Readings & Reflections: Tuesday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time & St. Monica, August 27,2019

Born in 331 A.D. in North Africa to Christian parents, Monica married Patricius, with whom she had at least three children. She kept peace in her family, quelling her husband’s rages with meekness and winning the heart of her mother-in-law with kindness. Both were eventually won over to the Faith. After her husband’s death, Monica sought after the salvation of her son Augustine. For fifteen years, she pursued him with earnest “tears, prayers, plaints, and laments.” “Lively in hope,” yet “assiduous in weeping,” she followed Augustine to Rome and thence to Milan, where he was finally won over to the Catholic Faith at the age of thirty-two. Augustine was received into the Church in 386 A.D., and became a bishop and Doctor of the Church. Monica fell ill in nearby Ostia. “Put this body away anywhere,” Monica told her sons. “Don’t let care about it disturb you. I ask only this of you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord, wherever you may be.” She died in 387 A.D.

Please click this link to read the article on St. Monica’s Heroic Faith & Patience

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Opening Prayer

“Lord, fill me with your love and inflame my heart with zeal for your kingdom. May I act with mercy, kindness and justice in all my relations and in all that I do”. Amen.

Reading 1
1 Thes 2:1-8

You yourselves know, brothers and sisters,
that our reception among you was not without effect.
Rather, after we had suffered and been insolently treated,
as you know, in Philippi,
we drew courage through our God
to speak to you the Gospel of God with much struggle.
Our exhortation was not from delusion or impure motives,
nor did it work through deception.
But as we were judged worthy by God to be entrusted with the Gospel,
that is how we speak,
not as trying to please men,
but rather God, who judges our hearts.
Nor, indeed, did we ever appear with flattering speech, as you know,
or with a pretext for greed–God is witness–
nor did we seek praise from men,
either from you or from others,
although we were able to impose our weight as Apostles of Christ.
Rather, we were gentle among you,
as a nursing mother cares for her children.
With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you
not only the Gospel of God, but our very selves as well,
so dearly beloved had you become to us.

The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 139:1-3, 4-6

R. (1) You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
O LORD, you have probed me and you know me;
you know when I sit and when I stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,
with all my ways you are familiar.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know the whole of it.
Behind me and before, you hem me in
and rest your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
too lofty for me to attain.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.

Gospel
Mt 23:23-26

Jesus said:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin,
and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity.
But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.
Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,
but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup,
so that the outside also may be clean.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

Reflection 1 – Woe to you… you hypocrites

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”

When God’s speaks to us about the Pharisees and their hypocrisy, He opens to us the value and importance of our inner life. He focuses on what is so deeply imbedded inside us and not what is obvious and visible to everyone.

When we do God’s work and draw people into His fold, He wants us to make sure that our lives are aligned to His word- His love and mercy.  God wants us to make sure that our hearts are pure and clean, free of any taint and blemish of self-centeredness as we might fall into the same predicament the hard-hearted Pharisees had.  Instead of being able to make disciples of all men, because of their self-righteousness and self-centered ways, they turned those whom they drew closer to God twice as evil as them. Jesus Himself said:  “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you frauds! You travel over sea and land to make a single convert but once he is converted you make a devil of him twice as wicked as yourselves.”

When we are self-righteous and so focused on self, we become so rigid in our ways that we tend to address the strict observance of every law and statute of God, making it almost impossible for one to come close to God.  We become so conscious of the external observance of rituals and incidentals but we forget the goodness that is in a man’s heart.  What is worse is we hardly apply it to ourselves.  As such, we effectively shut the doors of God’s Church on people and begin to believe that it is only meant for a chosen few who have made it to one’s inner circle.

Today, we need to look within our hearts and try to see if there is something of the Pharisee that has remained unnoticed in our hearts. But to detect it, we need God’s grace so that we may be able to open our hearts and acknowledge our very own self-righteousness.  We have to accept that there is a force that enables us to do good and give love to others yet is overpowered by a sinful force that makes us put importance on the wrong things and on what we do not need to be with our Lord.  We have to realize that we are not far from being an authentic Pharisee.

God’s message for all of us is to cleanse our inner lives, so that our words and actions will likewise be clean and conforming to His Word.  “Cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”  We need to clean up our hearts and not cover it up.  We have to give our lives to God as He builds people from the inside out.  We have to open the door of our hearts and let Jesus in so that His grace may flow into our hearts, so that He will make us strong inside, so that we may be able to truly bring God, His mercy, love and healing to all men.  To do this, we need to see clearly what is deep within us and recognize our imperfections and give our all to working with God till every space within us is alive, filled with His Light and His Spirit!

As we disciple our flock and bring them closer to God, let us always be aware of the lessons brought to us by our Lord in today’s gospel as we might be as guilty as the Pharisees and scribes. Have we ignored the inherent goodness in everyman’s heart? Have we neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity?

Direction

Focus on our inner lives and let God’s transforming grace to work deep in our hearts.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, teach me your ways.  Cleanse my heart.  Mold me and change me. In Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Reflection 2 –Do not neglect justice, mercy and faith

Do you allow any blind-spots to blur your vision of God’s kingdom and his ways? Jesus went to the heart of the matter when he called the religious leaders of his day blindPharisees and hypocrites! A hypocrite is an actor or imposter who says one thing but does the opposite or who puts on an outward appearance of doing good while inwardly clinging to wrong attitudes, selfish desires and ambitions, or bad intentions. Many scribes and Pharisees had made it a regular practice to publicly put on a good show of outward zeal and piety with the intention of winning greater honors, privileges, and favors among the people. Jesus had a very good reason for severely rebuking the scribes and Pharisees, the religious teachers and leaders, for misleading people and neglecting the heart and essence of God’s law – love of God and love of neighbor

What forms our outward practices and habits?
The scribes in particular devoted their whole lives to the study of God’s law contained in the five books of Moses (Torah). As the religious experts of their day, they took great pride in their knowledge and outward observance of the commandments and precepts of the law of Moses. They further divided the 613 precepts of the Law of Moses into thousands of tiny rules and regulations. They were so exacting in their interpretations and in trying to live them out, that they had little time for much else. By the time they finished compiling their interpretations it took no less than fifty volumes to contain them! Jesus chastised them for neglecting the more important matters of religion, such as justice and the love of God. In their misguided zeal they had lost sight of God and of his purpose for the law.

God’s law of love reveals what is truly important and necessary
Jesus used the example of tithing to show how far they had missed the mark. God had commanded a tithe of the first fruits of one’s labor as an expression of thanksgiving and honor for his providential care for his people (Deuteronomy 14:22; Leviticus 27:30). The scribes, however, went to extreme lengths to tithe on insignificant things (such as tiny plants) with great mathematical accuracy. They were very attentive to minute matters of little importance, but they neglected to care for the needy and the weak. Jesus admonished them because their hearts were not right. They were filled with pride and contempt for others who were not like themselves. They put unnecessary burdens on others while neglecting to show charity, especially to the weak and the poor.

The scribes and Pharisees meticulously went through the outward observance of their religious duties and practices while forgetting the realities of God’s intention and purpose for the law – his love and righteousness (justice and goodness). Jesus used a humorous example to show how out of proportion matters had gotten with them. Gnats were considered the smallest of insects and camels were considered the largest of animals in Palestine. Both were considered ritually impure. The scribes went to great lengths to avoid contact with gnats, even to the point of straining the wine cup with a fine cloth lest they accidentally swallowed a gnat. The stark contrast must have drawn chuckles as well as groans.

God’s love shapes our minds and transforms our hearts and actions 
What was the point of Jesus’ humorous and important lesson? The essence of God’s commandments is rooted in love – love of God and love of neighbor, righteousness (justice and goodness), and mercy. God is love and everything he does, including his justice and goodness, flows from his love for us. True love is costly and sacrificial – it both embraces and lifts the burdens of others. Do you allow the love of God to shape and transform the way you live your daily life – including the way you think of others, speak of them, and treat them?

“Lord Jesus, fill me with your love and mercy that I may always think, speak, and treat others with fairness, loving-kindness, patience, and goodness.” – Read the source: https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/2019/aug27.htm

Reflection 3 – Spiritual maturity

In the first reading (1 Thes. 2:1-8), Paul speaks about his manner of teaching. He did not use flattery or come with self-serving motives as did the religious entrepreneurs who made their way throughout the region. In an early Christian document called the Didache, people are warned to let wandering preachers reside with them only one or two days. If they remain longer than, they are becoming parasitical and can be regarded as false teachers. Paul is anxious to distinguish himself from these promoters. He was as gentle as a nursing mother. The real function of a priest or teacher is not to pump people full of information and grace but to assist them to spiritual maturity. Philosophers often speak of the Socratic method, a technique designed to elicit truth from students. Socrates used to call himself a midwife in his enabling students to realize their capacity for truth and judgment. We all have the ability to recognize truth within us. A teacher’s function is to activate that capacity. The religious teacher is an enabler and not a religious encyclopedia. The function of an apostle, priest or religious teacher is to assist the growth of mature individuals in the Lord.

A lack of spiritual maturity dominates today’s Gospel reading (Mt. 23:23-26). We are in the presence of classic instances of missing the point. The Pharisees engaged in excessive tithing while overlooking the more significant requirements of basic justice and mercy. They strained out the unclean gnat but swallowed the camel. They were preoccupied with the outward appearance of the cup without a second thought for its insides. Spiritual maturity frequently comes to a matter of priorities. The difference between a child and an adult is not found simply in the quantiy of information received and retained but in the manner in which that information is processed and ordered. The adult presumably knows what is important and what is not. Spiritual maturity is also a matter of evaluation. Some religious regulations are more important than others.

Maturity cannot be taught. It is a gift toward which a good leader helps us grow. (Source: Rev. Joseph Krempa, Daily Homilies, Vol. I. New York: St. Pauls, 1985, pp. 141-142).

Reflection 4 – Housekeeping Of The Heart

You also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy. —Matthew 23:28

As a young homemaker, I enjoyed cleaning our house from top to bottom. The trouble was, it never stayed clean for long. Eventually I discovered that if I kept our house reasonably tidy, it appeared to be clean even when it wasn’t. Gradually I concentrated more on the appearance of a clean house and neglected thorough cleaning. This compromise was not only convenient, it was convincing. Sometimes even I was fooled. But on sunny days my clean-looking house was revealed for what it was—dusty and dirty.

In Jesus’ day, the scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites who concentrated on the appearance of holiness while neglecting their heart-holiness (Matt. 23:25). When the light of Jesus shined on them, He revealed the truth about their outwardly religious life. He didn’t say these external acts were necessarily wrong, but they were wrongfully used as a coverup for wickedness. For them, inner housecleaning was long overdue.

Keeping up appearances in our housework isn’t wrong, but pretending our hearts are clean is. Only those who are clean on the inside will welcome Jesus with confidence when He returns. Is your heart ready? Or is heart-cleaning needed? Now is the time to take care of it!  — Joanie Yoder

Thinking It Over
What is the only way to get a clean heart? (Titus 3:3-6).
After we have put our faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:16),
how do we keep our heart clean? (1 John 1:9).

At the heart of holiness is holiness of the heart (Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 5 – Just Pretending

You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? –Romans 2:23

In his youth, John Philip Sousa, the grandson of America’s great composer and conductor by the same name, received large sums of money as a guest bandleader. Soon, however, his conscience began to trouble him. He knew that he was asked to conduct because of his famous ancestor, not due to his own ability. In fact, the younger Sousa couldn’t read a note of music. So he decided to give up his lucrative charade and start earning a real living.

Have you ever pretended to be someone you’re not? Could you be masquerading as a devoted disciple of Jesus when in fact you’re a spiritual sham? That question is as shocking as an ice-cold shower, but I know from personal experience that self-deception is possible.

The sin that Jesus most often denounced was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. They were playing the role of God-fearers but not living in holy and grateful obedience to His will. Jesus saw them as “blind guides” (Mt. 23:24) and said they cleansed “the outside of the cup” but inside were “full of extortion and self-indulgence” (v.25).

Are we just pretending? That question compels prayerful self-examination. It should motivate us to make the needed changes in our attitudes and in the way we live.  — Vernon C. Grounds

We fuss over form and we put on a face,
All the while showing God disrespect,
Not seeing how pride is eclipsing the grace
That the light of Christ’s life should reflect. –Gustafson

The harder you work at what you should be, the less you’ll try to hide what you are(Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries). 

Reflection 6 – Camels And Gnats

You . . . have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. —Matthew 23:23

Jesus had some harsh things to say about the religious leaders of His day. They focused on the details of their religion and missed God’s big picture. They even tithed their household spices! (Mt. 23:23). There was nothing particularly wrong with giving attention to these small matters. The problem was that they ignored the bigger issues that matter to God—justice, mercy, and faith.

Jesus called these leaders “blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel” (v.24). They weren’t able to tell the difference between a gnat issue and a camel issue.

In his book Hey, Wait a Minute! John Madden recalls legendary football coach Vince Lombardi’s explanation of the difference between a good coach and a poor one. Lombardi said, “The best coaches know what the end result looks like. . . . The bad coaches don’t know what they want. The good coaches do.” Or, to say it another way, good coaches know what’s important in order to win, and they pursue those priorities. They have the big picture in mind.

Success in the Christian life is much the same. We must be aware of God’s “camel issues”—justice and mercy and faith. Then we must put them into practice, asking each day for the Holy Spirit’s help. Let’s not waste our lives on gnats.  — Haddon W. Robinson

True religion is to know
The love that Christ imparts;
True religion is to show
This love to burdened hearts. —DJD

To make the most of your life, make God’s goals your goals (Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 7 – Resolve

Resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way. —Romans 14:13

I once decorated a notebook with definitions of the words idea, thought, opinion, preference, belief, and conviction to remind myself that they do not mean the same thing. The temptation to elevate an opinion to the level of a conviction can be strong, but doing so is wrong, as we learn from Romans 14.

In the first century, religious traditions based on the law were so important to religious leaders that they failed to recognize the One who personified the law, Jesus. They were so focused on minor matters that they neglected the important ones (Matt. 23:23).

Scripture says that we need to subjugate even our beliefs and convictions to the law of love (Rom. 13:8,10; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8), for love fulfills the law and leads to peace and mutual edification.

When opinions and preferences become more important to us than what God says is valuable to Him, we have made idols out of our own beliefs. Idolatry is a serious offense because it violates the first and most important command: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:3).

Let’s resolve not to elevate our own opinions above God’s, lest they become a stumbling block and keep others from knowing the love of Jesus.  — Julie Ackerman Link

A Prayer
Lord, help me not to elevate my opinions and
make others follow. You are the convicter of hearts.
May others learn of Your love through me.

The greatest force on earth is not the compulsion of law but the compassion of love (Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).

Reflection 8 – Judgment with mercy and fidelity