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Monday – Twenty-first Week – OT2
Readings: II Thes 1:1-5, 11-12; Mt 23:13-22.
1/ First Reading: NAB 2 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2 graces to you and peace from God (our) Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 We ought to thank God always for you, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater. 4 Accordingly, we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God regarding your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions you endure. 5 This is evidence of the just judgment of God, so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering. 11 To this end, we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.
2/ Gospel: NAB Matthew 23:13 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter. 14 15 “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. 16 “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.’ 17 Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred? 18 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.’ 19 You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it; 21 one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it; 22 one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.
I. THEME: One faith, two ways of life
The Indian leader, M. Ghandi, once said, “If all Christians live according to what Christ taught, the whole world might already believe in him.” When asked to give a message to the people, he responded, “My life is my message.” The Christians are those who have the same faith in Christ, but not all of them practice what Christ taught them.
Today readings give us concrete examples about the ways of life of those who have the same faith in God. In the first reading, St. Paul praised the Thessalonian faithful because they lived according to their faith; the more their faith grows, the deeper of charity they have for God and each other. In the Gospel, Jesus scolded the scribes and the Pharisees because they didn’t live according to what they believed. Not only that, but they also tried to find reasons to protect their wrong doings.
II. ANALYSIS:
1/ Reading I: The Thessalonians’ true way of life
1.1/ To love God and people: Facing trials and sufferings, the faithful who live according to their faith and love shall be ready to accept sufferings to witness for God; they are ready to sacrifice so that people may have a better part than themselves. This is the model of living which St. Paul found in the Thessalonian faithful. He publicly praised them, “We ought to thank God always for you, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater. Accordingly, we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God regarding your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions you endure. This is evidence of the just judgment of God, so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering.”
1.2/ The faith and love in the faithful must be increased: The virtues, in general, must be increased; if not, they shall be gradually decreased and lost. Similarly, the faith and the love, if aren’t increased, shall easily be decreased and lost. St. Paul knew this danger can be happened to his faithful, so he prayed for them to be firmed in their faith and love: “To this end, we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.”
2/ Gospel: The scribes and the Pharisees’ hypocritical way of life
Hypocrite (hupokrites) in Greek means “the one who answers.” According to Hellenistic tradition, this word has a special relation to those who answer the conversations in theatrical plays, the actors or the actresses. They must play their roles according to what the play described, no matter what their mood are; for examples, they must cry while they are happy, or they must laugh while they are in sad mood. In a word, a hypocrite doesn’t live according to himself. A Vietnamese adage describes this kind of people as follows: “Outside, full of laugh; inside, full of dangerous ways to kill.” An English equivalence is, “A honey tongue, a heart of gall.”
2.1/ The danger of a hypocrite way: Facing trials and sufferings, the hypocrites refuse to endure sufferings by finding all kinds of reason to protect their timid actions. One way is to hide their selfishness by good acts from outside. Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of scribes and Pharisees as follows: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.”
They locked the door to heaven by their hypocritical way of life. How can they enter the kingdom of heaven by tediously keeping the unnecessary laws while neglecting many important laws related to justice, mercy and fidelity? If people also imitate them to do as such, they can’t enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus also condemned them about not to be good examples for the converts: “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.” Instead of setting as good examples, they set many bad examples and taught the converts to follow their hypocrisy. Those who have just entered the Church used to be more eager than those who have been in the Church many years. If they aren’t taught to do good, they shall be eager to do bad as they saw in their leaders.
2.2/ Their false interpretation of the law: Scribes and Pharisees were lawmakers and very knowledgeable of the law. So, they know how to interpret the law according to their intention; they can make right to be wrong and the reverse by adding or subtracting words in the law or by finding a loophole in it. One example which Jesus pointed out in this passage is their interpretation of the law. The law teaches that when one pointed to the temple and swore, he must keep his oath at all costs; but scribes and Pharisees found a way to invalidate that oath by reasoning around. They said, “If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.”
Jesus pointed out the falsity of their argument: “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?”
And Jesus concluded: “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.”
III. APPLICATION IN LIFE:
– The same faith can lead to the two ways of life which are completely opposite: one is based on faith and love, the other is based on outside hypocrisy.
– People can be deceived by the way of hypocrisy, but not God because He can see through people’s mind and heart.
– We need to always live truthfully before God and others.