Word to the Wise
Tuesday, August 25, 2020 - Tuesday in the 21th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Thess 2:1-3a, 14-17 and Matt 23:23-26]"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean." [Matthew]
The twenty-third chapter of the Gospel According to Matthew can make for tough reading! Scripture scholars point out that Matthew has put together accusations against the scribes and Pharisees that were made at various times in Jesus' ministry to add to the dramatic tension in Jerusalem just before Jesus' arrest. The long indictment could be called a "negative" Sermon on the Mount - i.e. a list of things a Christian should NOT do. This means that the long list is intended not just for scribes and Pharisees but for Christians in the early church as well. It is intended for us, too.
Today's passage speaks to two different aspects. The first speaks to the question of religious observances. Jesus does not deny the rules about details in tithing even from garden vegetables and herbs but argues that putting an emphasis on such observances to the detriment of judgment, mercy and fidelity is wrong-headed. We Catholics can be guilty of that when we insist on punctilious observance to the point of causing real anxiety. As an example, I have had folks ask me if a novena "counts" if they forgot to do one small part!!
The second item in this passage has to do with interior motivation. Jesus repeatedly charged some scribes and Pharisees with misusing their religious authority to interpret the law in such a way as to enrich themselves. He calls them hypocrites! His image of the inside and outside of a cup is right on point. What good is keeping the outside (appearances) sparkling if the inside is dirty. God makes both the outside and the inside. [Luke 11:39-40]
The lessons to us are pretty clear. Get your priorities straight in your actions as your motivations. Love of God and neighbor come first. The rest is intended to make that possible. AMEN