It’s difficult to imagine the frightening zeal that must have possessed men like Martin Luther or the other false priests who led huge movements out of the Church. For those unfortunate shepherds their work was an obsession.  Pope Francis cannot stop hammering at those Pharisees and doctors of the law by whom, we must know by now, he means us, faithful pious Catholics.

Zenit’s Junno Arocho Esteves reports on the Pope’s March 26th homily in Casa Santa Marta.

To be joyful is a grace that only comes from faith and not from doctrine or law that is detached from love. This was the central theme of Pope Francis’ homily at Casa Santa Marta this morning.

According to Vatican Radio, the Holy Father reflected on today’s readings, both of which spoke on Abraham. In John’s Gospels, Jesus tells the scribes and doctors of the law that “Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”

The Pope said that the doctors of the law did not understand what Jesus meant because they did not understand the joy of hope, of promise and of the covenant.

“They did not know how to rejoice, because they lost the meaning of joy that only comes from faith,” he said. “Our father Abraham was able to rejoice because he had faith: he was made just in faith.

Abraham was justified by faith. Not also works?

The Pope continues.

These lost their faith. They were doctors of the law, but without faith! But more so: they lost the law! Because the center of the law is love, love for God and for neighbor.”

Of course Our Lord corrected the Pharisees because they were led by self-interest.  That’s why they went around enforcing unjust oppressive rules, rules which have nothing to do with Jesus or the true teachings of the Catholic Church.

The Holy Father went on to say that the doctors of the law were so attached to doctrine that their often times their questions dealt in abstract circumstances.

“Should taxes be paid to Cesar, or should they not? This woman, who was married seven times, when she goes to Heaven will she be the wife of those seven? […]

Petty overbearing law-making more appropriate to the U.S. Congress is how our Pope sees the doctrines of the Church and the Holy Mass. Since love isn’t at the center, these are only unjust laws which have nothing to do with faith. So the master of the false dichotomy presents the king of them all.  He pits doctrine against faith and he pits the law against love.

The problem is: the doctrines of the Church ARE faith and it’s law IS love.  We aren’t Pharisees because we don’t reject Christ!

This was their world, an abstract world, a world without love, a world without faith, a world without hope, a world without trust, a world without God,” he noted. “And this is why they could not rejoice!”

No hope, no faith, no trust, no God, no point in joy:  How much contempt can the Pope muster for men and women who love Church teaching?

The 78 year old Pontiff continued saying that it was sad to be a believer without joy. Without joy, he said, there is no faith, only “cold doctrine.”

Now we’re cold dead too.

He’s always going on about warmth and closeness. Didn’t his mother hug him?  It gives me the creeps.

Concluding his homily, Pope Francis said that the joy of faith and the Gospel is the touchstone of one’s faith. Without it, one is not a “true believer.”

So now Pope Francis has become a joy-sniffer who goes around pegging Pharisees with his joyometer.  Better check that pickle face, Catholic!