Word to the Wise
Tuesday, March 15, 2022 - 2nd Week of Lent - Tues
[Isa 1:10, 16-20 and Matt 23:1-12]Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow. Come now, let us set things right, says the Lord: though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool. If you are willing and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you refuse and resist, the sword shall consume you. [Isaiah] "The scribes and Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatesoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up burdens hard to carry and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not left a finger to move them." [Matthew]
"PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH!" If ever a single phrase could encompass Christian daily life, the words in bold italics could make that claim! Isaiah thunders against a broad and systemic evil social situation which he will blame for the loss of the Northern Kingdom to the Assyrians. Jesus takes dead aim at what I would call the Jewish equivalent of "clericalism," in which those who claim authority to teach and govern abuse that authority to their own advantage. "They preach but they do not practice!" I know that I, for one, have that phrase in mind in my daily life as an ordained Dominican friar! I was especially aware of it when I had to serve my Dominican province as novice master. I dared not challenge the novices to do anything I was not willing and able to do!!
Our Catholic world has its equivalent of "Pharisee-ism" in which leavy canonical and dogmatic burdens are laid on people's shoulders without including any mercy or compassion. The "clerical" form of this is manifested in grim prelates and pastors, but there is a lay form as well. The Code of Canon Law and the Catechism become weapons of righteousness, instead of guides to truth and faith and God's love! Jesus' scorn for this is clear!
Isaiah and Jesus challenge us to examine our consciences both individually and societally and to turn to justice and compassion so that our scarlet and crimson sins may be white as snow and wool! AMEN