Monday October 30, 2017
The Pharisees are being trounced again in today’s reading; they are the whipping-boys of the New Testament! Why does the Church keep putting them before us, day after day? Because, I presume, they (or we) are still here!
A crippled woman attended the synagogue. Let’s watch people’s eyes. Jesus “saw her.” He had eyes for the poor, for people who were suffering—unlike the rich man to whom Lazarus was invisible (see March 11). The Pharisees had eyes too: but only for breaches of their rules. The ruler of the synagogue was furious that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath (technically it was “work”, and work was forbidden on the Sabbath). He couldn’t look at Jesus, he couldn’t meet his eyes; he addressed the people with words meant for Jesus, for he lacked courage to speak to him face to face. But Jesus certainly looked at him when he said, or perhaps shouted, “You hypocrites!” And then his reasoning was so compelling that I can’t imagine that synagogue ruler looking anywhere but at the ground in shame. The absence of compassion in their religion was never so clear. It’s no wonder they came to fear and hate him. And it’s no wonder they encompassed his death. Violence is the reaction of people who can’t look you in the eye.
