Tuesday of Week 2 of Lent – First Reading

Commentary on Isaiah 1:10,16-20

Today’s reading is an attack on hypocrisy and a call for humility in the presence of God and in the presence of our brothers and sisters. The passage is from the very beginning of Isaiah and is primarily an attack on the people’s hypocrisy—the same theme as in today’s Gospel.

There are strong words from Isaiah on his people and their rulers. He calls the leaders of God’s people “rulers of Sodom” and speaks of the people as “people of Gomorrah”. Sodom and Gomorrah were the epitome of all that was most evil and repellent to God. They are classic examples of sinful cities completely destroyed (see Gen 13:13; 18:20-21). And just as Jesus addressed Peter as Satan for blocking God’s plans, so Isaiah addresses his countrymen as deserving no better than the corrupt citizens of those wicked cities.

In verses which are omitted, God, speaking through his prophet, denounces the endless round of burnt offerings and sacrificial animals.

Bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me…
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen. (Is 1:13,15)

Why? Because “your hands are full of blood.” There is no relationship between the endless prayers piously offered and behaviour which is totally unacceptable to God.

But God’s desire is not to condemn, but instead to call his people to genuine repentance.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean…

And how are they to do this? By offering still more sacrifices? By going to Confession? By saying a perfunctory Act of Contrition? No, they are to repent and “seek justice”; they are to redress the wrongs done to others, and “defend the orphan; plead for the widow.” In the Jewish society of the time, these were the weakest and most neglected of people. There could be no real repentance unless care was taken of the weakest and neediest in society. For us, in Lent, the message is exactly the same.

And there is hope:

If your sins are like scarlet,
will they become like snow?

Because:

If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land…

For those who truly repent (Greek, metanoia)—and this is shown by a radical change in their behaviour and in the way they act towards the weak and neglected—total rehabilitation is possible. That is what we hope will be our experience, too, this Lent.

The choice is ours, either to submit ourselves to the compassionate way of God and find life, or go our own rebellious, self-centred way and find death.

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Tuesday of Week 2 of Lent – Gospel

Commentary on Matthew 23:1-12

Today’s Gospel looks like an attack on the scribes and Pharisees, but we should really see it as directed towards members of the Christian community, especially its leaders. Jesus levels two criticisms against the Pharisees:

—they don’t practise what they preach, and
—they do what they do to attract the admiration of others.

In fact, the words of Jesus are a warning to all people in authority. Jesus was attacking the scribes and Pharisees, but his words can be applied to many positions in our own society. Executives, managers, doctors, lawyers, bishops, priests, civil servants and parents can all be included here. In so far as they have genuine authority, they should be listened to—the doctor about things medical, the lawyer about things legal, the priest about things spiritual and the parents about family matters.

The Pharisees tried to impress by wearing wider phylacteries and longer tassels. The phylacteries were small boxes containing verses of Scripture which were worn on the left forearm and the forehead. The tassels, worn on the corners of one’s garment, were prescribed by Mosaic law as a reminder to keep the commandments. By making each of these items larger, one drew attention to one’s superior piety and observance. It is not difficult to see parallels in our time.

Unfortunately, it would be wrong to follow the behaviour of such people, especially when they become arrogant and domineering, use their authority to draw attention to themselves and assert their supposedly superior status, or impose burdens on those ‘below’ them, which they themselves do nothing to alleviate.

Authority is not for power, but for empowering and enabling. Real authority is a form of service, not a way of control or domination or a claim to special privileges. So Jesus has no time for people who insist on being addressed by their formal titles. Matthew’s attack on the scribes and Pharisees points to similar weaknesses on the part of church leaders in his time. It is something that again we may be all too familiar with in our own time:

“Hi, John!”…”Mr Jacobs to you, if you don’t mind.”

“Hi, Father Steve!”…”Monsignor McDermott to you.”

As Jesus says, ultimately we are all brothers and sisters. And elsewhere, he tells us that the greatest among us is the one who best serves the needs of those around him, rather than the one who has the most impressive titles, or the biggest desk, or eats in the executive dining room, or has his/her picture on the cover of a magazine. Unfortunately, we contribute a lot to this nonsense because some of us dream of being there ourselves someday.

All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

The perfect model is Jesus himself, who:

…though he existed in the form of God…emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name… (Phil 2:6-9)

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