In today's beautiful readings, we get a glimpse into the affections of Saint Paul and of our Lord Jesus towards those that were in some way struggling, in some way making their own journey towards the light.
This journey for each and every one of us isn't easy, certainly, but the Lord is with us to illuminate our hearts and our minds so that we too can examine our own motives and continue to be the light of the world.
In today's first reading, we hear from Saint Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians. Yesterday we started off right at the beginning of that letter and today it continues in chapter two. To be noted is the fact that this, according to scholars, would have been the very first letter, the very first writing of the New Testament.
The entire New Testament began with this very writing. In other words, it is said that the Gospels were written after this writing, and all of Saint Paul's subsequent letters to all the churches which he had founded – all of them came after his letters to the Thessalonians. We are the very initial feel for what the early Church was going through.
In today's readings, we have an emphasis on Authenticity, living our faith in order to please God and not for any other motive. Saint Paul speaks about how we try not to please men, but rather God who judges our hearts.
God is the only one who can truly see the inside – what lies hidden beneath our hearts. God is the one who alone can judge us. He alone knows our story, our history, our journey.
And he alone knows our pains. And so we do well to spend time with him, because the more time we spend with him, the more he illuminates our hearts and our minds so that we too can move away from delusion or impure motives, or the deceptions that might be ruling our behavior and our mode of conduct.
In today's gospel, Jesus once again addresses the Pharisees and the scribes, and he calls them hypocrites because they were putting out an exterior show where their outward appearance was to them an important way of convincing other people that they were holy.
Our Lord addresses this. He says, “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.”
Notice the things that they neglected were the things unseen by others; judgment, how they were to judge and assess situations. Mercy, the inner workings of the heart, and fidelity the sacrifices we need to make even when we're on our own, and in the privacy of our own rooms, for example, to remain faithful.
This is what true faith is and our Lord is concerned when we focus on the outside to the neglect of what truly matters, what's on the inside – that which makes us authentic Christians.
Let us ask the Lord, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, to give us the help that we need in order to be his genuine followers, day by day, in the decisions and the sacrifices in the choices we make so that clean from the inside, we can be truly pleasing to God.
And may the Lord bless you. Amen.
Add comment
Comments