The Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 30, 2026

Matthew 16, 21–27

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”  Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.”

The Greek text begins the first verse of this reading with the words, “From that”, that is, “from that time”.  St. Matthew is telling us that at some time following the naming of Simon the fisherman as “Peter”, the “rock”, Jesus began to tell his Apostles about the future towards which he was nearing as they made their way to Jerusalem.  Jesus first lets the momentous teaching about this “rock” on which he was to build his “Church” sink in before the much more shocking announcement of his Passion, Death, and Resurrection.  St. Matthew says that he “began” to tell them this.  He might have meant that from then on he did this, through parables and also directly speaking of these events.  Just after the teaching about Peter as the “rock”, Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John, and afterwards Jesus mentioned to them his Resurrection, which they did not understand, so it is clear that he had not spoken much of this at that time.  This leads to the conclusion that the rebuke of Peter in this reading did not happen directly after he had been named thus by the Lord.  The sequence of events makes more sense if we see this rebuke as taking place as the Lord and the Apostles drew much nearer Jerusalem, or even after they had entered it, when Jesus had become much more explicit about what would happen to him.  Matthew places it at this spot in his Gospel because it is his custom to group his sayings about the Lord according to theme, with less thought to historical order.  The theme here would be Peter’s relationship with the Lord.  This understanding of the events also eliminates for us the jarring effect of Jesus raising Peter to the heights in one moment, and then calling him “Satan” in the next.  There is some time between these events, days or weeks.  We recall another jarring effect that Matthew produces in the last verse of chapter two and the first verse of chapter three of his Gospel.  There, we go immediately from the infancy of Jesus to “In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the desert” — thirty years later.

“God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”  The expression Peter uses, the Greek word hilaos, does not mean “God forbid”, which, in any case, would not be an expression Jews would use.  The word itself means something like “merciful” or “favorable”.  In the context here, it could be translated very loosely as “Mercy help us” or the simple ejaculation “Mercy!” which we sometimes hear today.  Peter would not have used the word as an expression of astonishment, but as a sort of a statement, or the prelude to an oath: “No such thing shall ever happen to you.”  Peter may have taken our Lords words about his coming Death as a challenge to see which of his followers would step up to fight for him, just as the Lord had told the Apostles to feed the feed the crowd of five thousand themselves, presumably (in Peter’s mind) to see how they would react.  Peter, the most zealous of the Apostles, is ready to defend his Lord.  But the One whom Peter has rightly named the Son of God does not need his assistance.  Here, as later when Peter unsheathes his sword in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord rebukes him.  

His words must have stung and confused the Apostle: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” This is as strong as the Lord’s “Begone, Satan!” from Matthew 4, 2, when the devil tempted him to worship him in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world.  The Lord calls no one else “Satan”, coming only as close as to tell certain of his opponents that the devil was their father (cf. John 8, 44).  To understand what the Lord means by calling Peter “Satan”, it helps to compare this incident with the earlier one, when the Lord faced Satan in the wilderness.  On the first occasion, the devil sought to determine who this Jesus was, “tempting”, or, testing him.  As the Lord’s wisdom and holiness of life became more apparent through the testing, the devil continued to think of him not as divine but as merely human, finally promising him to rule the kingdoms of the world, which the devil plainly thought was the ultimate fulfillment of human desire.  Here, the devil did not — and could not — think as God would think, but only as a man would, or might.  How many times throughout history had he succeeded in gaining the souls of men and women with such a false promise?  This is what Peter does, and he, more than any other disciple deserved such a reprimand because as Jesus had confirmed for him, it was his Heavenly Father who had revealed to him that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, that he was divine.  Peter’s mistake is to forget, ignore, or not think through what this meant, and so to contradict, as though to countermand, the Lord’s will.  For, the Lord did not say that he might “suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised”, but that he would certainly undergo these things.  Jesus, in his divinity, was revealing the events of the future to the Apostles in order to prepare them for what was to come.  Peter, in effect, is treating Jesus as he would any mere mortal leader of whom he was a follower: he is “thinking not as God does, but as human beings do”.  

Matthew next describes Jesus as evidently referencing that last temptation, for he says to his Apostles, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?”  As if to warn them that he is not seeking for himself nor promising them “all the kingdoms of the world”, the conquest of which would presumably begin once they had secured Jerusalem.  And when Jesus says “life”, here, he means one’s soul, one’s eternal life.  His speaking of the necessity of their denying themselves, picking up their crosses, and following him means that rather than pursuing worldly power they must renounce it, even as he has.  But in renouncing it, by renouncing their own wills for that of Jesus, they gain their souls and eternal life: “For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.”

Renouncing one’s will for that of Jesus, which is to say, promising Jesus obedience to his will for us, is no easy task.  It is the hardest thing a human can do.  Not even all the angels succeeded in doing this.  It turns a person inside out.  The most graphic display of this is in the vows and promises made by a man or woman upon their ordination or their making their final vows in the religious life.  Nowadays, contracts do not mean very much even at the time people enter into them.  But when a person publicly promises to serve God, it is a powerful sign for all of us that it is something we can want, and must want, to do.

Friday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 29, 2026

Mark 6, 17-29

Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so. Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him. She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee. Herodias’ own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.” He even swore many things to her, “I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom.” She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.” The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request, “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison. He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

St. John the Baptist preceded the Lord Jesus in that he was born before him, preached of his coming, and in terms of sanctity, for as the Lord himself said of him, “There has not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11, 11).  His sanctity consisted of his relentless carrying out of the will of God, challenging the established religious authorities and even the political leaders of the time.  He did not do so recklessly or needlessly.  He challenged the Pharisees to put their houses in order before facing the wrath to come.  And as the Prophet Elijah rebuked King Ahab for his unlawful marriage to the pagan Jezebel, so John rebuked King Herod for the illegal marriage of his brother’s former wife.  At the height of his influence and following, he baptized Jesus of Nazareth and recognized him as the Messiah concerning whom he had preached.  In the several months following this encounter of the two, John’s influence and following ebbed while that of the Lord grew.  John understood this, and said to one of his adherents, “He must increase but I must decrease” (John 3, 30).  All the same, he continued to preach repentance and to baptize up until Herod (or his wife)  felt threatened enough that soldiers came and dragged him away in chains.

John was not formally charged with any crime nor was he tried by any court.  He was jailed simply on the king’s order.  The Evangelists imply that John remained in prison for some time, but probably not more than a few months: “When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him.”  The Greek word translated here as “very much perplexed” means “at his wits end”, as though not knowing what to do about his marriage or about John.  Despite this, he heard him gladly, willingly.  It seems that with John in custody, he no longer posed a threat and Herod, who went to listen to him, does not seem to harbor any murderous intentions towards him.  Herod is shown as a dupe by his swearing to give his niece anything she wanted as a reward for her dance.  She also comes across as a mere pawn in going to her mother for advice rather than stating her own preference.  The devil works this way: through the hapless and the unwary, he harms the good.  He is the master manipulator whose sole goal is to destroy whatever is good.  The knowledge that he cannot win against God only embitters and enrages him further.  The devil managed to start a war as a result of this marriage of Herod and Herodias, for to marry her, Herod divorced his first wife, the daughter of an Arabian king.  This war broke out within a year of the Death and Resurrection of the Lord and proved disastrous for Herod.  A few years after the war the Roman Emperor Caligula accused him of plotting against him and both Herod and Herodias were sent into exile in the province of Gaul, where they died in misery.

John the Baptist’s life ended not in misery but in glory, circumstances notwithstanding, for his end was attended by hosts of angels, who brought his soul to the place where the great Patriarchs and Prophets awaiting the coming of Christ, who would appear to them on the day after his own Death.

We pray that through John’s intercession we too might stand up for the commandments of God in the face of all evil.

Friday in the Twenty-First Week of Ordinary Time, August 28, 2026

The Feast of St. Augustine of Hippo

Matthew 25:1-13

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise ones replied, ‘No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’ While they went off to buy it, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked. Afterwards the other virgins came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’ But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Throughout the New Testament we find the Kingdom of heaven likened to a  Jewish wedding feast, beginning with the words of St. John the Baptist: “He that has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled” (John 3, 29).  St. Paul speaks likewise: “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11, 2).  Finally, at the end of the Book of Revelation, we read of the vision revealed to St. John in which the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven, adorned like a bride for her groom (cf. Revelation 21, 2).  We learn from these references that marriage serves as the primary image for the union of Christ and his Church.  The Lord himself shows this in various parables.  In the parable from today’s Gospel, we see how he uses the marriage feast to teach about the need for perseverance in faith in the life of his disciples.

The context of the parable is the return from the house of the bride’s family.  The groom brings her to his house so that they might begin their life together.  As part of this ritualized action, ten virgins, that is, girls in their early teens, would wait for the bride and groom outside the house and light the way for them until they went inside.  It was quite an honor to be chosen for this role, just as being chosen as a member of a wedding party would be for people today.  Now, five of the girls are described as being “wise”.  The Greek word actually means “practical”, “shrewd”, “sensible”, “prudent”, and “well-behaved”.  These girls realized that they were called to this role in order to fulfill a simple purpose, and so they procured that which would enable them to accomplish this.  They saw they were called to serve.  The other five girls are called “foolish”, and the Greek word is the basis for our word “moron”.  The Greek word has the meaning of “being dull”, “stupid”, “mentally inert”.  These virgins do not appreciate their role and do not prepare for it.  Even if they had not acted in this role for previous marriage feasts, what was necessary to carry it out would have been widely known.  In fact, they act with contempt towards the bridegroom and his bride.

The prudent virgins are those believers who light the way for Christ as he brings his Church into heaven at the end of time.  These are the saints, the Apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and married people who have brightened the world below with the light of their faith and holiness.  Their lit lamps are their good works, and the oil is the faith which fuels these good works.  They have sufficient faith no matter how long they must wait for the Lord to come, for they have prayed for it to be strengthened, and they have increased it through witnessing it to others.  The foolish virgins showed up with lamps, but they did not do these things, as though the role itself were repugnant to them, or the bride and bridegroom were contemptible to them.  That they run to buy oil when it is already too late shows only that they wish to not be left outside but to join the party within.  They do not care for the host and hostess, only for themselves.  The groom’s words, “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you”, repeat back to the foolish virgins in words what they have said to him with their actions. 

Jesus says to us, and not for the first time, “Stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”  It is necessary for us to take stock of our own situations and to see if we have what we need for when the Lord comes again, for he surely will.

We celebrate today the feast of St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the two great theologians since the Apostles who have shaped the Catholic Faith.  His two best known works are his Confessions and The City of God, but he also wrote hundreds of relatively short sermons that are filled with insights on the Scriptures and the life of our Lord.  Much of this is online.  We ask for his intercession that he may instill in our hearts a great love of the Lord Jesus and his holy words.

Thursday in the Twenty-First Week of Ordinary Time

The Feast of St. Monica

Matthew 24:42-51

Jesus said to his disciples: “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

Throughout his Gospel, St. Matthew records very many instances of the Lord Jesus teaching about the coming judgment at the end of the world.  Doing so enabled Matthew to console the persecuted Jewish Christians for whom he was writing.  In Matthew’s Gospel more than the others, we see the wicked, often thinly disguised Pharisees, scribes, and the leadership in Jerusalem — their persecutors — being punished severely while the faithful are rewarded.  The Gospel reading for today is taken from the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel.  Chapters twenty-four and twenty-five contain the last public addresses of the Lord before his Passion begins and so they constitute a farewell speech.  He does not address large crowds again.  His last words to the crowds are about the second coming, and the next time large crowds see him will be at his second coming.

The reading is cut out from the middle of the Lord’s words on his coming again for judgment, and the context is his reason for people to live in  expectation of it.  In the Greek text, this reading is connected to those words with oun, which means “therefore”.  The Greek verb here is gregoreíte, which does not mean “stay awake” but “be on the alert”, or, “keep watch”.  The difference is significant.  A person can be awake but unaware.  Jesus is telling people to stay on their toes, to keep alert, “for you do not know on which day your Lord will come.”  We might ask why it is necessary for us to keep alert, since the Lord will certainly come again whether we are paying attention or not.  Foreseeing this question, Jesus speaks in a parable: “If the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.”  We can understand this in two ways.  First, that Jesus is the thief who comes while everyone is asleep, sure of their safety.  But complacency is not real safety and if the thief comes and is able to break in, the sleepers will lose everything.  They could protect themselves with good works, and these would act as “the master of the house” keeping watch at night.  Second, it can be understood as the devil seeking to steal away a person’s faith, since faith can also be lost through complacency.

The moral Jesus gives here, “So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come”, he repeats several times in this section in the same way as he repeats “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you” over and over again as recorded the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel.  We must live holy lives today as though our souls will be demanded of us tonight (cf. Luke 12, 20).

“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.”  The servant “put in charge of his household” — the master’s household — is the disciple of Christ who “distributes to them their food”, that is, feeds others the Gospel, “at the proper time”, doing so prudently and skillfully.  “Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.”  This servant is “blessed” in the sense that he is praiseworthy and also in the spiritual sense: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25, 34).

“My master is long delayed.”  The wicked servant, that is, one who has no interest in the master except to supplant him, persuades himself that the master will not return.  He may even tell himself that the master does not really exist, and so he is not bound by any objective rules or laws the master had set down — and not even basic human decency — and acts according to to his lusts and propensity for extravagance and violence.  But here he acts against his own interests because he is a servant and does not know how to be a master.  The other servants quit and the house falls apart, untended.  The crops are not planted, or not planted at the right time and they fail.  The returning master finds his property in a disastrous shape and so he “will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  The wicked servant sails aloud in the agony of his suffering, and grinds his teeth in frustration of what he could have had if he had simply done his duty, and in rabid envy at the reward of the good and faithful servants. 

The Gospels are not for the faint of heart, and particularly not these chapters of Matthew’s Gospel, but for those who have the strength of faith and the love of God, they strengthen their strength and deepen their love.

We celebrate today the Feast of St. Monica, a woman of great faith and perseverance in prayer.  We ask her intercession for the return of wayward children to return to the arms of Holy Mother Church.

Hebrew 2

 Hebrew 2 recording :  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QWXBOxU6zLhD7Rk2KrXzw4Dhy0jNm2K2/view?usp=drivesdk

Handouts:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1--b5tXk5Dfql9P2zSbRYmrNRNb2nPGvs/view?usp=drivesdk

Wednesday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 26, 2026

Matthew 23, 27-32

Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’ Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets; now fill up what your ancestors measured out!”

“You are like whitewashed tombs.”  Today’s Gospel Reading continues the Lord’s reproach of the scribes and the Pharisees.  The Jews of the time provided two kinds of resting places for their dead.  Ordinary folks buried their dead in graves dug out of the ground.  The wealthier among them had tombs carved out of the outcrops of rock common in the Holy Land.  These tombs amounted to small compounds with a little courtyard and then the tomb itself which consisted of a chamber large enough to accommodate a human body lying on its back and also a few people who would wrap it and anoint it as well as recite prayers.  Niches were carved within the side of the tomb where the bones of the body would be placed after the flesh had decomposed so that entire families could be buried together.  The exterior of the tombs were kept clean and were even whitened so that they did not become overgrown with plants.  These would “appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.”  The Greek word translated here as “filth” should be understood as the Jewish concept of “uncleanness”.  This meant that touching the tomb made a person unclean, “beautiful” appearances notwithstanding.  The tomb is a thing of death, and belongs to the kingdom of darkness and death.  This, the Lord Jesus is telling the crowds, is the scribe and Pharisee, whatever his learning, his ability to speak, his expensive clothing, his elaborate prayers.

“You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous.”  The scribes and Pharisees wish to take the bones of the prophets from the places where they have lain buried for centuries and build new tombs for them as of to cover up how they were killed and hurriedly buried by their frightened followers.  “If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.”  The scribes and Pharisees attempt to separate themselves from the guilt of their ancestors without condemning their ancestors and separating themselves from them.  “We would not have joined them”, but we not have stopped them, either.  And the scribes and Pharisees do not say, “We will repent of the way of our ancestors by obeying the words of the prophets.”  The Lord concludes, “You are the children of those who murdered the prophets; now fill up what your ancestors measured out!”  The scribes and the Pharisees are their “children” in the sense that they carry out the work of their parents in opposing the truth and persecuting those who proclaim it.  Those who killed the prophets inspired by God followed prophets of their own choosing and making who validated their wicked way of life, as did the scribes and Pharisees of the day, who foisted upon Israel their own false interpretation of the Law and the Prophets, and then lived godless lives contrary to the Law.  They “filled up” what their ancestors “measured” through the harassment of John the Baptist and their persecution and killing the Son of God, even in the face of miracles that could be performed only with divine power.

Today we honor the saints — those of the time before Christ and of the time since he came — in many ways.  We name churches after them.  We make paintings of them.  We go to Mass on their feast days.  We (sometimes) name our children after them.  We take their names when we receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.  We pray to them in time of need.  We honor them best by imitating the virtues in which they imitated the Lord Jesus, recalling the words of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, 1: “Imitate me as I also imitate Christ.”  In this way, and infused with the Holy Spirit, we become “living temples” dedicated to the Lord Jesus, truly beautiful in every way, filled not with the dead bones of tombs but with a share in his divine life.

Personal Note: the second session of our ongoing series on Biblical. Hebrew was recorded Tuesday night and will be posted around noon on Wednesday, complete with the handouts.

Tuesday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 26, 2026

Matthew 23, 23-26

The four priests here at Blessed Sacrament continue to feel pretty well.  We are awaiting the results of our tests.  Maybe we will hear something in a few days.

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.”

In today’s reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew, we see the Lord pressing hard against the Pharisees and the scribes.  We might wonder why he would do this.  It is true that large numbers of them tried to steer people away from Jesus and to impede his ministry by explaining away his miracles and accusing him of breaking the law of Moses, but the crowds came and listened to him despite this, and very many of the people believed in him as the Messiah.  We must understand though that the Pharisees had become widely influential, so much so that for the ordinary Jew, the Pharisaic teaching on the law amounted to the only teaching on the law.  And yet the Pharisees took liberties with the law, upholding an oral tradition which sought to adapt the law of Moses to present circumstances.  In practice, this resulted in an unwritten code more or less equivalent to the actual law, and which went beyond it.  It is this that Jesus condemns when he cried out, quoting Isaiah: “And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and precepts of men” (Mark 7, 7).  Jesus condemned the Pharisees and the scribes because they taught the people their sect’s doctrines and not God’s.

An example of these precepts of men is found in “tithes of mint and dill and cummin”, which were used as spices.  Inasmuch as they were herbs, they should not have come under the law of tithing, which said, “Every year you shall set aside the tithes of all your fruits that the earth brings forth” (Deuteronomy 14, 22).  Tithing mint would be the equivalent of tithing grass or weeds.  According to the Pharisaical oral law, however, even these things must be taxed for the benefit of the Temple.  Jesus does not condemn this interpretation so much as he points out its triviality, particularly when compared with other matters: “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.”  Jesus spells out what he means by these: “Judgment and mercy and fidelity.”  That is, rather than teach the doctrines of their religion, they concern themselves with the technicalities of sustaining the Temple.  Again, Jesus does not take a position against this support, but puts it in the context of what the Pharisees and scribes fail to do.  The question should arise for them: Are we teachers of God or are we collection officers?  The Lord goes on to illustrate what they are doing: “Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!”  People who throw themselves at the enforcement of details often lack the confidence to do actual work.  It is as though through their own actions the Pharisees and scribes admit that they have no divine authority as the basis for their teaching and interpretation of the Scriptures.  Jesus calls them “blind” because they do not have the ability to see this for themselves, and yet they put themselves forward as “guides”.  And the message to the people is that they would be foolish to listen to them because no one in his right mind follows a “blind guide”.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.”  Here again, the Lord says to them, “Woe!”  The use of the word here indicates a warning of an imminent disaster.  The Lord is warning them to open their eyes and see what they are really doing and to repent.  He cried out this warning vocally two thousand years ago, and he cries it out to all sinners who are running out of time — not merely to their ears but from the midst of their hearts, from deep in their consciences.  

“You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.”  The Pharisees and their followers had a great concern for washing various items that is not found in the law.  This is an outgrowth from the cleansing that were commanded in order to make a person or a thing ritually pure.  The Lord uses this practice to point out that they worked very hard at appearances: “And all their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their phylacteries broad and enlarge their fringes. And they love the first places at feasts and the first chairs in the synagogues, And salutations in the market place, and to be called by men, Rabbi” (Matthew 23, 5-7).  But they were not known for their virtue: “But according to their works do ye not. For they do not practice what they preach” (Matthew 23, 3).  “Inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence: plunder through tithes, but also through the stealing of souls by their callous neglect of their duty to preach about God, his judgment to come, his mercy, and our duty to fidelity.  Self-indulgence, such as we find in Luke 18, 11: “The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give you thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican. I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess.” 

The lesson here for us as faithful Christians is to have ever before us the Cross of Jesus Christ and to be mindful of his love.  “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6, 8).