Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah … Nehemiah 13:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 27, 2014): Nehemiah 13

Pope Pius XII has been demonized by some as “Hitler’s Pope.” The idea behind the accusation is the belief that Pius pursued a doctrine of acceptance of the Nazi and Fascist beliefs in order to preserve the Vatican and keep the Pope and those that served him in Vatican City safe. And the Vatican did follow a path of neutrality all through the Second World War, even when Nazi Germany was no longer a threat to Vatican City. However, the charge appears to be overstated. While Pius kept the Vatican neutral, he did proclaim a message of peace, he begged both Hitler and Mussolini not to wage war and personally was regarded as the savior of many of the Jews; personally tearing them from the grasp of Nazi Germany.

But the more we learn about Pius and his actions during the Second World War, it appears that the accusations do not contain much truth. While the charge against Pius appears to be false, the problem is that many other religious leaders, in different times and circumstances, seemed to have failed to carry the church in the proper moral direction and have instead taken the easy path instead. Certain portions of the Church have been on the wrong side of a number of issues – including the slavery debate and the AIDS Crisis. Televangelists have followed money rather than the well-being of either their flock or their society, and all of this has left us with a belief that religious leaders, and possibly especially high ranking ones, simply can’t be trusted. This atmosphere makes it too easy to believe the worst about people like Pope Pius XII rather than being willing to seek out the best about them. Our cultural experience where an accusation like the one found in the title “Hitler’s Pope” is the expected norm – we do not expect the best out of any of our leaders.

And the problem is not a new one. Nehemiah finishes his record with a disturbing note. It seems that there was corruption in the priesthood of Jerusalem – and the rottenness rose to the very top of the chain. Eliashib was not just a priest, he is the High Priest. He is a direct descendent (he is the grandson) of Joshua – the first High Priest in Jerusalem after the exile. But he has developed a relationship with Tobiah, a man whose hatred for the Jews was well known. And not only that, because Eliashib was the High Priest, he took it on himself to even rent the storehouses in the Temple to Tobiah for his secular purposes, something that was considered to be against the known will and law of God.

So Nehemiah has to expose this corruption within the priesthood and start to cleanse the problem. He needed the priesthood to lead, but it could not be in the direction that they had led up to this point. The priesthood must be restored to God and needed to regain their moral authority, no matter what it took for that happen.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Malachi 1