Readings: Is 1:10, 16-20; Ps 50; Mt 23:1-12
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I have to admit, listening to today’s Gospel passage from
Matthew always causes me to cringe a little.
Jesus, of course, was talking about the Pharisees and Scribes and their hypocrisy, and warning the people, especially His disciples, about following their example. As we see throughout the Gospels, these spiritual leaders of the Jewish people didn’t really hide their hypocrisy too well. It wasn’t just obvious to Jesus, but we suspect everyone saw it.
Indeed, Jesus offers us a sad litany of their offenses, everything from grasping honor and privileges for themselves to making life unbelievably difficult for others. But Our Lord is also letting His disciples know that they, too, can fall prey to these same failings, and so the warning extends to them and across the centuries to us as well.
But there’s one sin, and I think we can safely call all
these failings sins, that strikes me with the greatest force. It’s when Jesus
says, “For they preach but they do not practice.”
You see, as a deacon, a man once declared by my bishop to be a true “servant of God” – Sean O’Malley actually said that to all of us at our ordination. Anyway, when I hear Jesus say this about those Pharisees, I find myself wanting to hide behind that “seat of honor” over there. It’s a very obvious seat, isn’t it? Comfortable too. Yes, indeed, no matter how crowded the Mass, I’ve always got a great seat. Heck, the parish even gives me a parking place, so the old deacon doesn’t have to tire himself out.
But it’s that preach and practice thing that really troubles me. I’m
preaching right now, and I’ll probably tell you how to live your lives during
this season of Lent. I do that often enough.
And yet, like you, I am a sinner. Most of the faults I address in homilies, along with the remedies I preach, have their source in my own behavior, or in that of those I love and know best. Yep, it’s always easier to identify the sins of family and friends, isn’t it? We know them so very well, just as they know us.
Anyway, as I dig deeper into my own conscience to uncover my faults, I realize how different I am from the man I was 30, 40, or 60 years ago. I guess my spiritual life, my struggle toward some degree of holiness, has actually progressed, not as far as I’d like, and certainly far below the Lord’s hopes…
On a wall in our home, hangs a rather large portrait of Jesus – it’s the Divine Mercy image – painted by a Polish nun and given to me by a friend, a Polish priest. But sometimes, when I glance at it, Jesus seems to be shaking His head at me…Maybe it’s just my aging vision, or my active imagination, but I think it’s more than that. I suspect He’s just showing me I have a long way to go.
Lent, though, is a good time for introspection, a time to take a hard look at ourselves – a time to let God reform us, and transform us, into His ways. It’s also a time for simplicity, a time to turn away from the busyness of the world and its false attractions and promises.
Perhaps most importantly, it’s a time for sacrifice. So often we try to avoid sacrifice because it usually includes suffering. And yet it’s there, in our sacrifices and sufferings, where Jesus Christ comes to meet us. It’s there, as we struggle to bear our everyday crosses, that He comes to us and carries them with us. Jesus never said that living the Christian life would be easy; but He did promise we wouldn’t be alone. He would join us, be there with us.
Yes, I suppose I’m guilty of a touch of hypocrisy, but thanks to Jesus’ words, at least I know it, and can repent. Maybe some of those Scribes and Pharisees also came to recognize their hypocrisy when they listened to Jesus, and perhaps they too repented. I certainly hope so.
Perhaps as they heard Jesus' word, they also reflected on God's word from Isaiah, one they would
have known well:
“Wash yourselves clean!...[and] set things
right”
And how do we do that? We change, for
that’s what repentance means: to re-think our lives, to live a new life in Jesus Christ.
“Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing
evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the
orphan's plea, defend the widow.”
Yes, indeed, God and His Word never change.
So let me leave you with another thought: Don’t be too critical of deacons and priests, of bishops and popes, for we, too, are human. We, too, are sinners and subject to the whole range of human failings.
How much better simply to pray for us, as we pray for you.
