Daily Gospel Reflection
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August 23, 2022
Jesus said:
“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.”
At the end of the chapter before today’s gospel, Jesus explains the two commandments that need to guide everything else we do: love God wholeheartedly and love your neighbor as yourself.
However, it can be easy to substitute whatever group of leaders I’m mad at for “scribes and Pharisees” and decide that this justifies whatever critiques I may have of church leaders, civil politicians, or workplace administrators.
Ironically, when I fail to evaluate others through the lens of love, I’m actually being the type of person Jesus is critiquing in this gospel. Students, rectors, parents, administrators—no one should be held to an impossible standard of earthly perfection.
Of course, we’re better as a community when our interior motivations align with our exterior actions, we have the humility to acknowledge our failings, the courage to work to improve ourselves, and can extend grace and mercy to others as they do the same.
Following the rules matters, but not if the rules fail to uphold the bigger values God is calling us to live—those that demonstrate the love of God and love of neighbor. It matters if our interpretation of scripture causes harm to others (e.g., anti-Muslim or anti-Jewish attitudes and actions). It matters if people feel excluded simply because of who they are (e.g., racism or homophobia).
This gospel inspires all of us to ask this question of ourselves: who am I critiquing in my life, and does that critique demonstrate my love for God and my neighbors?
Prayer
Lord God, your Son walked among us flawed human beings. He loved the poor, the sick, and the widowed. He delighted in little children. He sat at table with men and women who were sinners and called them to new life. Only hypocrisy raised anger in Jesus. Open our eyes and hearts to see ourselves as we are and to cast ourselves upon your mercy rather than to cover our shame with lying to ourselves and to those around us. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Rose of Lima was given the name Isabel when she was born in Peru in 1586. She was such a beautiful baby, however, that people could not help calling her Rose.
Her beauty grew as she aged, and she became the subject of much admiration. She decided to devote herself fully to Jesus, however, and the admiration became a distraction to her. She feared her beauty would distract others as well, so she would rub crushed pepper on her face to produce rashes and blisters.
(Scientists recently performed an analysis of her skull, which has been kept by Dominicans in Peru, and created a digital reconstruction of her face. To see what she might have looked like in person, click here.)
Her devotion led her to take on severe mortifications, but she was devoted to those around her with similar intensity. When her parents fell into poverty, she worked to grow food in their garden and took on sewing jobs at night. She dedicated a room in her family’s home to care for orphans and the poor.
She wanted to enter a convent, but her parents would not give her permission because they wanted her to marry. She was obedient to her parents and did not join a convent. She did convince them of her vow of virginity, however--she clung to her single-hearted devotion to Christ and remained at home for her whole life, giving herself to prayer and good works. (She became a third-order Dominican, meaning that she took on the spirituality of the Dominicans as a private lay person.)
She is the patron of the Americas, the Philippines, and of florists. She is depicted, among other places, in a mural and in a window in the Basilica, wearing a crown of roses, and a number of her relics are kept in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Rose of Lima, your beauty transcended your body as you stubbornly sought holiness—pray for us!
To learn even more about Saint Rose of Lima, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.