Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus launches a blistering attack on the scribes and Pharisees.
The
Son teaches, heals, preaches to, and forgives those who feel far from
the mercy of God. He is the hand that the Father stretches out to
sinners and to those who are lost. And by the same token, he is the
judge of a sinful world. When the light of God’s forgiving love appears,
the shadows of sin become all the deeper and more obvious. In light of
him, there is nowhere to hide. And Jesus, the Word of the Father, gives
voice to this judgment: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you
hypocrites. . . ."
The
Son names all those powers that are opposed to the creative and loving
intentions of his Father. He speaks a word of judgment on a world grown
cozy with sin. He "channels" all of the feelings of the Father toward
the world: intense, forgiving love to those who are lost, and equally
intense hatred for the structures of darkness.
Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 425
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians
in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
grace to you and peace.
We give thanks to God always for all of you,
remembering you in our prayers,
unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love
and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,
before our God and Father,
knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen.
For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.
You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake.
In every place your faith in God has gone forth,
so that we have no need to say anything.
For they themselves openly declare about us
what sort of reception we had among you,
and how you turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God and to await his Son from heaven,
whom he raised from the dead, Jesus,
who delivers us from the coming wrath.
Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.
You do not enter yourselves,
nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You traverse sea and land to make one convert,
and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna
twice as much as yourselves.
"Woe to you, blind guides, who say,
'If one swears by the temple, it means nothing,
but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.'
Blind fools, which is greater, the gold,
or the temple that made the gold sacred?
And you say, 'If one swears by the altar, it means nothing,
but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.'
You blind ones, which is greater, the gift,
or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it;
one who swears by the temple swears by it
and by him who dwells in it;
one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God
and by him who is seated on it."
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