21st Week: Aug 25-31
Aug 26 Monday: Mt 23:13-22:
The context: It is the third day of the original
"Holy Week" in Jerusalem, a day of controversy and personal attacks.
The Master is under fire, and challenges the religious leaders of Israel,
pronouncing the first three of the eight woes Jesus would levy levies against
the religious leaders, calling them hypocrites and publicly humiliating them.
The Judeo-Christians of Matthew’s early Christian community argued that the
Gentile Christians should follow all Torah laws, oral laws, and oral
traditions. Matthew’s account reminds them of the criticism Jesus laid against
the scribes and Pharisees in today’s Gospel passage.
Sins of the Scribes and Pharisees: Matthew 23 gives us the
Master’s scathing condemnation of the Jewish leadership, expressing the rolling
thunder of Jesus’ anger and sorrow at the hypocrisy or double standard of the
scribes and Pharisees. Jesus levels three accusations against the Pharisees: 1)
they do not practice what they preach, 2) they adopt a very narrow and
burdensome interpretation of the Torah, and 3) they seek public acknowledgment
and glory for themselves rather than for God. Jesus calls them hypocrites
because i) although they know that the essence of religion is loving one’s
neighbors, seeing God in them, they teach that external observance of man-made
laws alone is the real essence of religion; ii) although they are zealous
missionaries in inviting converts to Judaism, they overburden the converts with
man-made laws and regulations as the essence of Judaism; and iii) they try to
bluff God by misinterpreting the Law and misleading the people. Jesus gives the
example of swearing and accuses them of cleverly evading binding oaths and
solemn promises by falsified interpretations.
Life message: 1) What Jesus wants is a pure
heart, with no element of deceit. We should not follow the dog-in-the-manger
policy of the Pharisees by not keeping God’s commandments ourselves and not
allowing others to keep them. 2) Let us avoid frivolous swearing and oaths and
all forms of hypocrisy and superstition in our religious life.
(Fr. Tony) https://frtonyshomilies.com/
Aug 27 Tuesday: [Saint Monica]:
The context: Chapter 23 of Matthew’s Gospel
presents the rolling thunder of Jesus’ anger and sorrow at the blatant
hypocrisy of the Pharisees, in the form of a series of eight denunciations.
Today’s Gospel passage contains the fourth, fifth, and sixth charges: unauthorized
extra tithing, exaggerated zeal for the Law and undue emphasis on external
cleanliness as a cheap substitute for internal purity. For Jesus, the essence
of religion is offering a clean heart to God, a heart filled with love, mercy,
compassion, and forgiveness. Mere external observance of rituals without
cleansing the heart is hypocrisy.
The fourth of the eight accusations is that the Pharisees
practice non-required and silly tithing of herbs in the kitchen garden, while
they fail to observe “the weightier matters of the Law, Justice, Mercy
and Faith,” thus missing the spirit of tithing. Tithing was intended
to acknowledge God’s ownership of all our possessions, to support the Temple
worship, and to help the poor in the Jewish community. The fifth denunciation
is of their exaggerated zeal for observing the letter of the Law, for instance
filtering the drinks to avoid unclean insects, while committing serious sins
without any prick of conscience. The sixth indictment is of their exaggerated
zeal for ritual, external cleanliness while they leave their minds and hearts
filled with pride, evil intentions, prejudice, and injustice and fail to
practice mercy or offer compassion to suffering people.
Life Message: 1) Let us not be pharisaical in
our religious life by meticulously practicing external observance of piety and
devotion while remaining unjust, uncharitable, arrogant, impatient, cruel,
stubborn, irritable, and judgmental. We are tempted to hide the bad things
about ourselves and advertise the good things, so, the bad things grow, and the
good things are dissipated. Let us try to have noble intentions for all our
good deeds. 2) Let us learn to love God living in others by rendering them
sacrificial service with agápe love.
(https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Aug 28 Wednesday: [Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of
the Church]: The context: Today’s passage, again taken from chapter 23
of Matthew’s Gospel, gives the seventh and eighth accusations made against the
Pharisees on the third day of the original “Holy Week” in Jerusalem, as Jesus
addressed them in the Temple precincts. Jesus called them hypocrites seven
times told them plainly that they were whitewashed tombs containing rotten
stuff inside.
Hypocrisy exposed: Jesus compared the scribes
and Pharisees to the tombs on the sides of the road leading to Jerusalem. In
preparation for the three major Jewish feasts, the Scribes and Pharisees used
to have these tombs whitewashed, so that the pilgrims would not be ritually
defiled by unknowingly walking over one. In this seventh charge, Jesus accused
the Pharisees of moral filth, of hiding injustice and immorality inside
themselves and covering the corruption with “whitewash” — the pretenses of
piety and religious fervor. In his eighth and final indictment, Jesus also
criticized their false zeal in decorating the old monuments and rebuilding new
monuments for the past prophets who had been persecuted and murdered by the
forefathers of the Pharisees because these modern Pharisees had neither learned
from nor been changed by the messages of the now-dead prophets.
Life message: 1) We need to be men and women of
integrity, sincerity, and good character originating from our Christian Faith
and convictions without any element of hypocrisy in our Christian life. We
should not make a show of holiness and religious fervor when we are not
internally holy. Here is St. John Chrysostom’s (4th century) comment on the
matter: “You have been counted worthy to become temples of God. But you have
instead suddenly become more like sepulchers, having the same sort of foul
smell. This is dreadful. It is extreme wretchedness that one in whom Christ
dwells and in whom the Holy Spirit has worked such great works should turn out
to be a sepulcher, a place for death, carrying a dead soul – a soul deadened by
sins, a soul paralyzed – in a living body!”
(Fr. Tony) https://frtonyshomilies.com/
Aug 29 Thursday: [The Passion of Saint John the Baptist]:
The context: Today’s Gospel presents the last scene of a tragic drama
with three main characters, Herod, Herodias, and John the Baptist. Herod was a
jealous, weak puppet-king with a very guilty conscience, who answered to Rome
for his rule of one section of Israel, at that time a Roman subject-province.
Herod feared the prophet John because John had publicly scolded him for
divorcing his legal wife without adequate cause and for marrying his
sister-in-law Herodias who was his niece, thus committing a double violation of
Mosaic Law. Herodias was an immoral, greedy woman, stained by a triple guilt
and enraged by John’s public criticism of her: 1) She was an unfaithful woman
of loose morals. 2) She was a greedy and vengeful woman. 3) She was an evil
mother who used her teenage daughter for the wicked purposes of murder and
revenge by encouraging the girl to dance in public in the royal palace against
the royal etiquette of the day. John the Baptist was a fiery preacher and the
herald of the Promised Messiah. He was also a Spirit-filled prophet with the
courage of his prophetic convictions who dared to criticize and scold an
Oriental monarch and his proud wife in public.
God’s punishment: After the martyrdom of John, Herod was
defeated by Aretas, the father of his first wife. Later, both Herod and
Herodias were sent into exile by Caligula, the Roman emperor. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Aug 30 Friday: The context: Today’s parable,
taken from Matthew’s Gospel, brings the usual warnings about preparation for
the end of our own world, the end of our own times, and our own passage to
another world. The parable tells us that a searching, watching, and growing heart
is essential for a lively, dynamic Faith in God; it also asks us whether we are
ready for these events and how we are preparing for them.
The parable: Since a wedding was a great occasion, the whole
village would line up at the sides of the road to wish God’s blessings on the
bride and groom in procession. The invited ones would join the procession,
which started from the bride’s house, and ended at the groom’s house to take
part in the week-long celebration. Since the bridegroom might come to the
bride’s house unexpectedly, the bridal party had to be ready at any time, with
virgins carrying lighted torches and reserve oil in jars. The five foolish
virgins who could not welcome the groom’s party lost not only the opportunity
of witnessing the marriage ceremony, but also of participating in the week-long
celebration that followed. The local meaning is that the foolish virgins
represent the “Chosen People of God” who were waiting for the Messiah but were
shut out from the Messianic banquet because they were unprepared. The universal
meaning is that the five foolish virgins represent those who fail to prepare
for the end of their lives and for the Final Judgment. They do not put their
Faith in Jesus and live it out by keeping Jesus’ Commandment to love others as
Jesus Himself did.
Life messages: 1) We must be wise enough to
remain ever prepared: Wise Christians carefully make their daily choices for
God. They are ready to put the commandment of love into practice by showing
kindness and forgiveness.
2) Let us be sure that our lamps are ready for the end of
our lives: Spiritual readiness, preparation and growth come as a result of
intentional habits built into one’s life. These include taking time for prayer
and being alone with God; reading God’s Word; leading a Sacramental life;
cooperating with God’s grace by offering acts of loving service to others;
practicing moral faithfulness, and living always in loving obedience to Him.
(Fr. Tony) https://frtonyshomilies.com/
Aug 31 Saturday: The context: The three parables
in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew (The Wise and Foolish Virgins, The
Talents, The Last Judgment) are about the end times, the end of the world, and
the end of our lives. The parable of the talents is an invitation for each one
of us to live in such a way that we make the best use of the talents God has
given us. Then, at the hour of our death, God will say: “Well done, My
good and faithful servant! Come and share the joy of your Master.” The
parable challenges us to ask the questions: Are we using our talents and gifts
primarily to serve God? Are we doing everything we can to carry out God’s will?
The story: A very rich person, about to set off on a journey, entrusted very
large sums of wealth (talents), to three of his slaves, each according to his
personal ability: five, two, and one. Through skillful trading and investing,
the first and second slaves managed to double their master’s money. Afraid of
taking risk and lazy by nature, the third slave buried his talent in the
ground. On the day of accounting, the master rewarded the two clever
slaves ("Come, share your master’s joy."), but punished
the third slave whom he calls "wicked and slothful" (v.
26).
Life messages: 1) We need to trust God enough to
make use of the gifts and abilities we have been given. Everyone is
given different talents and blessings by God. So, we should ask ourselves how
we are using our particular gifts in the service of our Christian community and
the wider society. 2) We need to make use of our talents in our parish. We
should be always willing to share our abilities in the liturgy, in Sunday
school classes, and in social outreach activities like feeding the hungry,
housing the homeless, and visiting the sick and the shut-ins. 3) We need to
trade with our talent of Christian Faith: All of us in the Church today have
received at least one talent. We have received the gift of Faith. Our
responsibility as men and women of Faith is not just to preserve and “keep” the
Faith but to live it out daily and pass it on faithfully to the next generation
in our family and in our parish community.
(Fr. Tony) https://frtonyshomilies.com/
