in them, and afford abundant drink, not only to themselves, but to many others. As S. Chrysostom says, “He that hath a fountain in himself is not troubled with thirst.” And Origen, “Every one of the angels hath in him a fount of water welling up unto life eternal from the Word Himself.” 

3. A fountain, the more it flows downward, the more water there flows into it from above. So too the more any one pours his own grace upon others, the more God clauses to flow into him. 

Lastly, this is a paradox spoken by Christ, that whereas earthly water flows downwards, this His fountain flows upwards, according to the saying, The founts of the holy rivers are borne upwards. Here is a great and marvellous leap, the mighty and infinite power of the Holy Ghost, which makes the earthy and laden hearts of men to leap from earth to highest heaven, from grace to glory, from the flesh to the spirit, from death to life eternal, from Satan to God. To believers therefore it is said, Sursum corda. And this is a sure sign of the indwelling of grace and the Holy Ghost, if our minds are occupied in heaven, if we speak and do heavenly things, if we say, with S. Paul, “Our conversation is in heaven.” For this cause Christ came down from heaven, that He might make us to rise from earth to heaven, according to the words, “Behold he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills” (Cant. ii. 8). 

The woman saith, &c. “She was delighted,” says S. Austin, “not to thirst, and thought that this promise was made unto her by the Lord in a fleshly sense. Her poverty drove her to the labour of coming and drawing water from a well at a distance from the town; and her weakness shrank from this toil. The woman, who was carnal and ignorant, did not yet understand that Christ was speaking of the spiritual water of grace. Then He smote her with another dart, that she might have loftier thoughts concerning Him.” 

Therefore Jesus saith unto her, Go call thy husband. Observe from S. Chrysostom and others that Christ bade the woman call her husband with this pretext, that it would not be proper to give this so great a gift of living water to a married woman without the knowledge of her husband. But Christ really intended to open out to her the hidden things of her life, and her secret fornication, that so He might draw her confession from her, and arouse her to repentance. At the same time He would show her that He was more than a mere man, that He was the Christ, from whom she might ask and expect remission of her sins and everlasting salvation. 

For this was the living water which Christ set forth. 

Ver. 17.—The woman answered, &c. From hence it is plain that this woman was thus a widow, and therefore not an adulteress, but a harlot, unless indeed her lover were married, in which case both were guilty of adultery. 

Ver. 18.—For thou hast had, &c. Nonnus says, For thou hast had five husbands, one after another; and he whom thou now hast is not thy lawful husband. So S. Austin, Bede, Euthymius, and others passim. But S. Chrysostom and Maldonatus think they were unlawful, adulterous connections, and that they are here spoken of by Christ in this sense, that she was now living with a sixth adulterer. But the former sense is the more probable, because Christ makes an antithesis between the five former, which were lawful connections, and this sixth, which was unlawful. 

Observe here the gentle and courteous method of Christ’s reproof. He does not say directly to the woman, “Thou art an adulteress, or a fornicatrix—do penance for thy fornications.” But He praises her for speaking the truth in saying, she had no husband. Then He adds, He whom thou now hast is not thy husband, tacitly implying that she was living in sin with him, and that He knew of this secret sin by the revelation of God, and therefore that He was a prophet, from whom she ought to ask pardon and grace. 

S. Basil (Epist. 2. ad Amphiloch.) says that a third marriage is an abomination to the Church, but better than fornication. And in his first epistle to the same he says, “The thrice married are often excommunicated for three or four years, not longer: and such unions are called polygamy, or qualified fornication. Therefore the Lord said to the Samaritan woman, who had had five husbands, He whom thou now hast is not thy husband, surely because those who had gone beyond a second union were not worthy the name of husband, or wife.” But the Church is now of a different mind. For it is certain that fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or more marriages, are licit, although they are indecent, and marks of incontinence. And this is what S. Basil appears to have meant. 

Ver. 19.—The woman, &c. Because Thou revealest the hidden things of my life, whether good or bad, which Thou couldest not know except by the revelation of God, especially since thou art a Jew and a foreigner, I humbly accept Thy gentle reproof, and confess my sin. “By one and the same confession,” says Rupertus, “she confessed, as to herself, what she was, and as to Him, what she was able to perceive He was.” 

Ver. 20.—Our fathers, &c. The woman, acknowledging Jesus to be a prophet, now proposes a question concerning religion, which was at that time a great source of controversy between the Jews and the Samaritans. This she did that she might know which side she ought to take, so that she might provide for her salvation. For she was more agitated by this question than by thirst for the living water which Christ promised her, which she did not understand. 

Worshipped: observe that by worship here and elsewhere is signified the whole public ritual of worshipping God, especially by means of sacrifices, and the other ceremonies instituted by Moses at God’s mouth. This public worship could only be offered in the Tabernacle erected by Moses, and afterwards in the Temple built by Solomon. This is plain from God’s law in Deut. xiv. 24. For otherwise, by natural and Divine right, it ever has been, and is lawful to worship and call upon God privately always and in every place. Thus in Gen. xxii. 5, Abraham said to his servants, “After we have worshipped, i.e., sacrificed, we will come again to you.” 

In this mountain: Garizim, which overhangs the city of Sichem. From this mountain Jotham, the son of Gideon, cursed the Sichemites, (Judges ix. 7). 

There was a famous and unending controversy between the Samaritans and the Jews concerning worshipping and sacrificing in this mountain. In the time of Alexander the Great, Manasses, the brother of Jaddi, the High Priest who met Alexander, and appeased him, when he was incensed against the Jews, married a foreign wife, the daughter of Sanballat, whom Darius, the last king of Persia, had set over Samaria. Manasses, being excluded by his brother from the performance of sacerdotal functions, fled to his father-in-law, Sanballat. Sanballat built a noble temple on Mount Garizim, and appointed Manasses to be its priest. Thither fled many Jewish refugees, especially those who, like Manasses, had married strange wives, contrary to the Law. As an excuse they made use of the argument that Sichem was celebrated for the worship and sacrifices of the Patriarchs, as of Jacob (Gen. xxxiii. 20; Josh. xxiv. 1), of the Tribes (Deut. xxvii. 12), where Moses by God’s command bids Joshua to build an altar on Mount Garizim, and there offer burnt-offerings, and engrave the Decalogue on stones, and promulgate the Law of God to the Twelve Tribes, with blessings to those who kept it, the people answering “Amen.” 

This temple stood upon Mount Garizim for 200 years, until it was destroyed by Hyrcanus, son of Simon, the brother of Judas Maccabeus (Jos., Ant., 1. 3, c. 17). Josephus also relates that the Jews and Samaritans referred their controversy for settlement to Ptolemy Philometor, King of Egypt, who decided it in favour of the Jews, on the ground that the latter had built their temple at the instance of Moses. But the Samaritans were not contented with this decision, and still persisted in their schism. 

Ver. 21.—Jesus saith, &c. Ye, i.e., whosoever rightly, according to God’s ordinance, wish to worship God the Father. The meaning is, the hour cometh, the time of the Evangelical Law and doctrine, about to be instituted by Me, by which, immediately after My death, which is shortly to come to pass, the Law of Moses shall be abolished, and all its rites for worshipping God in the Temple at Jerusalem, as well as in this your rival temple on Garizim. For throughout the whole world Christian churches shall be built, in which God shall be worshipped in spirit and in truth. This is what Malachi predicted under the reign of Christ (i. 10, 11). 

The Hebrew for the pure or clean oblation is mincha, sc., the Eucharist, or the oblation of the Body and Blood of Christ, which alone has succeeded to all the ancient sacrifices of animals. 

Ver. 22.—Ye worship what (Arabic, whom) ye know not, &c. Here Christ gives a direct answer to the woman, and decides the Jews to be in the right in the controversy concerning the worship of God, condemning the Samaritans as schismatics. He says, You, 0 ye Samaritans, worship ye know not what, because ye worship God together with your Assyrian idols; and associating God as it were with idols, ye worship a false or fictitious God. Again the Samaritans had their own heresies and errors, which S. Epiphanius recapitulates. In the same manner the Turks and Jews worship a God whom they know not, because they deny Him to be in a Trinity of Persons. So also Calvin with his followers, in denying the omnipotence of God, and making Him cruel in condemning some men to hell without any demerit on their part, worship not a true, but a false God. For the true God is Almighty, and most kind. 

2. and better. Ye worship, i.e. ye have a method of worship and sacrifice which ye do not know to have proceeded from God. For ye have framed it out of your own imagination, contrary to the will and law of God. But we Jews know what we worship, because we follow the way of worshipping God which was prescribed by Moses. 

For salvation, &c. Both because I, Christ, who am the Author of salvation, am not born of the Samaritans, but of the Jews, as well as because the true knowledge and worship of God, which leads men to salvation, formerly emanated from the Jews to the Gentiles, and now in the New Law will emanate from Me, a Jew, to all nations. 

Ver. 23.—But the hour cometh, &c. Now is the time of the New Law of My Gospel, in which the true worshippers, namely, Christians, whether Jews, or Samaritans, or of other nations, being converted unto Me, shall worship God, not in this mountain, nor Jerusalem only, by the carnal sacrifices of beasts, as the Jews and Samaritans do, but in all places throughout the world in spirit and in truth. 

In spirit and truth. Observe, the Samaritans ignorantly and falsely worshipped God. But the Jews worshipped the true God indeed, but chiefly by corporeal victims, and other bodily symbols, and in one stated place, Jerusalem: all which things were shadows and types of the spiritual worship which was to he inaugurated by Christ. To both these Christ opposes His faithful Christians, who instead of the body, worship God in spirit; and in truth instead of in falsity, shadows and ignorance. For God is an incorporeal Spirit, most true, and most pure. Spirit therefore here signifies the spiritual worship of faith, hope, and charity, devotion, contrition, and other virtues, by which God is most rightly worshipped by Christians, and not through shadows and figures, but in truth. In truth therefore is in the true, sincere, and worthy worship of God, in which God is well pleased, according to the words (Ps. 1. 18), “In holocausts Thou shalt not be delighted: the sacrifice for God is a broken spirit” (Vulg.). Also (Ps. xlix. 23), “The sacrifice of praise shall honour Me”0 (Vulg.). And (Ps. iv. 6), “Sacrifice the sacrifice of justice, and trust in the Lord.” 

As Theophylact says, “Because many seem to worship in soul, but have not right knowledge, such as heretics, therefore He added, and in truth. For it behoves us both to worship God with the mind, and also to have a sound faith with regard to Him. Such a worshipper was Paul, as Origen says, when he declares, “God is my witness, whom I serve’ (Greek, ώ λατζεύω, i.e., worship with latria) in my spirit (Rom. 1. 9).” And the Gloss says, not in the Temple, not in the mountain, but in the innermost temple of the heart, and with a true knowledge must God be worshipped. The Samaritan therefore worshipped God in a mountain, or locally, the Jew in a shadow, or figuratively, the Christian in spirit and in truth, truly and spiritually. For, as S. Chrysostom says, “The former things were figures, now all is truth.” 

Others explain thus, we must worship God in spirit, i.e., by the Spirit, or the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 

“Mystically, by the spirit is intended,” says Theophylact, “action: by truth, contemplation.” For all Christians serve God either by an active, or a contemplative life. 

Heretics object, since God should be worshipped by Christians in spirit and in truth, therefore all corporal rites and ceremonies ought to be rejected in baptism. 

I answer by denying the consequence. For these are not shadows and figures of the Old Law, but ornaments, incentives, and effects of the Spirit, and therefore pertain to the Spirit. For without sacraments and sacrifices the Church cannot exist, because without them she would cease to be visible, and could not be united and gathered together. In form these ceremonies are practised by Christians, and flow from the inward spirit of faith, hope, and charity. Therefore they belong to the Spirit, as results depend upon a cause, and external upon interior actions. It was otherwise with the ignorant and carnal Jews, who placed all their worship in external sacrifices and rites. So SS. Cyril and Ambrose, (De Sp. Sc. l 3. c. 12). 

Even the heathen saw that God, to be worshipped acceptably, must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. 

 “If God be Mind, as ancient verses tell,
 Who worship Him in spirit, worship well.” 

God is a Spirit, &c. This is the reason a priori: God is a most pure and true Spirit, therefore He is pleased only with worship in spirit and in truth. “If God were a body,” says S. Augustine, “it would be fitting to worship Him in a mountain, because a mountain is material. Hence it is plain against the Anthropomorphites, and against Tertullian and Lactantius, that God has not a body, even the least material conceivable, but that He is a most immaterial Spirit.” That axiom therefore of Tertullian is false, “that what is incorporeal is non-existent.” However, Tertullian and Lactantius seem to use the words body and corporeal in an improper sense, merely to denote an actual substance. 

Listen to S. Augustine expounding these words of Christ (lib. De Spec. c. 1). “God is a Spirit incomprehensible, incorporeal, immutable, that cannot be bounded by space, everywhere whole, nowhere divided: everywhere present, ineffably penetrating all things, containing all things, knowing all things, beholding all things; Almighty, governing all things: wholly in heaven, wholly in earth, wholly everywhere. Always working, always resting, gathering, but needing not, carrying all things without being burdened, filling all things, but not included in them, creating and protecting, nourishing and perfecting all things. Thou seekest, but Thou never wantest anything. Loving, but not inflamed. Thou art jealous, but untroubled. Thou repentest without grieving. Thou art angry, and tranquil all the while. Thou changest Thy works, but Thy counsel knows no alteration. Thou holdest all things, fillest all things, embracest all things, art above all things, sustainest all things. Nor dost Thou in one part sustain, and in another super-exceed: nor in one part dost Thou fill, and in another include. In sustaining Thou super-exceedest, and in super-exceeding Thou sustainest. Thou teachest the hearts of the faithful without the service of words, ‘reaching from one end to another mightily, and sweetly disposing all things.’” 

What is God? Listen to Arnobius invoking Him (lib. 1, Cont. Gent.). “0 greatest and highest Creator of things invisible. Thou art invisible, and art never comprehended by any other natures. Worthy, indeed worthy art Thou, if only Thou mayest be called worthy by mortal lips, after whom all intelligent nature aspires, and to whom it never ceases to give thanks: to whom every living thing ought continually to bend the knee, and supplicate with unceasing prayers. For Thou art the First Cause: the locality and space of things: the foundation of whatsoever is infinite, unborn, immortal, eternal, the Only One, whom no corporeal form outlines, no circumscription bounds, without quality or size, without situation, motion, or hold: concerning whom nothing can be said or expressed by mortal words: and that Thou mayest be understood, we must be silent, and that as in a shadow a fallible look may seek after Thee, nothing whatsoever must be muttered.” 

Ver. 25.—The woman saith, &c. Cometh, Greek, ε̉ζχεται, present tense, is come, who will presently solve all things that are doubtful to us in religion, and will teach us where, when, and how God is to be worshipped. The woman knew this by common speech and report. For already the sceptre had been transferred from Judah to Herod, and Daniel’s seventy weeks were fulfilled, so that all men knew that the time for the Advent of Messiah was close at hand. The Jews thought that John the Baptist was Messiah: but he himself attested that Jesus was Messiah. Wherefore through this assertion of the Baptist the report was widely diffused that Messiah had come. 

Who is called Christ. These are not the words of the woman, who spake only in the Hebrew or Syrian language, but of the Evangelist interpreting the Hebrew word Messiah, by Christ, the Anointed One. 

Ver. 26.—Jesus saith, &c. “I am the Messias, or the Christ. Have faith in Me: receive My doctrine and my law, that thou mayest be saved and blessed.” Christ both spoke this with the outward voice, but still more with an inward voice, illuminating the woman’s mind, and kindling her will, to love and reverence Him. Whereon the woman believed straightway, and moved her whole city to believe in Him.