DAILY GRACE
August 26, 2020, Wednesday of the 21st Week of Ordinary Time
Scripture: Matthew 23:27-32
‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say, “If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.” Thus, you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God..
Meditation:
“. . . on the outside [you] look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
Jesus is tough on the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew’s Gospel. It might sound as if he is rebuking some terrible sinners, but the people of Jesus’ day did not consider the scribes and Pharisees as sinners. The scribes were religious professionals — something like pastors and priests today. The Pharisees were laymen who were trying to live their faith fully, beyond the bare minimum — something like Catholics who go to daily Mass. Jesus’ rebuke is also addressed to us. On the outside we may look like good and upstanding holy people. Jesus isn’t saying that we shouldn’t. It is praiseworthy to raise our children conscientiously, dress modestly, and give of our time, talent, and treasure in charitable works. But what is on the inside? Jesus comes back to this many times in the Gospel.
“Lawlessness” is a strong word. How do we practice lawlessness “inside”? Even if our outside surface actions are good, our hearts can entertain thoughts and motives that are not. Judgmentalism, envy, lust, avarice, vengefulness ——the list could go on and on. Jesus points out that we need to keep careful watch over our hearts, so that our actions may flow from good hearts.
Prayer
Lord, give me the courage and honesty to look into my own heart and find the hypocrisy and lawlessness that I have allowed to enter and needs to be cleared out I know I must do this interior work regularly, because, despite my best intentions, I allow “foul things” to creep back in. Lord, have mercy.
Contemplation
Lord, have mercy.