Neglect for Weightier Things

Today's Reflections


                                             

 

Neglect for Weightier Things

Mt 23:23-26

[Jesus said], ²³“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. [But] these you should have done, without neglecting the others. ²⁴Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!

²⁵“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. ²⁶Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”

You cleanse the outside of cup and dish. Ritual purification is an important part of the Jewish tradition. But misguided zeal on the part of the scribes and Pharisees has detached the practice from its intended purpose. These so-called religious leaders are obsessed with externalities and appearances. Here, Jesus addresses their failure to focus on things of greater value. They impose tithes on herbs, the smallest produce of the land, but neglect the weightier things of the law: judgment, mercy, and fidelity.

Jesus uses the image of the ritual washing of dishes and utensils to stress that purification is important not for external appearance alone but for our internal disposition: conversion from sin. In the same manner, the best expression of our love of God is living his commandment of love.

“Accustom yourself continually to make many acts

of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul”

(St. Teresa of Avila).