Appear as you are

 

Saturday 22 August 2020

Appear as you are

Ezekiel 43:1-7 ·

The vision of the coming of the glory of the Lord to the Temple

The angel took me to the gate, the one facing east. I saw the glory of the God of Israel approaching from the east. A sound came with it, like the sound of the ocean, and the earth shone with his glory. This vision was like the one I had seen when I had come for the destruction of the city, and like the one I had seen on the bank of the river Chebar. Then I prostrated myself.

The glory of the Lord arrived at the Temple by the east gate. The spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; I saw the glory of the Lord fill the Temple. And I heard someone speaking to me from the Temple while the man stood beside me. The voice said, ‘Son of man, this is the dais of my throne, the step on which I rest my feet. I shall live here among the sons of Israel for ever.’ THE WORD OF THE LORD

 

Prayerful reflection

The adamant in their sinfulness and infidelity the people of Israel caused the glory of God to depart from the Temple and bring about its destruction. God will not live in the heart of a sinner. Obdurate sin is the gateway to destruction. But God intervened. He proclaimed: I will pour clean water over you and you will be cleansed from all your uncleanness. I will take out of you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit in you and make you obey my ordinances.

The purification cost the Jews the destruction of their land, the holy city and the Temple and years in exile as captives. Then purified people returned to Jerusalem.

If they had had the wisdom and the faith to listen to God, they would have avoided all this suffering.

We too will avoid much suffering and indeed final damnation if we turn to God in love. The choice is ours as it was for the Jews.

 

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 84(85):9-14(Sat20)

The glory of the Lord will dwell in our land.

I will hear what the Lord God has to say,

a voice that speaks of peace,

peace for his people and his friends.

His help is near for those who fear him

and his glory will dwell in our land.

The glory of the Lord will dwell in our land.

Mercy and faithfulness have met;

justice and peace have embraced.

Faithfulness shall spring from the earth

and justice look down from heaven.

The glory of the Lord will dwell in our land.

The Lord will make us prosper

and our earth shall yield its fruit.

Justice shall march before him

and peace shall follow his steps.

The glory of the Lord will dwell in our land.

 

Gospel

Matthew 23:1-12

They do not practise what they preach

Addressing the people and his disciples Jesus said, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees occupy the chair of Moses. You must therefore do what they tell you and listen to what they say; but do not be guided by what they do: since they do not practise what they preach. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but will they lift a finger to move them? Not they! Everything they do is done to attract attention, like wearing broader phylacteries and longer tassels, like wanting to take the place of honour at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues, being greeted obsequiously in the market squares and having people call them Rabbi.

‘You, however, must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one master, and you are all brothers. You must call no one on earth your father since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted.’

Prayerful commentary

Matthew is very severe on the Pharisees. However, he is not writing his Gospel for them but for the Christians of his own day. He is not giving us a biography of Jesus either. He is preaching the Good News of Jesus so that we may believe and be saved.

Jesus is here condemning the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. This is the one sin that Jesus abhorred. We pretend to be what we are not. It stems from our pride.

Truth is the opposite of hypocrisy. In our ourselves we are nothing and everything we have and are is God’s gift to us. Let us not only acknowledge this, but let us live it also. Then we will think and act in a humble way. We will acknowledge in our being that God is the source of everything and that we are nothing.

Jesus is not talking about the words we use. We need to use words to describe who we are and what we do. E.g. fathers and mothers, teachers, and spiritual fathers. It is not the word but our attitude that Jesus wants to correct.