In today's gospel, we hear Jesus coming down hard once again on the Pharisees. He is enraged in a particular way, because of the hypocrisy that he is seeing in the Pharisees. And he describes their hypocrisy in this way.
He says, “You are like whitewashed tombs which appear beautifully on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. Even so on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evil doing” (Matthew 23:27-28).
My brothers and sisters, on Monday of Holy Week, you will recall that Jesus coming to Jerusalem from Bethany that entire week, and then back and forth from Jerusalem to Bethany, from Bethany to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Bethany, and so on and so forth until Holy Thursday.
We know that on Monday of Holy Week, as they were going into Jerusalem, he would be purifying the temple. And what does he see on the way? He sees a fig tree.
Jesus sees a fig tree that is in leaf. Now the leaves were an indication, a sign that that particular fig tree bore fruit. So when Jesus walked up to it in the sight of all the apostles, he did this on purpose. He walks up to the fig tree and he parts the leaves and it has no fruit.
And so Jesus curses the fig tree. In other words, he cursed that fig tree because on the outside it appeared beautiful, righteous, fruitful. But when he looked deeper on the inside, he saw no fruit. He saw emptiness, nothing good to offer.
And so my brothers and sisters, in today's first reading, Saint Paul speaks of another kind of deceitful behaviour that tries to hide behind the goodness of others.
When Saint Paul says to the Thessalonians that there were some among them who were reported to have been walking in a disorderly way, and not according to the tradition they received from Paul, he called them out on this in his letter, and he says to them that those who are just going along for the free ride, and just allowing themselves to be pampered by everyone around them, but not putting their hand to the tasks at hand that needed to be addressed, that these people were like parasites, living off of the goodness of others.
So they were claiming to be Christian, but they were not living as Christians. Saint Paul says this in this first reading today: “In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
So part of being authentic Christians means that we embrace work. We embrace the efforts of evangelization. We don't just leave that to other people. All of us are called to spread the good news that the Lord loves us, that He is with us, and that He will give us the strength and the grace necessary, the blessings, to be able to fulfil the work that He sets before us.
May Almighty God bless you this day in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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