August 26
Jesus Condemns
Their Hypocrisy
Gospel:
Matthew 23:27-32
Today's Gospel: Matthew 23:27-32
(Jesus Condemns Their Hypocrisy)
“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!
Reflection:
Jesus doesn't stop at the whitewash. He points at
something worse: the scribes and Pharisees building monuments to the very
prophets their ancestors killed. Fresh flowers on old graves, fine stonework,
respectful inscriptions, and Jesus calls it what it is. Admiring holiness after
it's safely buried is easy. Living it while it's still inconvenient is the
actual test, and they had already failed it.
Most of us will never build a tomb. But we do something close every time we
praise the saints, quote the martyrs, admire the courage of people long buried,
and then go right on avoiding whatever it costs to live it today. It's
comfortable to honor holiness once history has finished the job of proving it
right. It's much harder to let it interrupt an ordinary Wednesday, or to let it
interrupt a friendship.
Our Lady never had that luxury of hindsight or distance. She said yes before
anyone could tell her the ending, before there was a shrine or a feast day or a
title to admire from a safe place. No monument to hide behind, just a young
woman saying yes to God in real time. She shows us that holiness isn't admired
from across a room. It's imitated up close, in the people literally right in
front of us.
Whose holiness are you admiring from a safe distance instead of imitating
today? Maybe it's someone in your own circle, quiet, unassuming, never asking
for credit, whose closeness to God you notice and quietly envy, the kind of
person you talk about with admiration but somehow never talk to. What's
actually stopping you from closing that distance and letting their holiness rub
off on you instead of just watching it from across the room?
Rosary Man
Jim 🌹
Freely
given. Freely shared.
