Tuesday March 14
For good reason, these have been hard times for people in authority. Many events in the recent past have revealed the painful shortcomings and sinfulness of our leaders, political as well as spiritual. There has been a crisis of credibility within the Church. However, the solution is not to bitterly attack the Church or walk away. Our leaders may not always live up to their billing, but the Gospel they preach, the Truth they teach, and the sacraments they administer are foolproof and do not fail. Hence Jesus exhorts us to do and observe whatever they teach, even when their lives are not always worth imitating. It helps to keep in mind that all of us are wounded by sin and stand in need of forgiveness from God and one another. God alone is the only perfect Master, Father, and Leader in whom the word is the same as the deed. The Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic; and sinful. For we, sinful human beings, make up the Church. We do not redeem ourselves; we are redeemed by a Love greater than our sins. Such understanding may heal many wounds and mend many lives.
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Once again Jesus clearly speaks out against hypocrisy and external formalism, which are a true leprosy for religion. The scribes and Pharisees are wrapped in an aura of verbal compliance, solemn rituals and sumptuous ornamentations (wearing phylacteries on the forehead and arm, and ribbons on their prayer shawls). The disciple of Christ must shun the pompous titles, positions and distinguished degrees (including to be called teacher and father). He should choose to be humble so as not to be humiliated before the judgment of God.
