Woe to the Pharisees and Scholars of the Law

Today's Reflections

                                                                          

                                                                          

Woe to the Pharisees and Scholars of the Law

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.”

TITHES OF MINT AND OF RUE. People have differing sense of values due to variations in training, education, and environment. A God-fearing family, a good school, and a wholesome environment contribute to good values. When parents are delinquent, the school fails to inculcate values, and the environment is unwholesome, young people may turn out to be uncaring, unloving, hateful, corrupt, rude, and cruel.

The Pharisees are a group who are badly educated, for while they have learned so much about the Mosaic Law, they are blind to the essence of God’s law: love. They have a wrong hierarchy of values: tithing on herbs (a negligible matter) while paying “no attention to judgment and to love for God” (v 42). They do things for selfish motives, like being recognized and applauded.

Jesus pronounces his woes also on scholars of the law, for they “impose on people burdens hard to carry, but… do not lift one finger to touch them” (v 46).

St. Alphonsus Liguori was a well known lawyer who observed that lawyers were “liars.” He wrote to a friend, “Our profession is too full of difficulties and dangers; we lead an unhappy life and run risk of dying an unhappy death.” At the age of 27, after having lost an important case—the first he had lost in eight years of practicing law—he abandoned his legal career and became a priest.

What motivates your actions?

Do you have a sense of priority in what you do?