Hmm, I didn’t think it was polite to talk so critically of people behind their backs but that is what we find Jesus doing in today’s gospel. Speaking to the crowds and his disciples, Jesus once again chastises the Pharisees for their religious puffery.
Jesus had little patience for those who put on religious airs but didn’t follow through with a life of faith, that is, they didn’t practice what they preached. The Pharisees made a show of going around displaying their religiosity. They wore little boxes on their foreheads, called phylacteries, along with prayer shawls lined with large tassels. These were the outward signs of prayerful men but were they indeed living prayerful lives?
Contained within these little boxes were miniature scrolls inscribed with a passage from Deuteronomy 6, which tells us to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole mind. This passage should sound familiar to you. We heard it proclaimed in last Sunday’s gospel. That was the reply Jesus gave to the Pharisees when asked to name the greatest commandment. Immediately following this line in Deuteronomy is the command for Jewish men to bind these words to their wrists and to wear them as a pendant on their foreheads.
Likewise in Deuteronomy 22, God commands them to wear fringes on the borders of their garments to remind them of God’s commandments. In Jesus’ opinion, in spite of these visual reminders, the Pharisees did a poor job of following these commandments. His persistent conflict with the Pharisees was not over their skills in interpreting the sacred scriptures but their failure to “walk the talk.”
Religion of obedience to external precepts, which sums up the mindset of the Pharisees, can lead to what TS Eliot calls “the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.”
The Pharisees went around putting on airs of being “holier than thou.” Acting holy, however, isn’t the same as being holy. Jesus cautions his listeners, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
We cannot hear Jesus’ indictment against the Pharisees without squirming somewhat in our pews. We could hear this gospel only as a warning addressed to those in church authority but as with any story in scripture, Jesus’ words are addressed to us as well. For some of us, his words may be as jarring as an alarm clock, calling our attention to something we have been avoiding. Whether we have an official title or not, each of us has the responsibility to live out the good news of Jesus Christ, teaching others about God by our words and actions. We should be asking ourselves, “Do our deeds measure up to our words?”
In the past, you may have heard the question, “If you were accused of being a follower of Christ, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” For example, if visitors walked into your home, what evidence would there be to show that yours is a Catholic home? Will they know you are Catholic by the presence of a crucifix or a picture of the Blessed Mother on the wall? That was a common practice in the past but not so much nowadays. Would they know you are a Catholic by your willingness to reach out and defend the right of the unborn child or the inmate on death row to live or of a homeless person to be treated with dignity? Would your neighbors know that you are a Christian because of your love and compassion for them?
The recent stabbing of two girls at Snohomish High School reminded me of another victim of violence on school campuses. Does the name Cassie Bernall ring a bell? Like any teenager, she struggled with the issues of growing up, of finding love and acceptance. Rebelling against her parents, she was almost lost to drugs and witchcraft. But time, love, and attention bridged the gap between her and her family.
She asked herself many questions and came to understand that God loved her even in her darkest moments. Instead of trying to look out for herself, Cassie decided to see what she could offer others in her own unassuming way. In the library of Columbine High School, in April of 1999, a classmate put a gun to her head and asked her if she believed in God. To be honest, I don’t know what I would have said had I been in her shoes at age 17, but she said Yes. Her yes came from a place deep within her heart, mind, and soul, a place so deep that she could say yes even though saying so endangered her life.
In her book about her daughter’s life, entitled, She Said Yes, Misty Bernall quotes the Indian mystic, Sadhu Singh: “It is easy to die for Christ. It is hard to live for him. Dying takes an hour or two but to live for Christ means to die daily. Only during the few years of this life are we given the privilege of serving others and Christ. We shall have heaven forever, but only a short time of service here, and therefore we must not waste the opportunity.”
So far as Jesus was concerned, the Pharisees, always busy with their pomp, missed the opportunity too often to really live life. Had they heeded the wisdom of Micah, one of the earliest literary prophets who lived at the same time as Isaiah did, they would have had little trouble putting into practice what they were preaching. 2800 years ago, that prophet penned a line that has served as a motto for many people ever since: “You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Like Cassie, are we willing to walk humbly with our God?