Word to the Wise
Thursday, June 12, 2025 - Thursday in the 10th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Cor 3:15—4:1, 3-6 and Matt 5:20-26]"I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven... Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift." [Matthew]
One of Jesus' principal criticisms against the scribes and Pharisees is their hypocrisy. They focused almost entirely on external observance of the 613 "precepts" of the Mosaic Law without concern for the interior actions of the human mind and heart. Jesus teaches that it is not enough to avoid physical or external violence, one must avoid the internal kind as well! In the Gospel According to Luke (11:40), he offers the words, "Did not he who made the outside also make the inside?" In short, Christian integrity involves not just actions but feelings and attitudes. The Book of Sirach teaches: "Wrath and anger are hateful things, but the sinner hugs them tight!" [27:30] The Letter to the Ephesians counsels, "Be angry but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger!" [Ephesians 4:26]
A thousand "What if's....." will spring to the mind. Doesn't the bible show Jesus responding angrily to the scribes and Pharisees and to the money-changers in the temple? To the extent that anger is a normal human reaction - a defensive reaction in many cases - it can be helpful in motivating to rectify a bad situation, whether personal or social. The important thing, in Jesus' teaching, is to be as aware of the nature of our internal feelings and attitudes as we are of our external behavior. Continual conversion is the goal. Integrity of mind and heart as part of one's faith is the challenge. AMEN