Readings: Malachi 1:1—4b2:2b, 8-10; 1 Thessalonians 2:7b-9, 13; Matthew 23:1-12
Blessed Sunday to all reading this. I hope that this reflection will be one of many in the future, as I hope to continue to offer my thoughts on our Sunday Mass readings as the year continues. I also pray that you find some value and insight into them.
I am a Catholic Catechumen who has been reading, learning, and studying about the Church for two years now. I have recently started the process to be confirmed, which will occur at the Easter Vigil Mass. I am blessed to be on this journey and would appreciate your prayers. I am hoping to use this (hopeful) series as an opportunity to analyze scripture and heighten both my knowledge and your own. I am hardly the first, and likely not the last, to do such an exercise. I just ask for your patience and feedback. But onto the readings!
Our readings today consist of a reading from the Book of Malachi, St. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, and the Gospel of Matthews. I will focus on the latter two.
In our Gospel readings today, Christ is offering a lesson on the holy people at the time of the ancient Israelites: the Pharisees. The Pharisees are seen throughout the entirety of the Gospel, as the spiritual voice of the Jewish zeitgeist.
The Pharisees lauded themselves as the voice of reason and the “Oral Torah,” of a tradition developed beyond the five written books of Torah. They may have originally had good intentions, hoping to build upon the written word and apply it to the changing world, but by the time of Christ they had become corrupt. Christ declares: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.”
There is the Lord calling out hypocrisy yet again as he does often in the Gospels. The Pharisees aren’t unintelligent, Christ recognizes that, and most often the things they teach are correct. Yet, the Pharisees do not practice these things. And if they do, they only do so for praise by the populace.
I am sure that everyone alive today has heard or uttered the phrase: “Do as I say and not as I do.” It’s hypocrisy! We all know it. When we say such a thing, we know that it looks terrible and sends incorrect signals to our fellow man. We feel that we must indicate our wrongful behavior, but we do it anyways. Christ decries that. Do not simply, say, but also do.
The Catechism touches on this: that faith requires active cooperation with it. Can we truly say that we believe in the word of the Lord if we continue to sway from it. Can we really say: “I accept the Lord into my heart” while we act against him? Sure, I believe in him, one might say, but he will surely understand why I am acting against his wishes. No, we cannot do that. The temptation to sin is always present, yet to preach against sin and do it yourself? That shows a lack of will behind faith. Christ bids us against this. Do not simply act as a preacher of his word but live it as well.
But Jesus does not stop there in his criticism. He begins to prod at the very public nature of the Pharisee’s spiritual work. He says, to quote, “They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.”
Preaching the lord’s work is certainly a task of good, but the Pharisees of his age are not doing it out of only spreading the word of God. These Pharisees, as Jesus observes, do it to be seen. They do it to be praised. They relish being seen by the public doing holy things. They benefit by showing off their holiness. Might I call to mind another line from the sixth chapter of Matthew: “But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others.”
The lesson in that line is abundantly clear when tied together with the repudiation of the actions of the Pharisees. Our actions, especially those made to follow Christ, are not for social benefit and popularity. If the goal was popularity, then much of the moral teachings of the Church, like those of chastity, would be discarded. In fact, even in the age of Christ, to follow him was to accept persecution. To be a Christian was to accept persecution and oppression, execution and taxation, to follow the Lord. So no, to act in a holy manner is not for flaunting around as if the approval of the world is important.
To act holy is about following Christ, and the teachings of our Lord. It is not about our personal gain in a fallen world. It is about the world beyond. Our hearts are called to follow the lord, not to seek personal gain through him. Perhaps one of the few things of value to take from Kant is one of his categorical imperatives: that against using people as a means rather than treating them as an end in of themselves.
Are we to treat our Lord this way? Is the Lord merely a means to an end? No. The lord is the ultimate end in of himself. We are called towards him, not to use him.
That brings us to St. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. This part of St. Paul’s letter touches on a previous visit to the parish that He had been a part of. St. Paul writes that they were “[w]orking night and day in order not to burden any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of the God.” St. Paul is admitting to this parish of their work and labor. St. Paul’s ultimate end is the spreading of the Gospel, that much is clear from his history during the New Testament. St. Paul writes and describes the burdens he undertook for them in order to spread the good news.St. Paul didn’t seek titles, he didn’t seek high seats at feasts, he didn’t make a point to seek the affirmation of the Thessalonians while he went about his work.
St. Paul understood the lesson as an early Christian just as much as we should today. Our faith isn’t about seeking approval or gifts. It isn’t about social status or being held in high regard. Our faith calls us to act so that we might seek the approval of our Lord and spread his good news. We are called to act so that we, and others, might achieve the ultimate end: salvation in the name of our Lord.
So, I leave you with that important lesson. Listen to Christ and be like St. Paul. Don’t treat your faith as a mere means, but as the ultimate end to pursue with all our wills and hearts.
Have a blessed Sunday.
Very well written. I look forward to seeing what more you have to say.