Friday in the 28th Week of Ordinary Time, October 20, 2023

Luke 12, 1-7

At that time: So many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot. Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples, “Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees.  There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops. I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more. I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one. Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.”

“So many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot.”  Whenever he can, St. Luke emphasizes the size of the crowds attracted to Jesus.  The Gentiles to whom the early Christians preached puzzled over why the Lord’s own people rejected him, and why they should accept him.  Luke tends to lay the blame for their rejection on their weak faith, as exemplified at the very beginning of his Gospel by the priest Zechariah’s hesitancy to believe the message of the angel Gabriel.  By telling of the crowds, the Evangelist shows their initial attraction, but they do not hold fast to the Lord’s teachings.  They have no root: “They have no root in themselves, but are only for a time: and then when tribulation and persecution arises for the word, they stumble” (Mark 4, 17).

As the crowds assembled, the Lord speaks first to his Apostles: “Beware of the leaven — that is, the hypocrisy — of the Pharisees.”  He warns the Apostles lest they should be drawn into the thinking of the Pharisees, so pervasive at the time.  Their godlessness, the proper translation of the Greek word here rendered as “hypocrisy” is called “leaven” — yeast — because of how a relatively small group of people can poison the religious understanding of an entire people.  We might compare those theologians who propose or espouse teachings opposed to the Catholic Faith today to the Pharisees of the Lord’s time and who have had an oversized influence among Catholics.

“There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.”  The Lord may have intended to continue to speak on the “leaven” of the Pharisees, seeing as how it spread in an almost hidden way due to a lack of opposition.  The Pharisees had to themselves the whole field of teaching the Law to the people and, with no one to question their assertions, they spread as certified doctrine.  But this “leaven” will be revealed to the world as godless on the last day when the Lord comes again, and to questioning minds long before that.  “Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops.”  The Lord draws the conclusion for his Apostles from his teaching: Just as the godless errors of the Pharisees will be revealed and the Pharisees punished for it, anyone who falsified the teachings of Jesus Christ will be shown to be a false teacher or false prophet.  How carefully, then, we should study the Lord’s teachings so that we understand what he intended to teach and not cherry-pick or deliberately misinterpret them to fit our own agenda.  And this is godlessness.

“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more.”  The Lord further counsels his Apostles not to have concern for their rejection by the Pharisees and being cast out of their synagogues, with all the consequences that would follow.  He is saying: Do not succumb to their pervasive teaching of the Pharisees, do not join them, and do not fear them.  Rather, persevere in the word of God which he is giving them.  “I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.”. The Lord is saying: If you are going to fear anyone, fear God, who alone is the Master of life and death and can cast into hell; who else is worth fearing?  “Gehenna” was a place of abomination outside Jerusalem where human sacrifices were offered and cursed by the Prophet Jeremiah: “Behold the days come, says the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of Gehenna, but the valley of slaughter” (Jeremiah 17, 6).

“Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God.”  that is, If you are to fear anyone, fear the One who gives life and death and casts into hell, but do not fear him because he loves you and cares for your needs.  “Even the hairs of your head have all been counted.”  Fear not, for no detail of your life escapes his notice.

“If God be for us, who is against us?  He who spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how has he not also, with him, given us all things?” (Romans 8, 31-32).  This freedom from fear allows us to confidently spread the Gospel through our words, deeds, and prayers.