Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 23:13-22Alas for you, blind guides! Jesus said: ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who shut up the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces, neither going in yourselves nor allowing others to go in who want to.‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when you have him you make him twice as fit for hell as you are.‘Alas for you, blind guides! You who say, “If a man swears by the Temple, it has no force; but if a man swears by the gold of the Temple, he is bound.” Fools and blind! For which is of greater worth, the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? Or else, “If a man swears by the altar it has no force; but if a man swears by the offering that is on the altar, he is bound.” You blind men! For which is of greater worth, the offering or the altar that makes the offering sacred? Therefore, when a man swears by the altar he is swearing by that and by everything on it. And when a man swears by the Temple he is swearing by that and by the One who dwells in it. And when a man swears by heaven he is swearing by the throne of God and by the One who is seated there.’ Gospel (USA)Matthew 23:13-22Woe to you, blind guides. Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’ Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’ You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it; one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it; one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.” (i) Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time At the beginning of today’s gospel reading, Jesus is very critical of those who shut up the kingdom of God in people’s faces, refusing to go in themselves and preventing others from doing so. Jesus came to proclaim the presence of the kingdom of God and to invite people to savour the goodness of God’s kingdom, the loving power of God’s presence, here in this present life and, to a fuller extent, in eternity. Yet, some of Jesus’ contemporaries, the experts in the Jewish Law, were trying to close off this wonderful gift to others. Not only have they been rejecting Jesus’ message for themselves but they have been making it difficult for others to accept it. Jesus was often critical of people who were an obstacle to other people coming to faith in him. John the Baptist had done the opposite. He had worked to open up people to the presence of God’s kingdom in the person of Jesus. There will always be those who try to block others from coming to know the Lord and all that he offers and, thankfully, there will always be others who do the opposite, who try to open up others to faith in the Lord and all that flows from it. One of the great services of love we can render others, according to Jesus, is to support them as they try to respond to God’s call through Jesus. Because there will always be those who shut up the kingdom of God in people’s faces, the Lord needs us to keep doing the opposite. He calls us to be a John the Baptist in our day, to live in ways that open people up to the presence of the Lord and the fullness of life that he brings. It is a task that the Lord needs each of us to be engaged in, and there is not more important task in life. And/Or (ii) Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time In today’s gospel reading Jesus condemns the Pharisees because they shut up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. In other words, they hinder people from entering the kingdom of heaven, presumably by trying to keep people from following Jesus who came to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of heaven. The gospels suggest that Jesus was critical of those who were an obstacle to people coming to believe in him. He was critical of his own disciples for trying to prevent children drawing near to him, in spite of the wishes of the children’s parents for Jesus to bless their children. Rather than shutting up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, Jesus wants us to open up the kingdom of heaven to each other. We are to bring each other to the Lord, to reveal the Lord to each other, and, in so doing, to support one another on our journey towards the kingdom of heaven. There are many people in the gospels who brought others to Jesus and who can be an inspiration to us. We only have to think of John the Baptist, whose life mission was to lead people to Jesus, to open up the kingdom of heaven to others. We need the support of each other’s faith, each other’s witness, as we journey on our pilgrim way through life. And/Or (iii) Monday, Twenty First Week of Ordinary Time In the gospel reading Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for preventing people from entering the kingdom of heaven. They won’t enter themselves and they are an obstacle to others entering. Even a disciple can be an obstacle to someone entering the kingdom of heaven. Earlier in the gospel of Matthew Jesus warned his own disciples about putting a stumbling stone in the way of others, causing others to stumble in their response to the Lord’s call. Jesus was very aware that we can impact each other’s faith for good or for ill. We can help others on their journey towards the Lord or we can put a stumbling stone in their way. We are called to support one another in our efforts to respond to the Lord’s call. We can do this in various ways, by praying for each other, by witnessing to our faith when the opportunity presents itself, and just by being generous in our own response to the Lord. Whenever we try to do what the Lord may be asking of us we make it easier for everyone else to do what the Lord may be asking of them. The journey of faith is a shared one and we are interdependent as we travel it. Yes, we can hold each other back, as Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing in this morning’s gospel reading, but we can also help each other along. The Lord wants to work through each one of us to bring one another to a deeper faith. And/Or (iv) Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time One of the ways we connect with each other is by praying for each other. If we were to look at our prayer, we would probably find that a lot of it is prayer for others, intercessory prayer. We pray for each other all the time, especially when we go to places of pilgrimage, like Lourdes. There are nearly thirty going on pilgrimage to Lourdes from the parish at the beginning of October and they will bring the intentions of parishioners with them and pray for them. At the end of this morning’s first reading, Paul declares that he prays for the church in Thessalonica. I am struck by the content of that prayer, ‘We pray continually that our God will fulfil all your desires for goodness and complete all that you have been doing through faith’. We all have what Paul refers to in that prayer, ‘desires for goodness’. We desire to be good; we want to become all that God is calling us to be. That desire is crucial; it is something God can work with, as Paul says in that prayer, ‘God will fulfil all your desires for goodness’. God needs our desire. Our desire gives God an opening to work in our lives. No matter how many times we fall short, as long as we retain our desire for goodness, our desire to walk in the way of God’s Son, God can work powerfully within us, and, in the words of that first reading, will be able to complete all that we have been doing through faith. A good prayer to make for ourselves is to pray that our desire for goodness would never weaken. And/Or (v) Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time The gospel reading is a series of accusations that Jesus brings against the religious leaders of the time. The first one seems the most serious. Jesus accuses them of shutting up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, neither going in themselves nor allowing others to go in who want to. Jesus is claiming that not only do some of the religious leaders reject his proclamation of the nearness of God’s kingdom, God’s reign, but they put pressure on others to reject Jesus’ message and ministry as well. They are a stumbling block to others coming to faith in Jesus. Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus warns his own disciples of the danger of becoming a stumbling block to others who already believe in him. Indeed, on one occasion he accused Peter, the leader of the twelve, of becoming a stumbling block to himself, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me’. The opposite of a stumbling block, which trips us up, is a stepping stone, which helps us to walk in difficult terrain. We are all called to be stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks, to help each other towards the Lord rather than hindering each other from receiving the Lord. In the first reading, Saint Paul sees the young church in the Greek city of Thessalonica as stepping stones. He declares, ‘it was from you that the word of the Lord has started to spread… for the news of your faith in God has spread everywhere’. Paul suggests that other young churches are being greatly encouraged and built up by the faith of the Thessalonians. In every age, we need to help each other towards the Lord by the lived witness of our faith. As Paul goes on to say later in that first letter to the Thessalonians, our earliest Christian document, ‘encourage one another and build up each other’. And/Or (vi) Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time There was a great sense of togetherness yesterday in the Phoenix Park as a huge crowd gathered to celebrate Mass with the Holy Father, Pope Francis. We had a long walk before we got to the Mass and the sense of togetherness was evident even then. It had the feel of a real pilgrimage. People of faith were journeying together and, then, at the end of their journey, joining together in our most important act of worship, the Eucharist, with Pope Francis presiding. I thought it was a powerful image of what the church is called to be. We are a family of believers who journey together towards the Lord, supporting one another, praying with one another. The church has been through difficult times and even the run up to the Pope’s visit had quite a negative tone to it, especially in the media. In these times, it is all the more necessary that we support one another on our faith journey. In the gospel reading, Jesus is very critical of those who do the opposite. He accuses the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, of shutting up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, neither going in themselves, or allowing others to go in who want to. They reject the message of Jesus and put pressure on others to do the same. They turn away from God’s gift of the kingdom offered through Jesus and they influence others to turn away from it as well. Undermining the faith of others is a very serious matter in the Lord’s eyes. People can do this in all sorts of ways. Our calling is to lead each other to the Lord. This is the heart of our baptismal calling. The celebrations in the RDS, in Croke Park and in the Phoenix Park over the past five days were an example of people of faith doing just that in a very striking way. We were bringing the Lord to each other and bringing each other to the Lord. And/Or (vii) Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time There is a contrast between today’s two readings. In the gospel reading, Jesus accuses the religious leaders of shutting up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, neither going in themselves nor allowing others to go in who want to. Not only have they been rejecting Jesus’ message for themselves but they have been making it difficult for others to accept it. Jesus was often critical of people who were an obstacle to others coming to faith in him. One of the great services of love we can render others, according to Jesus, is to support them as they try to respond to God’s call through Jesus. This is what we find happening in today’s first reading. Paul is clearly a support to the young church in Thessalonica as they try to live the gospel message in their pagan culture. He supported them, when he first brought to gospel to them, by living the gospel message that he preached. As he says to them, ‘you observed the kind of life we lived when we were among you’. Now that he has left them, he tells them that he is supporting them by praying for them, thanking God for their faith, love and hope, and, of course, he is supporting them just by writing this letter to them. It is clear from that reading that the young church in Thessalonica are also supporting Paul in his faith. He is hearing encouraging stories about the church’s faith from others, ‘other people tell us… how your broke form idolatry’. The church’s witness is an encouragement to Paul. In these days especially, we need to support one another in the living of our faith. We do not journey to the Lord alone. We need others to bring us to the Lord by their prayer and the witness of their lives, and we are called to bring others to the Lord by our prayer for them and the witness of our own lives.26th August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 23:13-22) ‘You who shut up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces’.
Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time
Reflections (7)
Fr. Martin Hogan.
See Also
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