August 25
Saints Louis & Joseph
Calasanz, Priests
Gospel:
Matthew 23:23-26
Today's Gospel: Matthew 23:23-26
(Jesus Condemns Their Hypocrisy)
“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.
Reflection:
The Pharisees weren't wrong to tithe mint and
cummin. Jesus even says they ought to have done that. Their failure was
proportion, obsessing over tiny, visible details of religious observance while
ignoring the weightier things underneath: judgment, mercy, faith. It's possible
to be scrupulously exact about small things and completely careless about what
actually matters.
Saint Louis IX of France ruled as king and still built his life around the
weightier things: justice for the poor, personal humility despite his crown, and care for the sick and the imprisoned that went far beyond what any monarch of
his era was expected to do. Joseph Calasanz, centuries later, founded schools
to educate poor children for free at a time when almost no one thought poor
children were worth the trouble, understanding that mercy toward the forgotten
mattered more than the prestige his order might have gained serving the wealthy
instead.
Both men could have settled for the mint and cumin of their positions, the
outward trappings of power or piety. Both chose the weightier things instead.
Our Lady's whole life is the same pattern: no interest in outward status, total
devotion to what actually mattered, mercy and faith carried out in the
smallest, most hidden ways.
We're often careful about small things and careless about the ones that
matter most. The world's priorities and God's don't always match. Sometimes
what we guard closely, He doesn't value at all. And what we barely notice, He
does.
Where have you gotten this backwards?
Rosary Man
Jim 🌹
Freely
given. Freely shared.
