The Word God Spells

Luke 13: 10-17
Rom 8:12-17/Ps 68:2,4,6-7,20-21

Shouldn’t this daughter of Abraham be set free from what binds her?
(Luke 13:16)

Of women, this all men must learn:
In numbers they showed more concern
To Jesus, bent by our sins’ weight,
Was urged on by their steadfast faith.

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on a Sabbath when He saw a woman there who had been a cripple for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up. Taking compassion on her, Jesus called her forward and said, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Putting His hands on her, she immediately straightened up and started praising God. The synagogue ruler, indignant that Jesus had healed on a Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” But Jesus told him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

Reflection

It was all too much to take for the strict synagogue ruler. Jesus had discarded all the rules of protocol, interrupting His teaching and calling an infirmed woman to the front of the synagogue (women’s places were always at the back). Disregarding His station as a rabbi, He touched the impure woman, and then desecrated the Sabbath by healing her! But for his outburst, Jesus rebuked the synagogue ruler and his kind as hypocrites. How rich in lessons this incident in the synagogue brings to us today.

There were a number of things in Jewish society that needed to be straightened out, and Jesus saw the opportunity to do it when a woman bent with a crippling disease entered the synagogue that Sabbath day. First, by calling the woman to the front of the synagogue, and calling her a “daughter of Abraham”, He elevated the status of women to the same level of men, they being also children of God, and co-heirs of His kingdom. By touching her, Jesus showed the Jews that her affliction was not the result of sin; she was not impure, and therefore could not defile Him. He had to humiliate His adversaries by calling them hypocrites to expose them for what they were, and to open their eyes to the fact that their man-made laws had made them blind to God’s compassion and mercy.

In some ways we might also be guilty of hypocrisy like that synagogue official if we are only concerned about the legal observance of the Sabbath (Sunday Mass). How do we keep God’s day of rest holy? Is an hour spent in church sufficient? Did we show a little concern for that bent woman begging at the church entrance as Jesus did? Or was our money for her decent meal too much of a sacrifice? Jesus said, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Mt.12:7). It is not in sacrifice or in the observance of laws or rites that sanctifies our day or our life. It is in showing mercy and compassion to the weakest of God’s children. Women have always been taken advantage of because of their weakness. We hear and read of rapes and physical abuses against women. Amnesty International, in its campaign to stop violence against women, said, “From the battlefield to the bedroom, women are at risk.” We must all do our share to stop “bending” women’s lives, whether at home or in the marketplace. As we end this month dedicated to Mary, Jesus’ Mother, let us pledge to honor her by treating all women like our own mother or sister.

Dear God, our prejudices against women may have caused our values to be bent and crippled. Thank You for making us realize how important it is to honor all women, just as our Lord Jesus showed respect and compassion to all of them. Amen.

Matthew 23: 23-26
1 Thes 2:1-8/Ps 139:1-6

You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, but have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity.
(Matthew 23:23)

What lies within is what is real,
And no amount of scheme or stealth
Can hide that time will not reveal,
Lord, give our souls clean bill of health.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, but have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. These things you ought to have done without neglectig 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. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside may also be clean.” (Matthew 23:23-26)

Reflection

Many Christians find it hard to show their true nature by their natural appearance, and resort to hiding behind façades of virtues that often do not match the person within. That’s because it is easier to manage our externals than it is in dealing with our perceived flaws that we would rather prefer hidden.

It is hard to believe that even Mother Teresa, who was recently featured in Time magazine, kept a deep secret of spiritual dryness and psychological pain during most of her lifetime when her accomplishments appeared to be clear manifestations of her closeness to God. For almost 50 years, according to her letters to various confessors, she was “living out a very different spiritual reality privately, an arid landscape from which (God) had disappeared.” In a new book entitled Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, her letters revealed that for the last almost half-century of her life, God was “neither in her heart nor in the Eucharist.” At one time, the “dryness,” “darkness,” and “torture” she was undergoing almost drove her to doubt the existence of heaven and even of God. Being acutely aware of this discrepancy between her inner state and her public demeanor, she wrote that her smile was just “a mask” or “a cloak that covers everything,” and as she told an adviser, “If you were (there), you would have said, ‘What hypocrisy.’” (Time Magazine, August 24, 2007)

And yet, what made Mother Teresa truly a great saint was that despite her spiritual torments, she never neglected the weightier things of the law, judging herself severely, lest she fell into self-righteousness, continuously practicing works of mercy for the poor and the dying, and being faithful to God and her vocation even in her “darkest night of the soul.” She remained clean inside and outside the cup and dish.

Mother Teresa has shown us that human as we are, there will always be doubts, just as there will always be flaws in our character. But as long as we judge our own behaviour (not other people), show mercy to others, and be faithful to Christ come what may, then our outer physical appearance will be as clean as our soul within.

Lord, You have probed me, You know me: You know when I sit and when I stand; You understand my thoughts from afar (Psa.139:1-2), far better than I know myself. Deal with me then as You will, so that my cup and dish will always be clean. Amen.

Matthew 23:13-22
1 Thes 1:2-5.8-10/Ps 149

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
(Matthew 23:13)

No oaths can bind lies and deceits,
As made by ‘scribes and Pharisees’;
When remedied by hypocrites,
The cure is worse than the disease;

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You lock the kingdom of heaven before men; you do not enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in” … “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If any one swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if any one swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?” … “So he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; and he who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it; and he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.” (Mt. 23:13,16-17,20-22)

Reflection

Hypocrisy is the act of putting up a front of being morally better than what we really are. It is also about condemning another person for an act of which the critic is also guilty of. The word ‘hypocrisy’ comes from the Greek word hypokrisis, which means “play-acting” or “feigning”. It applied to all kinds of public performances (including the art of oratory). Hypokrites (stage actors) were not considered suitable for public office. (Hmm, sounds familiar.) In the 4th Century BC, the great Greek orator, Demosthenes ridiculed his rival Aeschines, who was a successful actor before going into politics, as a hypokrites whose skill at impersonation (acting) made him an untrustworthy politician. In effect, Demosthenes demonstrated his own hypocrisy.

All of us are guilty of being hypocritical in different measures at one time or another. We wear different masks to manage our image in various occasions or circumstances. How often do we realize the difference in persona that we play when we are entertaining important guests or clients and the way we treat our employees or househelp? Or our attitude towards beggars outside the church who beg for a few Pesos (after we have put a hundred Pesos in the offertory collection)?

The antidote for hypocrisy are two words that also begin with the letter h. They are honesty and humility. Jesus condemned the Pharisees because of their propensity for making oaths. A person who has to resort to oath-taking instead of a simple yes or no cannot be counted on to speak honestly under normal circumstances. Jesus does not prohibit taking formal vows and oaths. It is how we casually substitute vows and oaths for honest speech that He tells us to guard against. For it is when we break a vow or oath (wittingly or unwittingly) that we ourselves become vulnerable to the the prince of lies, who is quick to take advantage of the weakened human condition.

Hypocrisy is an offspring of pride, and the other antidote against it is humility. This is the nobility of character wherein one refuses to accept that he is better or more righteous than others. Jesus said, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Mt.23:12) In today’s mass, the homily of the priest finally enlightened me about what our Lord meant when He said, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate” (Mt.7:13). It is by making ourselves ‘small’ that we can easily pass through the narrow gate. Those puffed up with hypocrisy and pride will never be able to do so.

Lord, help us to be honest and humble in all our ways, so that we may never have need for masks or be chained by oaths we have to keep. We are all sinners, and have no cause to be proud; mere stewards who must be upright in all our pledges. Amen.