Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Profession of Faith 147 other historical sources, the better to understand the meaning of the Redemption. Paragraph 1. Jesus and Israel 574 From the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, certain Pharisees and partisans of Herod together with priests and scribes agreed together to destroy him. 317 Because of certain of his acts— expelling demons, forgiving sins, healing on the sabbath day, his novel interpretation of the precepts of the Law regarding purity, and his familiarity with tax collectors and public sinners 318 —some ill-intentioned persons suspected Jesus of demonic possession. 319 He is accused of blasphemy and false prophecy, religious crimes which the Law punished with death by stoning. 320 575 Many of Jesus’ deeds andwords constituted a “sign of contradic­ tion,” 321 but more so for the religious authorities in Jerusalem, whom the Gospel according to John often calls simply “the Jews,” 322 than for the ordinary People of God. 323 To be sure, Christ’s relations with the Pharisees were not exclusively polemical. Some Pharisees warned him of the danger he was courting; 324 Jesus praises some of them, like the scribe of Mark 12:34, and dines several times at their homes. 325 Jesus endorses some of the teachings imparted by this religious elite of God’s people: the resur- rection of the dead, 326 certain forms of piety (almsgiving, fasting, and prayer), 327 the custom of addressing God as Father, and the centrality of the commandment to love God and neighbor. 328 576 In the eyes of many in Israel, Jesus seems to be acting against essential institutions of the Chosen People: —submission to thewholeof theLawin itswrittencommandments and, for the Pharisees, in the interpretation of oral tradition; — the centrality of the Temple at Jerusalem as the holy place where God’s presence dwells in a special way; — faith in the one God whose glory no man can share. 317 Cf. Mk 3:6; 14:1. 318 Cf. Mt 12:24: Mk 2:7, 14-17; 3:1-6; 7:14-23. 319 Cf. Mk 3:22; Jn 8:48; 10:20. 320 Cf. Mk 2:7; Jn 5:18; Jn 7:12; 7:52; 8:59; 10:31, 33. 321 Lk 2:34. 322 Cf. Jn 1:19; 2:18; 5:10; 7:13; 9:22; 18:12; 19:38; 20:19. 323 Jn 7:48-49. 324 Cf. Lk 13:31. 325 Cf. Lk 7:36; 14:1. 326 Cf. Mt 22:23-34; Lk 20:39. 327 Cf. Mt 6:18. 328 Cf. Mk 12:28-34. 158 530 591 993