Word to the Wise
Tuesday, August 27, 2024 - 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!...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]
AUGUST 27 ST. MONICA (Mother of St. Augustine)
The gospel scripture for today continues the 23rd chapter of Matthew and the denunciation, by Jesus, of the scribes and Pharisees of his time, and by extension, from the evangelist, the ones during the time of composition of the gospel. The chapter is really a collection of Jesus' comments over the course of his public ministry which, in the synoptic gospels, lasted a year! So, the opposition to Jesus was intense from the beginning and culminated in his death at the hands of both Jewish and Roman authorities.
The charge of hypocrisy goes straight to the heart of the matter. The Gospel According to Matthew speaks continually of motivation and interior conversion. External observance must spring from internal motives and faith. When observance becomes more important than motive, hypocrisy is the result. The scribes and Pharisees had learned how to use the Law of Moses (which this gospel is careful to praise) to their own advantage. In modern terms, they had learned how to "game the system!" The Mosaic Law had become an instrument of manipulation and hardship in their hands. Examples of this show up again and again in this gospel.
There is a "Catholic card game" on the market that I observed students playing at the Catholic student center where I was previously assigned. The rich tapestry of Catholic traditions and customs become the subject of a kind of trivia game that can be fun and enjoyable. But when it becomes the passion in real life, there is a big danger of "legalism" and "rigorism" that make our faith a burden and a devotional minefield!!! Catholic "scribes and Pharisees" can be as dangerous as the Jewish ones in Jesus' day. As the gospel points out, it's not a matter of "anything goes" but a primary focus on the "weightier" values of "judgment, mercy and fidelity." That challenge remains today. AMEN