Tuesday March 15, 2022

Tuesday of 2nd Week in Lent

 

Religion is Interior — No Hypocrisy

 

When we know our faith and practice our religious duties and observances – when we go to Mass and the sacraments and practice penance during Lent – are we good Christians? Only if our heart is in what we do. If we act as we believe and do what we say. If our faith affects our everyday living and our relations with our neighbor. If we build up the kingdom of God. Otherwise our faith is hypocritical.

 

First Reading: Isaiah 1:10; 16-20 

 “Listen to my Message,
    you Sodom-schooled leaders.
Receive God’s revelation,
    you Gomorrah-schooled people.

 “Quit your worship charades.
    I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
    meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
    You’ve worn me out!
I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
    while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
    I’ll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
    I’ll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing
    people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up.
    Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
    so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
    Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
    Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
    Go to bat for the defenseless.

 “Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.”
    This is God’s Message:
“If your sins are blood-red,
    they’ll be snow-white.
If they’re red like crimson,
    they’ll be like wool.
If you’ll willingly obey,
    you’ll feast like kings.
But if you’re willful and stubborn,
    you’ll die like dogs.”
That’s right. God says so.

 

Gospel: Matthew 23:1-12 

Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.

 “Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’

 “Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.

 “Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

 

Prayer

Lord God,
you want us to live our faith
not so much as a set of rules and practices
but as a relationship from person to person
with you and with people.
God, keep our hearts turned to you,
that we may live what we believe
and that we may express our love for you
in terms of service to those around us,
as Jesus did, your Son,
who lives with you and the Holy Spirit
for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Reflection :

15 March 2022
Matthew 23:1-12

An act of charity is not for public display

“Do and observe what they tell you, but do not follow their example!”
Who are these “they?” When we read the bible, we tend to believe that Jesus is talking about someone, not me. The Pharisees, the scribes … the religious leaders of the time who preached a distorted face of God to the people. They preached the scripture well, but failed to live what they preached.

Today’s Gospel calls on us – preachers of the Word of God – to do an introspection. If Jesus was posing a direct challenge for the religious leaders of his time, the Gospel today continues to challenge the religious leaders of the present time. How often do we come across pastors who loved to be addressed as reverend or doctor and fill their name-cards with the long list of their academic achievements? When I prepare my homilies and reflections, I am afraid, I prepare them for those listening to me, but fail to live what I preach.

The Gospel challenges us today: Are the good things or works of charity that we have done for public display, so that people may appreciate us for what we did? The social media updates too often turn out to be self-advertisement of our social or economic status, achievements and charity works. The ongoing pandemic and the humanitarian crisis on account of wars and calamities around the world has helped us in the recent past to be at our generous best, by extending our generous support and reaching out to our needy brethren. But, at times, have these moments of generosity not turned into occasions of self- promotion? Social media platforms get flooded with stories and photos of our ‘acts of charity.’

Pope Francis explains passage by reiterating the command of Jesus to serve and not to be served. He said, (in his Homily in Havana, on 20 September 2015): “Serving means caring … for the vulnerable of our families, our society, our people. We all are called to set aside our own wishes and desires, our pursuit of power – before the concrete gaze of those who are most vulnerable…. Service always looks to their faces, touches their flesh, senses their closeness and even, in some cases, ‘suffers’ that closeness and tries to help them. Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.”

In 2014, during the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, the Pope suggested a standard test for a good shepherd. He said, ‘we need to have shepherds who bear the smell of the sheep’. How good a shepherd am I in the Christian community and in the family? Do I boss over others around…? Lord, help me to imitate you – to serve and not to be served.

Video available on Youtube: An act of charity is not for public display