Tuesday, August 23,
2016
In the Gospel for today’s Mass (Tuesday
of the 21st week in ordinary time: Matthew 23:23-26) Jesus takes the
scribes and Pharisees to task and calls them “hypocrites.” I happen to know a
bit of Hungarian, and the word for hyprocrite
in Hungarian is képmutató which
literally means “picture shower,” or someone who shows an image that isn’t
really the true one.
I think we all do that at times,
sometimes unconsciously and sometimes perhaps out of necessity, as to when we
have to hide our true feelings in order to protect ourselves from someone else.
Jesus lays the charge on the
Pharisees and scribes because their “false-picture showing” has taken on a professional dimension and a religious
dimension. They are so saturated in their false posturing that they can’t even
recognize the fact that they are living a lie. Read the Gospel passage and see
what I mean. They manufacture laws and rules to suit their own purposes, and
then lay them on everyone else’s backs.
Jesus makes it quite clear that
the most important aspects of the Law are the ones they shamelessly neglect,
and this is something that we all have to pay close attention to: the most
important aspects of the Law are those which deal with judgment and mercy
and fidelity. Everything else should flow from these things. Pope
Francis has been trying to teach us that ever since he became Pope, and there
are some in the Church including high-ranking church leaders who resist what he
is saying or, like the Pharisees, have become so immersed in their own agendas
that they fail to grasp the fact that he is challenging them to clean up their
acts, just as Jesus challenges the Pharisees in his own time.
Yes, Phariseeism has been
rampant in religion ever since the time of Jesus and is still an issue today.
Might we sometimes play the
Pharisee ourselves? I think that we can and do. Let us heed Jesus’ demand that
we “cleanse the inside of the cup so that the outside also may be clean.” And
remember that the command is to cleanse our own cups, not everyone else’s.
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.
God bless you.
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