Reflection for October 16 Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 11:42-46

Gospel: Luke 11:42-46

(Jesus said) “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces. Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.” 

Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.” And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”

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Reflection:

Where does this anger of Jesus toward the Pharisees and the scholars of the law come from? It originates from their hypocrisy! The Pharisees and the scholars of the law are good at creating laws for the people to follow, yet they don’t follow them themselves. 

They use their self-created laws as instruments to beguile and eventually enslave their people. Instead of introducing God to them, they ultimately present themselves as gods to their people. 

Their style of leadership is leadership by deception and many of our Politicians has this kind of leadership. They pretend and project themselves to be leaders. But they have the stomach to corrupt money that is for the poor, how could they do this to the masses that they are supposed to truthfully serve?    

Politicians are not alone in this kind of pharisaic mentality we too are often times guilty of this mentality. We tell others or even our children not to do this and that yet when nobody is watching anymore we are the main violators of the rules that we create. 

The truth hurts, but it is the truth, and we have to accept it. Hopefully, we can use this as a springboard to live our lives according to the teachings of Jesus, rather than the false and self-serving teachings of the Pharisees and the scholars of the law. - Marino J. Dasmarinas