Gospel

From the Gospel according to Matthew 23:13-22

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 Gehennatwice 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 itand by him who dwells in it;one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of Godand by him who is seated on it.”

The Word of theLord

Inside, or outside?

Inthis Gospel we see how Jesus suffers and sighs. The reason is simple: He desires the salvation of all His children. That is why we see Him correcting the Pharisees, who are not living the truth of the Revelation God has manifested through the prophets. They have remained focused on the external, justifying their faith in appearances rather than in truth.
We too can remain stuck in external acts without delving into the transcendence that each one of them carries—and even worse, we might teach this to our children, spouse… with the consequences this has for their souls.
Very proudly we make a mental list of good things we have “done,” in which, at times, we looked only at ourselves, without caring for the deep and delicate relationship with the One who loves us and gave Himself for us. For example, we go to Mass and our body is present, making all the gestures and answering mechanically… and we feel very “satisfied” just for attending Mass. The truth is that our soul was not there, our heart was not on the altar next to Jesus’. In that Eucharist, lived in such a way, by our own freedom, we make it hard for the Lord to take our heart and bring it close to His to transform it. Thankfully God is merciful, and He surprises us by making up for our weakness; that is why it is always better to be at Mass imperfectly than not to be there at all.

Applied to married life:

Diana: Paul, shall we go to Mass a little earlier to pray and prepare ourselves?
Paul: Of course! I’ll finish this right away and we’ll go.
Diana: Do you remember how hard it was for you to go to Mass?… I won’t even mention if I had asked you to go earlier, like we do now… (laughs).
Paul: It’s true, I went because you asked me to, but I didn’t live what each moment really meant. Going to Mass was just being there, waiting for time to pass and for the priest to say, “Go in peace,” which to me meant, “Now you can go to the pub and have a pint”
Diana: Hahaha!
Paul: The Lord has been patient with me—and so have you. Now I always ask the Virgin to place my heart on the altar, so that I may be very close to Jesus and so He can transform it, making me a better husband for you.
Diana: Well, it’s working, my treasure! As that priest said in his homily, we must stop “doing” Christian things and begin to be Christians.
Paul: But we’ll still keep the pub and the pint!

Mother,

Help us keep our soul attentive, so that we may see and savor the supernatural dimension of our lives. Praised be the Lord!