Trong bài đọc thứ Nhất hôm nay, Thánh Phaolô nhắc nhở Giáo Đoàn Rôma rằng họ được cứu bởi vì họ có niềm tin vào Chúa Kitô và Tin Mừng. Thánh Phao lô cũng nói rằng chúng ta biết được Thiên Chúa là do bởi những công trình mà Chúa đã tạo ra trong thế giớ và trong cuộc sống của chúng ta..
Lord, help me to become more understanding and compassionate. Help me, Lord, not to be a fault-finder but a loving person instead. Help me to be discerning and yet not judgmental of others in their motives and actions. Teach me to be humble and generous.
After Jesus had spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home. He entered and reclined at table to eat. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal. The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools!” Luke 11:37–40
It’s hard to imagine Jesus calling someone a fool. But that’s exactly what He did. This Pharisee had just finished listening to Jesus give a series of teachings and then invited our Lord to His home for dinner in an apparent gesture of kindness. But as the passage unfolds, it’s clear that this Pharisee is no friend of Jesus. Instead, his hospitality and kindness are a cloak for the evil within his soul.
Why does Jesus respond so fiercely, calling the Pharisee a fool? Because this Pharisee is filled with hypocrisy. His exterior actions do not flow from a heart filled with charity and faith. Instead, his exterior actions are a show. He is a fraud. He, like many of the Pharisees, was very concerned with various external rituals, such as scrupulously washing his hands before he ate. He believed that doing so was a sign of his holiness and closeness to God. But it wasn’t. His heart was one that was filled with judgment and self-righteousness. He looked down on others and elevated himself. In doing so, he deceived others and even deceived himself.
The central message we must take from this is that we must diligently focus upon that which is in our hearts. Our hearts, our interior life, must be blooming with love of God and others. We must place all of our efforts on cultivating a sincere life of virtue within. This is done by prayer and humility. Humility will open our eyes to see the truth of who we are. Prayer will strengthen us to change as we see that which needs to be changed within. Only then, when we see clearly the truth of who we are and prayerfully rely upon grace obtained by prayer, will we be able to become people of true integrity and holiness. And only then will our interior holiness be made manifest externally in our actions.
Reflect, today, upon these powerful words of Jesus: “You fools!” Don’t be offended by these words; they are words of love from our Lord. They are His fierce attempt to wake this Pharisee up and lead him away from his hypocrisy. Listen to these words as if they were also spoken to you. Every one of us can humbly benefit from this loving chastisement from Jesus. Every one of us needs to humbly be transformed more fully interiorly. Let Jesus’ words speak to you and reveal to you the ways that you need to change. Perhaps your pride has led you to an interior practice of judgment of others. Perhaps it has blinded you to sins that you need to confess. If you can listen to these words as if they were spoken to you, then Jesus’ fervor will reach you, and your eyes will be opened to that which is in your soul that needs to be changed. Do not turn a blind eye to this. Be open, be humble and listen.
My fervent Lord, You spoke words of love in many ways. At times You were gentle and at times You were firm. Please give me the grace and humility I need to be open to Your firm rebukes of love. Help me to sincerely see the ways in which I need to change my life so that Your grace will transform my interior life, flowing over into my actions. I love You, dear Lord. Help me to love You more. Jesus, I trust in You.
Opening Prayer: Lord God, do not let me follow the way of foolishness that leads to death and separation from you. Do not let me be a hypocrite. I pray that I may grow in true holiness through the gift of your grace and truly serve my brothers and sisters in need.
Encountering the Word of God
1. Give Alms and Everything Will Be Clean: Jesus’ teaching about almsgiving in the Gospel is rooted in the Old Testament. The Book of Tobit teaches: “almsgiving saves one from death and expiates every sin” (Tobit 12:9). This is echoed in the Book of Sirach, which says: “alms atone for sins” (Sirach 3:29). Jesus was dining at a Pharisee’s home and needed to correct the Pharisee’s understanding of being pure and clean. Almsgiving cleanses inner defilement and accomplishes what ritual washings cannot (see Martin, Bringing the Gospel of Luke to Life, 333). This was an important teaching because the Pharisees were so influential in Jesus’ day. The religious program of the Pharisees was actually at odds with Jesus’s inauguration of the New Covenant. The Pharisees thought that they could be faithful to God by separating themselves from all Gentile impurity and defilement. They thought that this would lead to God intervening and saving them from Roman oppression. “They looked to the Temple and priests of Jerusalem, considering the elaborate purity requirements for priests (Leviticus 21-22) a fitting model for Jewish purity in the homes of laypeople. All Israelites, the Pharisees reasoned, should maintain this high level of priestlike holiness in their personal lives” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, 1792). The Pharisee in today’s Gospel was shocked that Jesus didn’t follow the prescribed washings. He showed that he was oblivious to the real holiness, innocent purity, and high priesthood of Jesus. And Jesus takes the opportunity to correct the Pharisee and teach that it is not through ceremonial washings that one becomes pure and holy, but through giving oneself to others in charity.
2. The Gospel according to Paul: In the First Reading, Paul proclaims that he was not embarrassed to spread the Gospel. He wants the whole world – Jews and Gentiles – to come to know the saving message of Jesus Christ. “At the heart of Paul’s letter to the Romans is the gospel, the good news of salvation that was ‘promised beforehand’ (Romans 1:2). The people of Israel have longed to hear this good news. For Paul, the gospel is the culmination of God’s promises to Abraham and David: God has fulfilled these promises through Jesus” (Swafford and Cavins, Romans: The Gospel of Salvation, 9). Unlike what Martin Luther thought, the Jewish people did not believe in works-righteousness, i.e., that their obedience to the Law of Moses earned them the right to salvation. Instead, Judaism “firmly believed that the election of the Jews was an unmerited blessing from God (see Deuteronomy 9:4-7). Obedience to the law was the free response to God’s invitation to holiness. The initiative for salvation came squarely from the side of God, not the Jews themselves. By saying that the Jews have already been under the obedience of faith, Paul shows that the key for the Jews’ membership in the covenant was the faith in God expressed through obedience to his law. Jesus Christ perfectly embodied this obedience of faith and thus fulfilled the law. It is by faith in him that both Jews and Gentiles now receive the unmerited gift of justification” (Dauphinais and Levering, Holy People, Holy Land, 195).
3. One Way of Salvation: The way to righteousness and salvation – the obedience of faith in Jesus Christ – is the same for both Jews and Gentiles. There are not two separate paths of salvation, one for the Jews and one for the Gentiles, but only one path. We are made righteous “through faith for faith.” We are initially brought into a right relationship with God through faith. This is an unmerited gift. Even our act of faith and trust in God begins in God, who moves our hearts to faith. And our initial faith is called to grow and develop over time. Our Christian faith needs to flourish in love. Paul envisions that the Christian life begins in faith and advances by faith. This is not a completely new teaching, but one rooted and hidden, so to speak, in the Old Testament. And here, Paul cites the prophet Habakkuk, who taught: “The one who is righteous by faith will live” (Habakkuk 2:4). What Paul will argue next is that both Gentiles and Jews are in the same situation of sin. The Gentiles were able to discern God’s existence through creation and were obliged to follow the natural law written on their heart. But instead of worshipping the Creator of all things, they worshipped false gods and creatures. Instead of living a moral life, they fell into impurity and lust: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator” (Romans 1:25).
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, guide my life of faith. Nourish it with your Spirit and make it grow and flourish. I want to imitate you in all that I do, say, and think. I desire to share in your life more fully.
Opening Prayer: Lord God, do not let me follow the way of foolishness that leads to death and separation from you. Do not let me be a hypocrite. I pray that I may grow in true holiness through the gift of your grace and truly serve my brothers and sisters in need.
1. The Tradition of Washing Before a Meal: On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus accepted the invitation of a Pharisee to dine at his home. The Pharisee, Luke tells us, was amazed that Jesus did not observe the prescribed washing before a meal. This washing was not something commanded in the Law of Moses but was a tradition that was observed by the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. What the Law of Moses actually prescribed was that priests needed to wash their hands and feet before offering a sacrifice (Exodus 30:17-21). The priests also needed to wash before eating their share of the sacrifice (Numbers 18:11-13). These rules for the priests, however, were extended to all meals by the tradition of the Pharisees, who wanted every meal to be a religious act and a symbol of Jewish identity.
No comments:
Post a Comment