Congruity of Lifestyle and Doctrine: From the Greatest Commandment to the Greatest Person
Malachi 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10; 1 Thessalonians 2:7b-9, 13; Matthew 23:1-12
On a face value, our gospel reading appears to be focused on the scribes and the Pharisees. In fact, most titles of today’s gospel reading in many Bible versions read “The seven woes of the Pharisees” or something close to that. This reading of the gospel is not going to be our guide for this Sunday. I think there is a deeper meaning and significance to today’s gospel message, which will become apparent when we ask a simple question: to whom was Jesus addressing the gospel of today?
What is clear from the gospel of today is the fact that Jesus was talking to and teaching his disciples and the crowds that follow him, and not the Scribes and Pharisees; this is obvious from the opening sentence of our gospel, “Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying”. A close analysis of today’s gospel divides up the reading into two, doctrine and morality. The “doctrinal” part is divided into two, 1) the importance of the Pharisees and 2) the correctness of doctrine. The “moral” part deals with the abuse of trust and position, which the disciples of Jesus and the crowds are earnestly advised to eschew.
Matt 23:2-3 emphasizes the importance of the role of the Pharisees as the deputies of Moses, that is, the custodians of the Law (today, these will be the Pope and bishops). Also, an emphasis is laid on the fact that their teaching was sound and accurate. Matt 23:4-7 enumerates the moral lapses of the Pharisees, which, fundamentally, was that they never practiced the doctrines they taught, but expected others to put them into practice. The last part of our gospel provides pieces of advice on how not to imitate the Pharisees, and how to look beyond the Pharisees to God. Matt 23:9-12 reorient the minds of the disciples and the crowds to the fact that God and Christ are actually the ones we listen to when we listen to the sound doctrines of the Scribes and Pharisees. The wrong action of the Pharisees was to have taken the glory meant for God and his Christ, to have allowed themselves to be called teachers and rabbis.
The arrogation of the places of God and Christ to themselves puffed up the Pharisees and they usurped the glory of God and sought privileges from people – places of honor at banquets, special names and titles like Rabbis and Teachers, special dress codes such as broader phylacteries and longer fringes; that is to say, they no longer wanted to be servants but masters and lords; humility was gone, pride had taken over its place. The teaching of Jesus today is justly addressed against this moral decay – sabotaging the role and place of God in human life and society.
Honestly speaking, the Pharisees earned Jesus’ commendation and they got his approbation for their sound doctrine, “so do and observe whatever they tell you” (Matt 23:3). Jesus approved of the accuracy of the teachings of the Pharisees, their fidelity to the chair of Moses which they occupied, but pointed out their errors. Even today, I suppose that we can doff our caps for the Pharisees, and all Christian leaders who still teach sound Christian doctrines and not theirs. Unfortunately, our first reading today tells us that the priests failed woefully in teaching sound doctrine – “For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you [priests] have turned aside from the WAY. You [priests] have caused many to stumble by your INSTRUCTION” (Malachi 2:7-8).
With so many Catholic Cardinals, bishops, priests and theologians contesting the doctrinal soundness of some of Pope Francis’ Teachings, with many priests and religious in jail for child abuse and financial misappropriation, with many Christians abandoning the practice of the Christian faith and the corrosion and erosion of Christian doctrines on social, print and news media, the Islamic assaults on the Christian religion and the enthronement of libertinism, how apt the readings of today and the necessity to regain accurate doctrine and sound moral praxis of the Christian faith!
The last segment of the first reading of today touches on the root cause of the moral quandary in which we find ourselves today, which is the neglect of tradition and the enthronement of individualism in place of unity: “Have we not all the one father? Has not the one God created us? Why then do we break faith with one another, violating the covenant of our fathers?” (Malachi 2:10). Divisions in morals and teaching ensue when we abandon God as the moral compass for our lives, which is the real meaning of the Fatherhood of God. God is Father because he is our Creator, and he has a purpose for creating us – a moral purpose; if God is our Creator, it also means that we belong to one family, the concept of unity, not the promotion of individualism.
The solution to our global moral collapse today and the discordance in our teachings in the name of God is the subject matter of our second reading. As far as St. Paul is concerned, here is the way forward, if we want fidelity to God in word, doctrine and deed – to place God first in our lives. According to Paul, “And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly, that, in receiving the WORD OF GOD from hearing us, you received it NOT as a human word but, as it truly is, THE WORD OF GOD, which is now at work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). When we cede first place to God in our lives, then we see God in his words, we go beyond the failings and frailties of human beings, we begin to trust more in God than in human beings. This is helpful because all Christians must configure their lives to the word of God. Just in case we ask ourselves what does this word of God look like in reality, our gospel anticipated this question and provided an answer to it.
When today’s gospel says that “Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ,” it is strongly suggesting that in Christ our Master we have a perfect example of how the word of God becomes visible through a Christian lifestyle; it underscores the absolute necessity to imitate Christ alone and no other. And by having only one Father, we only have God as the only person who dictates our teachings and morality. It is only when we have the humility to imitate Christ alone and have God alone as our Father, that the last statements of the gospel of today become a reality, “The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
It is now clear that we have moved from the gospel and message of last week to the message of this week: from the Greatest Commandment, love of God and neighbor, of last week, to the Greatest Person, he/she who imitates Christ’s lifestyle of humility and obeys God’s teachings as Christ did, will be the greatest and will be exalted! Christians must respected ecclesiastically constituted authorities because they occupy the sit of Moses, every Christian must practice the teachings of the Church, and God and Christ alone must be the cornerstone of our Christian beliefs, practices and teachings
Assignment for the Week:
Practice a rare form of humility this week that will attract attention to the gospel of today!