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2Thess 1:1-5,11-12/Psa 96:1-5/Matt 23:13-22.
Reflection:
(By Most Rev. Emmanuel Kofi Fianu,SVD(Catholic Bishop of Ho,Ghana)
The Gospel Reading forms part of the seven woe-sayings in Matt 23,13-39.
Woe- sayings are common in the Bible but the way they are put together in Matt 23 is remarkable.
In the verses we read today, Jesus condemns the way the Scribes and Pharisees articulated their viewpoint about questions of faith.
Their perspective of commitment to the things of God and responsibility towards others was completely out of tune with what Jesus proclaimed.
By calling them hypocrites, Jesus showed that they were trying to be something they were not.
The gravity of the case is that they also prevented others from attaining what they were supposed to be.
They can be accused of deception by the way they lived and interpreted the Laws of God.
Their teaching of the Law should have helped people find the way to the kingdom of God but that was not the case.
Jesus further accuses the Scribes and Pharisees of turning believers into evildoers or sinners.
This is grave because they the Scribes and Pharisees were at the basis of the evil deeds of those they teach.
With their wrong teaching they turned their followers into evil people.
Jesus is therefore right in labelling them as “blind guides” in so far as the faith is concerned.
In our own times, we need to be weary of some of those who dawn the garment of teachers and guides of the Christian faith.
There are still leaders who for the sake of personal interest fail to study well the Word of God before proclaiming it to others.
They end up offering interpretations that are far from what the words of the Scriptures are
intended to communicate.
They mislead those who listen to them and turn them into anything but faithful Christians.
The woes that Jesus proffered on the Scribes and Pharisees may be applicable to them but unfortunately, their listeners are the worse off since they do not know that they are being misled in the name of the Gospel.
Let us make our own the prayer of Paul on behalf of the Thessalonians in the First Reading that God may make us all worthy of our call.
May he by his power fulfil all our desires for goodness and lead us to life in his heavenly kingdom.Amen.