REFLECTIONS TODAY

With the last two of the seven woes, today’s Gospel ends the narrative part in Matthew where the scribes and the Pharisees are denounced by Jesus. While there is an established tradition of a deep opposition between Jesus and the Pharisees, the narrative reflects the bitter conflict between Pharisaic Judaism and the church of Matthew at the time when the Gospel was composed. The speech does not mean to be purely anti-Pharisaic. It serves to persuade as well Matthew’s audience to look to their own conduct and prevent the same fault found among the unscrupulous religious leaders in Jesus’ time. 

The sixth woe (vv 27-28) denounces the religious leaders for their inner filth hidden in seemingly righteous appearance. In Palestine, tombs were often placed by the sides of roads. They were painted white which made them glisten in the midday sun so that people would not accidentally touch them and incur ritual impurity. The final woe (vv 29-32) strongly portrays the scribes and the Pharisees as true descendants of those who murdered the prophets and the righteous. Since there exists a Jewish notion that there is an allotted measure of suffering that has to be completed before the time of God’s final judgment, Jesus orders them to fill up what those ancestors measured out (v 32).

FIRST READING • 1 Thes 2:9-13 
You recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery. Working night and day in order not to burden any of you, we proclaimed to you the Gospel of God. 10You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers.

As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his children, exhorting and encouraging you and insisting that you walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his Kingdom and glory. And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly, that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe.
 

Gospel • Matthew 23:27-32 
Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing. 
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’ Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets; now fill up what your ancestors measured out!”

Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2023,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.