Today’s Gospel has two parts that don’t exactly seem to fit together.  First Jesus is condemning the Scribes and Pharisees for the “hard burdens” they put on the people and then, all of a sudden he says that we should not call anyone Father. What’s going on here?

Despite the seeming disparity, there is a common connection. Jesus is telling the Jewish leaders that wanting to be seen as better than others or wanting to elevate themselves above the “ordinary” people is not at all what God wants from any of us. God wants humility and servanthood; not pride and lording it over others. In addition, God doesn’t want us to expect others to practice what we preach. We can’t go around telling people what they should do when we aren’t willing to do it ourselves.

It is in the midst of this teaching that Jesus says we should call no one father (or master or teacher.). He’s not saying that we should deny biological or spiritual fatherhood, but what he is saying is that we shouldn’t attach special importance to titles or positions. In God’s sight, we are all brothers and sisters and we should treat each other with equal love and respect.

This wasn’t an easy teaching to accept in Jesus’ day, and it’s no easier today. We all have the tendency to want to be recognized, to be important, to be respected. But Jesus says that if we want to be elevated in the sight of God, we need to humble ourselves in the sight of men. It is only when we recognize hypocrisy in ourselves and take steps to root it out that we can begin to allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, changing us and the world we live in.

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First Reading: 
Malachi 1:14b–2:2b, 8–10

It’s fitting we get a snippet of Malachi as the liturgical year begins to wind down. He represents the finish of Old Testament prophecy and a prophetic glance at its fulfillment in the New Testament. Malachi presents us with a similar theme to that in Numbers, a similar relation between priests and people. As in Numbers, God threatens punishment for faithlessness to the covenant of Yahweh as expressed as infidelity to the covenant of marriage. This is so because God Himself is the witness to the vows of covenant marriage. A few verses on we read the blunt statement, “I hate divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel.”

In presenting the infidelity of the priests in regard to the sacrificial offerings first and then calling the marital infidelity of the people a profanation of the sanctuary in the verses following, Malachi seems to be drawing a connection between the two. In Numbers, Phineas the priest is shown as the guardian of covenant marriage and is confirmed in his priesthood for defending it and so also the people from God’s wrath. In Malachi, the priests are castigated for slighting the altar and its offering and for giving false instruction and then Malachi indicts the people for being faithless to their marriage covenants.
 

Second Reading: 
1 Thessalonians 2:7b–9, 13

Paul’s stay in Thessalonica was apparently interrupted by the opposition of some of the Jews who pressed the Christian evangelists to leave Thessalonica prematurely. Paul’s protestations as to the purity of his actions and even his motives while among the fledgling Christians may suggest that some of the opposition to Paul continued after he left. The usually harsh words that he directs to his fellow Jews in verses 14 through 16 could also support such an interpretation.

The affection evident in Paul’s correspondence is striking and gives us some insight into the nature of those early Christian communities which would cause some to exclaim, “See how they love one another!” Paul likens himself to a mother fondling a nursing child and in verse 11, missing from our passage, he compares his preaching of the Gospel to a father exhorting his children. In verse 17 he refers to his separation from the Thessalonians as his being “orphaned.” He’s father, mother, and child all at once in his love for these recent converts! What a beautiful testament we see here to the power of baptismal grace in uniting us more deeply than even natural kinship.

Gospel: 
Matthew 23:1–12

The Pharisees and their descendants were largely responsible for preserving Judaism after the fall of Jerusalem. Their piety and determination held the Chosen People together down to our own day through a synagogue system of worship and teaching in the face of tremendous historical pressures toward disintegration. The great tragedy of the New Testament story is their unwillingness to accept Jesus. He’s critical of the Pharisees to say the least. The Pharisees were critical of themselves. The Talmud includes portrayals of hypocrisy and religions show on the part of some Pharisees in order to commend a right application of the Law by upright Pharisees.

Had the Pharisee party accepted the message of Jesus in mass, the same energy and zeal which carried the Jewish people through the Diaspora would’ve fueled the growth of the Church. In fact, it was the energy and zeal of Pharisees-become-Christian like St. Paul which did fuel some of the first evangelization. In Matthew the hinge on which the Gospel story swings is this conflict between the Pharisees and Jesus. This week’s Gospel reading gives us some sense as to the reasons for that conflict.

MEDITATION:

Reprinted from  Opening the Word at Formed.org .
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