"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence." - Matthew 23:23-26
I always seem to get a clearer reading of Scripture when I have one of my bouts with insomnia, so I figured I'd give it a whirl this early morning.
Jesus calls out the scribes and Pharisees, rather harshly, in today's Gospel. This morning it feels as though Jesus is calling ME out. The pains I go through to appear Christian to BE a Christian sometimes feel canned and hypocritical, like the plates and cups Jesus mentions. Oh I've got my Franciscan meetings, my Hibernian meetings, my Knights meetings, the prayer group I facilitate, showing up at Mass every week, sometimes a few times a week.
But it's all for nothing if I am not walking the path. If I am telling or laughing at racist/offensive jokes, if I am not doing my share around the house, if I am relishing and feeding my anger instead of trying to get a handle on it, what good is it to say I am walking the path of a Catholic Christian? Oh, I know no one's perfect and like I've said before, Jesus does not expect perfection from me. However, He again reminds me today that being a proponent of the law is the BEGINNING of the path. Jesus reminds me where I am personally hypocritical.
So the walk continues...
Pax et Bonum,
Thomas
Daily Mass Readings
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Psalm 139:1-6
Matthew 23:23-26
