Woe to the Pharisees and Scholars of the Law
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Lk 11:42-46
[Jesus said,] 42“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. 43Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces. 44Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.”
45Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.” 46And
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.”
Reflection:
Judgment
and love for God. God commanded a tithe on the first fruits of one’s
labor as an expression of thanksgiving and honor for God’s providential
care for his people (Dt 14:22; Lv 27:30). But the Pharisees distort
religion by tithing even such insignificant things as garden herbs. They
meticulously follow regulations but miss the spirit of the law of God,
its justice and mercy, by neglecting to care for the needy, the widows,
and the weak, the practice of love of neighbor and of true love for God.
The
Pharisees love themselves rather than God. They seek social
recognition: they “love the seat of honor in syna-gogues and greetings
in marketplaces.” In building up their social images, they make idols of
themselves. Thus, they are “unseen graves” because they carry inner
decay that could contaminate unsuspecting people, much like what graves
do to make believers ritually unclean.
The
scholars of the law also belong to the same class, imposing unnecessary
and burdensome regulations that obscure the important matters of
religion, but they themselves could find ways to circumvent these rules.
Jesus rages against these hypocrites because they turn people away from
the worship and service of the true God.
In what way do you make religion hard
for simple people? Can you identify the distortions
still existing in our practice of religion?
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