Читать книгу Catholicism For Dummies - Rev. Kenneth Brighenti - Страница 76

Jesus wasn’t a workaholic. He got some rest and recreation while visiting His friends Martha, Mary, and Lazarus (John 12:2), and He attended the wedding feast of Cana with His mother (John 2:1–2). Jesus took a nap in a boat while the apostles stayed awake on deck (Luke 8:22–23) and went to an out-of-the-way place to pray (Matthew 14:23). So, too, God the Father rested after creating the whole world (Genesis 2:1–3).

The Catholic Church reasons that if the Bible uses brother to refer to a nephew in one instance, then why not another? Why can’t the adelphoi (brothers) of Jesus be his relatives — cousins or other family members? Why must that word be used in a restrictive way in the Gospel when it’s used broadly in the Old Testament?

The Church uses other reasoning as well. If these brothers were siblings, where were they during the Crucifixion and death of their brother? Mary and a few other women were there, but the only man mentioned in the Gospel at the event was the Apostle John, and he was in no way related to Jesus, by blood or marriage. And before Jesus died on the Cross, He told John, “Behold your mother” (John 19:27). Why entrust His mother to John if other adult children could’ve taken care of her? Only if Mary were alone would Jesus worry about her enough to say what He did to John.

And the Church asks this: If Jesus had blood brothers, or even half-brothers or stepbrothers, why didn’t they assume roles of leadership after His death? Why allow Peter and the other Apostles to run the Church and make decisions if immediate family members were around? Yet if the only living relatives were distant cousins, nieces, nephews, and such, it all makes sense.

The debate will continue for centuries to come. The bottom line is the authoritative decision of the Church. Catholicism doesn’t place the Church above Scripture but sees her as the one and only authentic guardian and interpreter of the written word and the unwritten or spoken word, or Sacred Tradition.