Word to the Wise
Tuesday, October 12, 2021 - Tuesday in the 28th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 1:16-25 and Luke 11:37-41]They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. [Romans] "Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside if the cup and dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?"
In these two pungent statements, taken from the scriptures assigned for today's Mass, Jesus and St. Paul take aim at distorted faith. In the first statement, from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans, he denounces idolatry of all kinds that replaces the true God with a human creation. "While claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes." No doubt, this would be the grosser kind of idolatry, akin the the golden calf in Exodus. But there are more subtle kinds in traditions that take the place of true worship. Jesus points to this in Mark 7:7 when he accuses the Pharisees of "teaching as God's law mere human traditions."
The second of the pungent statements goes to the question of character that should motivate worship and religious devotion. Jesus uses the image of the inside and outside of a cup or dish to point to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who emphasized external observance which they manipulated to their own advantage.
Both statements are daily continuing challenges to us in terms of our faith and values. Do we have "other Gods" that we worship in practice if not in theory? Do we say one thing while believing another? The Lord is not an object but a divine person and should be worshiped with a clean heart and mind. AMEN
Comment on Reflection
<< Previous Date [Back to List] Next Date >>