Word to the Wise
Tuesday, February 27, 2024 - 2nd Week of Lent - Tues
[Isa 1:10, 16-20 and Matt 23:1-12]The scribes and Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They lie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them.[Matthew]
The scribes and Pharisees get a lot of bad press in the New Testament. The reasons are complex but it is important to understand that Pharisees could be very good and dedicated people who desired to live the law of Moses as strictly as possible. Their origins were in the reaction to the Greek cultural practices that were introduced into Israel in the wake of Alexander the Great's conquest of the Middle East. The scribes were men who could read and write in a society that was largely illiterate. They were a classic example of the old adage, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king!" They took care of all written contracts and knew the Torah to the last letter. But, as history teaches us, "power corrupts," and in Jesus' day and in the wake of the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, the Pharisees and scribes were the ones who kept the Jewish faith together in Israel. The preaching of the early Christians was being vigorously opposed by them and naturally the resentment on both sides found its way into the gospel accounts of Jesus.
I think of this gospel conflict when I encounter folks who are intent on observing every detail or rubric in Catholic tradition to the point that common sense and the purpose of the particular practice is lost in the effort just to be "correct." There is no "hierarchy" of importance for them. All rules, laws and rubrics have the same value in their world. This is at the center of Jesus' criticism about laying heavy burdens on people's shoulders. The fundamental rules of sacramental practice must be observed for unity, {"matter and form"] but there are devotional and cultural and other "traditional" practices surrounding our sacramental Church that take on the level of law! And there are laws that have long lost their original purpose but are defended and enforced in the name of "tradition." The scribes and Pharisees were "gaming the system" to benefit themselves and Jesus went after them. Jesus' criticism still remains for us to ponder and discern in the Church of today. AMEN