Lectio Divina- August 25, 2014

Lectio: 

Monday, August 25, 2014  

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

Father,
help us to seek the values
that will bring us enduring joy in this changing world.
In our desire for what you promise
make us one in mind and heart.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 23,13-22

Jesus Said: 'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut up the kingdom of Heaven in people's faces, neither going in yourselves nor allowing others to go who want to.

'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and anyone who becomes one you make twice as fit for hell as you are.
'Alas for you, blind guides! You say, "If anyone swears by the Temple, it has no force; but anyone who swears by the gold of the Temple is bound." Fools and blind! For which is of greater value, the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? Again, "If anyone swears by the altar it has no force; but anyone who swears by the offering on the altar, is bound." You blind men! For which is of greater worth, the offering or the altar that makes the offering sacred? Therefore, someone who swears by the altar is swearing by that and by everything on it. And someone who swears by the Temple is swearing by that and by the One who dwells in it. And someone who swears by heaven is swearing by the throne of God and by the One who is seated there.

3) Reflection

• During the next three days, we will meditate on the discourse pronounced by Jesus in which he criticizes the doctors of the Law and the Pharisees, calling them hypocrites. In today’s Gospel (Mt 23, 13-22), Jesus pronounces against them four times the expression “Alas for you...” (Mt 23, 23-26), and in the Gospel of day after tomorrow, he uses this same expression two other times (Mt 23, 27-32). These are expressions against the religious heads of the times and these are very hard words. In meditating them, I should not only think of the doctors and the Pharisees of the time of Jesus, but also, and above all in the hypocrisy found in me, in us, in our family, in the community, in our Church, in today’s society. Let us look into the mirror of the text to discover the errors in ourselves.

• Matthew 23, 13: The first “Alas for you...” against those who close the door of the Kingdom because in this way you will not enter and, you do not even let those who want to enter. How do they close the Kingdom? They do it by presenting God as a severe judge, leaving very little space for the mercy of God; by imposing, in the name of God, laws and norms which have nothing to do with the commandments of God, by presenting a false image of the Kingdom and by killing the desire to serve God and the Kingdom. A community which organizes itself around this false god “does not enter into the Kingdom”, and it is not even an expression of the Kingdom, and prevents its members from entering into the Kingdom.

• Matthew 23, 14: The second ‘Alas for you...’ is against those who use religion to enrich themselves. You devour the property of widows, though you make a show of lengthy prayers. The more severe will be the sentence you receive because of this”. Jesus allows the disciples to live the Gospel, because he says that the labourer has the right to his salary (Lk 10,7; cf. 1 Co 9, 13-14), but to use prayer and religion as a means to enrich themselves, that is hypocrisy and does not reveal the Good News of God. It transforms religion into a market. Jesus drives out the merchants from the Temple (Mk 11, 15-19) quoting the prophet Jeremiah: “My house will be called a House of Prayer for all people; but you have turned it into a bandits’ den!” (Mk 11, 17; cf. Is 56, 7; Jr 7, 11). When Simon the magician wanted to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter curses him (Ac 8, 18-24). Simon received the “most severe condemnation” of which Jesus speaks about in the Gospel today.

• Matthew 23, 15: The third expression of ‘Alas for you...’ is against those who do proselytism you travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and anyone who becomes one you make twice as fit for hell as you are.” There are persons who become missionaries and proclaim the Gospel not to radiate the Good News, but to attract persons for their group and their church. John once prohibited a person to use the name of Jesus because he was not part of his group. Jesus answered: “Do not prohibit him, because anyone who is not against us is for us (Mk 9, 39). The document of the Plenary Assembly of the Bishops of Latin America, which was held in March 2008 in Aparecida, Brazil, bears the title: “Disciples and Missionaries of Jesus Christ, so that our people may have life in Him”. That is, the purpose of the mission is not to do in such a way that people become Catholic, but rather that people may have life, and life in abundance.

• Matthew 23, 16-22: The fourth ‘Alas for you...’ is against those who swear. “You say, if anyone swears by the Temple, it has no force, but anyone who swears by the gold of the Temple is bound”. Jesus makes a long disquisition to show the incoherence of so many oaths that people made or that the official religion ordered to take: to swear for the gold of the Temple or for the offering which was on the altar. The teaching of Jesus given in the Sermon on the Mountain is the best commentary of today’s Gospel: “But I tell you do not swear at all, either by heaven since that is God’s throne, or by earth, since that is his footstool, or for Jerusalem since that is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your own head either, since you cannot turn a single hair white or black. All you need say is Yes if you mean yes, No, if you mean No; anything more than this comes from the Evil One” (Mt 5, 34-37).

4) Personal questions

• ‘Alas for you...’, is said four times; four reasons to receive a severe criticism from Jesus. Which of these four criticisms refers to me?
• Does our Church today deserve these ‘Alas for you...’ from Jesus?

5) Concluding Prayer

Sing a new song to Yahweh!
Sing to Yahweh, all the earth!
Sing to Yahweh, bless his name!
Proclaim his salvation day after day. (Ps 96,1-2)

(Thanks to Order of Carmelites for the Lectio Divina- its sustain our spiritual life).