Trong bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu đã quở máng những người Pharisêu và các thầy thông giáo vì những luật lệ họ đã áp đặt trên dâan chúng và những hành động đạo đức giả của họ. Trong khi họ khoe khoang và rao giảng sự công bình và công lý, nhưng chính họ lại thiếu đức bác ái và còn hành động ngược lại với những gì họ rao giảng. Họ xây dựng đài tưởng niệm cho các tiên tri, những người mà tổ tiên của họ đã giết. Họ đã không sống cuộc sống tốt lành: "Khốn cho các người, hỡi những nhà thông luật! Các người đã cất giấu chìa khoá của sự hiểu biết, các người đã không vào, mà những kẻ muốn vào, các người lại ngăn cản.".." (Lc 11: 52)
In contrast in the first reading from his letter to his beloved Christians in Ephesus, Paul blesses God for his loving-kindness and grace to the "saints in Ephesus," to those "God chose in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and without sin in his presence" (Eph 1: 4) We pray that we be not counted with the hypocritical Pharisees and teachers of the Law whom Jesus cursed but be among the "saints" whom Paul loved, taught and nourished.
When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say. Luke 11:53–54
Over the past few days, we have been reading Saint Luke’s version of Jesus’ “Woe to you” rebukes of the scribes, Pharisees and the scholars of the law. Today’s Gospel concludes these rebukes of love by pointing out that these religious leaders did not convert. Instead, they began plotting against Jesus so as to “catch him at something he might say.” This is what happens when people use God’s holy law as a weapon to attack.
Normally, we take inspiration from the Holy Scriptures in a positive way, meaning, by reflecting upon Jesus’ words and actions and applying them to our lives. However, we can also learn from the evil others commit and allow their actions to inspire us to avoid their sin. In today’s Gospel, we are invited to ponder the obsessive plotting of these religious leaders so as to consider whether we also are guilty of their sin.
First, note that at the conclusion of Jesus’ rebukes, these religious leaders “began to act with hostility” toward Jesus. Normally, when we act with hostility toward another, it is done with the mindframe that we are right and they have done something wrong. We justify our hostility by pointing to their perceived sin. However, it must be understood that every act of hostility on our part is a clear indication that we have started down the road of sin and are not justified in our obsession.
Notice also that these religious leaders exercised their hostility toward Jesus by interrogating Him. In other words, in their anger, they kept asking Him questions so as to find some fault with Him. They tried to trick Him and trap Him with their speech using God’s very Law handed down through Moses and the prophets. But they manipulated that Law so as to justify their hostility and, out of pride, to falsely accuse Jesus.
Think about any times in your life in which you found yourself somewhat obsessed with what you judged to be the sin of another. Hostility in this case can even be passive, meaning you may present a kind disposition on the surface, but interiorly you are obsessively thinking about how you can condemn the person. Often when this happens, we can feel justified in that we convince ourselves that justice must be done and that we are the dispensers of that justice. But if God is in control of our lives, He will not call us to obsessive plotting in regard to another. Instead, when we are following the will of God, we will sense Him inspiring us to act with immediacy, calm, joy, kindness, honesty, and freedom from all anger and obsession.
Reflect, today, upon any way that you have seen this misguided tendency within your own life. If you can identify a time when you struggled with hostility toward another, look at the fruit it bore. Was God glorified through your actions? Did this leave you at peace or agitated? Were you fully objective in your thinking? Be honest with these questions and you will begin to discover the road to freedom from such obsessive thinking. God wants you to be at peace. If there is injustice, trust that our Lord will sort it out. You, for your part, must continually work to forgive, act with charity, and direct your attention to the will of God as it is gently presented to you.
My patient and kind Lord, You were falsely accused and condemned by many of the religious leaders of Your time because You spoke the pure truth with love, clarity and boldness. When I act with hostility and anger toward another, help me to turn from these sins so that I will never condemn, never judge and never manipulate Your divine Law for my own purposes. Fill me with Your peace and charity alone, dear Lord. Jesus, I trust in You.
Encountering the Word of God
1. I will send them Prophets and Apostles: In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus continues his series of six warnings pronounced first upon the Pharisees and then upon the “scholars of the Law.” Jesus warned the Pharisees that they were neglecting justice and love of God, seeking earthly honors, and leading others into impurity. Jesus then warned the “lawyers” or “scholars of the law” that they were placing heavy burdens upon the people, persecuting God’s prophets and apostles, and preventing people from understanding the scriptures and the most important principles of the Old Covenant. The scholars of the law and the generation to which they belonged were ignorant about what was going to happen. They were ignorant about how the past, recorded in Scripture, foretold the future. Just as Jeremiah prophesied to his generation that, because they did not listen to the prophets that God sent them, the Temple and city of Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., so also Jesus is prophesying and warning that “this generation” will not pass away (Luke 21:32) until the Temple and Jerusalem itself are destroyed (Luke 21:5-6, 20-24). This event happened 40 years after the religious authorities in Jerusalem put Jesus to death. In A.D. 70, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple, signaling the definitive end of the Old Covenant temple sacrifices. The scholars of the law were oblivious to how Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant and inaugurated the New. The scholars took away the key of knowledge concerning the Kingdom of God and were preventing the people they served from entering that kingdom.
2. All, Jews and Gentiles, Have Sinned: One of the main goals in Paul’s Letter to the Romans was to explain how the Old Covenant was brought to fulfillment in the New. In the opening chapters of the letter, Paul has argued that both Jews and Gentiles are in a similar situation of sin and are freed from that situation in the same way. Paul acknowledges the tremendous gifts that were given to Israel, including the oracles or utterances of God (Romans 3:2). This is a way of referring to the entire Old Testament – the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings. Despite this gift, the Jews have been unfaithful even though the Lord God has been true and faithful (Romans 3:3-4). Paul concludes that all men – both Jews and Greeks – are under the power of sin (Romans 3:9). Furthermore, the works of the law of Moses – especially the ceremonial laws like circumcision, animal sacrifices, and dietary restrictions – are not able to justify a person; they only give knowledge of sin and not the power to overcome sin (Romans 3:20). The Law defined what is good and evil, pure and impure, holy and profane.
3. A Person is Justified by Faith: How, then, are we made righteous? As Paul says, “the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it” (Romans 3:21). The law and the prophets point to the coming of Jesus the Messiah. We are given the righteousness of God, not through the observances of the law, but “through faith in Jesus Christ” (Romans 3:22). We are initially justified – put in a right relationship with God – by God’s gift of grace. This grace was obtained for us through Jesus’ work of redemption. Jesus expiated our sins through his sacrifice, and we welcome this redemption through faith. God is righteous and just and justifies the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). We do not obtain our initial justification through the works of the Old Law but through faith in Jesus Christ. This teaching does not oppose what is contained in the law, but actually supports it. And this is what Paul will try to show in the next section of the letter. In the sacrificial death of Jesus, the old animal sacrifices have been superseded. “Human sin and divine love have made contact in the bleeding and dying of Jesus in such a way that definitive forgiveness is now open to all who believe” (Hahn and Mitch, Romans, 47).
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have the true key of knowledge! You have unlocked the gates of heaven through your passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. Guide me to those open gates and embrace me with merciful love when I stand before you.
1. Spilling the Blood of All the Prophets: After pronouncing three woes on the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, wickedness, and failure to help God’s people, Jesus pronounced three woes or covenant curses upon the Scholars of the Law. We read the first woe yesterday, which warned the Scholars that they were burdening the people of God with their interpretation of God’s Law. We read the second woe at the beginning of today’s Gospel. Jesus tells the Scholars that they, like the Pharisees, are hypocrites. He points out that they build and care for the memorials of the prophets killed by their ancestors. It was like they were saying, “We are the ones who honor and respect God’s prophets and would never do what our ancestors did.” But interiorly consenting to what their ancestors did. They prefer to keep the prophets of the Lord God dead and buried instead of meditating on and putting into practice their words recorded in Scripture. What is worse, they were plotting to kill not just another prophet but the Messiah sent by God! If they truly knew the Scriptures, they would discern that all throughout human history, the wicked have persecuted and killed the innocent, the righteous, and the messengers sent by God. They would realize that they themselves belong to a wicked generation. They need to heed Jesus’ warning that if they continue to act with hostility toward him, they will be charged with the blood of all the prophets.
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