In the gospel we just heard, Jesus
accuses the Pharisees of not doing what they were teaching, of laying
heavy burdens on the people, showing off their status by how they
dressed, and loving titles of honor given by people. In other words,
hypocrites.
Matthew, of course, was composing his
gospel at about the time Christians and Jews no longer recognized
that they had a common faith. Christians had been kicked out of the
synagogues and had to form their own churches. They had a new form
of worship, the Eucharist; and they were rapidly developing an
organizational structure. Christianity had become a distinct
religion. But the Jews were not sitting still either. Their temple
had been destroyed. Leadership now devolved to the Pharisees,
because the leadership role of the priesthood could not exist without
the temple. The Pharisees, now beginning to be called “Rabbi”
took it upon themselves to refine and develop a new Jewish faith, the
ancestor of the faith Jews practice today. It's a little known fact
that modern Judaism is not quite as old as Christianity, and that the
Jews of Jesus time would not recognize it.
The Pharisees were probably mostly
good guys. They cared about their faith, they tried to live it, they
preached it and taught it. When Matthew recalls these words of
Jesus, he places them in a context where we could assume that Jesus
is condemning the Pharisees, whereas it's probably Matthew who is
doing the condemning.
Some of you may have heard about
Father Thomas Weinandy, a brilliant theologian and the chief advisor
to the United States Conference of Bishops on matters of doctrine.
He wrote a letter to the pope and published it. He had several
criticisms. The pope often teaches in a way that seems to be
deliberately unclear. The pope seems to mock those who uphold
traditional church teaching on marriage, referring to them as
“Pharasaic stone throwers who embody a merciless rigorism”. The
pope has appointed some bishops who support and defend views counter
to Catholic teaching. The pope is pushing to weaken church unity by
encouraging a more “synodal” governing structure, where local
conferences of bishops make more decisions about litugy, among other
things. The pope resents criticism of his pontificate and has moved
to silence more than one critical voice. After the publication of
his letter, Father Weinandy was asked to resign from his position
with the United States Confence of Bishops, perhaps proving his
point.
Father Weinandy did not just issue
criticisms; he gave examples. He starts and ends his letter with
heartfelt pledges of loyalty; he has no intention of leaving the
church. I urge you to find a copy of the letter on line and read it.
Why do I bring this up? It seems to
me that this priest who has devoted his whole life to studying
theology, advising bishops, and writing books clarifying the truths
of the Catholic faith is crying out to the Pope, “If you don't care
about these things, then what will happen to the Church, which is
supposed to speak for Christ on earth, which has spent two thousand
years trying to steer a careful path between those who want no
change, like the Pius X Catholics who think only the Tridentine mass
is valid; and those who want the Church to get with the times and
abandon opposition to same sex marriage, to abortion, and to other
doctrines that seem out of place today.
I think the same thing is going on in
the early Church, and that is reflected in the gospel today. Our
ancestors, Jews and Christians both, were asking, “What do we do
about the Law? On the one hand, it has kept our people together
through persecution and enslavement and our tradition says that it
comes from God himself. On the other hand, isn't it time we started
thinking critically about the Law.. After all, some things just
don't make sense anymore.
So what is the lesson for you and I?
After all, Jesus isn't just doing another rant about the Pharisees.
He is saying, the law is important – do as they say, because they
know the law of Moses – that's what sitting on Moses seat means.
But at the same time, remember you really only have one teacher, God
the Father who speaks through His Son. Authority does not come about
because of titles or garments or even having the ability to force or
coerce people into doing something they don't want to do – of which
Jesus accuses the Pharisees.
So Father Weinandy seems to be a
humble man concerned about things happening in the Church. Pope
Francis seems to be a humble man who is trying to push the Church in
a direction that he thinks is more pastoral and more relevant to the
people it serves. And they now are at odds with each other even
though they both try to follow the same Lord.
And that's the point I think Jesus is
making – for the Pharisees, for the Apostles, for Father Weinandy,
even for the Pope. He who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he
who humbles himself shall be exalted. Sometimes being humble means
that you really believe something but you know that you could be
wrong; and sometimes it means that you really believe you have to
correct your brother, who seems to be off the rails, even at great
personal cost.
Today we should look at ourselves. I
know I have some of those characteristics Jesus identifies in the
Pharisees. And the opposite of those characteristics is humility,
which is not the same as being a doormat. Humility goes hand in hand
with integrity – perhaps they are the same thing. And humility is
one of those virtues we can develop in ourselves.
