Reflection for Wednesday August 30, Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time: Matthew 23:27-32

Gospel: Matthew 23:27-32

Jesus said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous, and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets' blood.' Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets; now fill up what your ancestors measured out!"

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Reflection:

A woman was swept off her feet by her handsome and rich suitor. To make a long story short she married this handsome and rich man. After a few months the many irresponsible behaviors of this man started to unravel before her. Then she said to herself, if only I did not allow myself to be smitten by his external appearance I would have been able to avoid this man.

Jesus is criticizing the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees because they are only good at what others see on them. They neglect the most important requirement: none other than interior purity and transformation.

Jesus would not have minded if the scribes and Pharisees were not able to measure up to their self-created external standards. For as long as they go through interior cleansing and do away with whatever that would make them sin. But they refused to acknowledge the constructive criticism of Jesus, they even have the temerity to take it against Jesus that’s why they plotted to kill Him.

Somehow many of us are not alien to this self-righteous behavior of the scribes and Pharisees. Be presentable outside but neglect the more important aspect of life which is interior cleansing, renewal and transformation. Nevertheless, we still have time to hear and act on this call of Jesus.- Marino J. Dasmarinas