Both of the readings for Mass today are awesome. The first reading for Mass from the book of Kings gives us a good example for our own lives, and the gospel gives us excellent advice and guidance from Jesus. The two readings are tied together by the same theme: it isn’t enough to say that you love God, the fruits of your life must also prove it.
In the first reading from the book of Kings, someone found a book and read it to the king. The book explained God’s covenant and commandments with His people. When the king heard the contents of this book, he tore his clothing in anguish because he realized the people had fallen away from God. They had not obeyed God or His commandments. This king is awesome for one one reason only – he acted on what he heard. Countless other people before him knew about God’s covenant, for years, but didn’t act on it and the king understood at once that was wrong.
The king’s first action when he realized the truth, was to call all of the people to the temple. All of the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, prophets and all the people both great and small, were summoned to the temple. When they arrived at the temple, the king had the entire contents of the book about God’s covenant read out loud to all of the people. When they were through reading about God’s covenant, the king made a new covenant before the lord that they would follow Him and observe his ordinances, statutes and decrees with their whole hearts and souls. This was done in order to revive the covenant that the people had strayed from. The scriptures say that the people all participated in this new covenant with God that day, in the temple.
The king in the first reading for Mass is an awesome example of faith in action. He didn’t hesitate for one moment to correct a wrong that had been ignored for many years. God was the foundation of their lives. This king’s faith and love, and complete trust in God is just a beautiful thing. This is what is rightfully called, ‘the faith of our fathers’.
Jesus gives us a pretty dire warning about people who pretend to be good and holy and as gentle as a lamb in front of you, but sneak around like ravenous wolves behind your back to hurt you or do you harm. People are not always what they appear to be on the surface of things. It is easy to be deceived sometimes. We shouldn’t just trust anyone. If we trust everyone, then we will open ourselves up to a lot of pain and suffering. Jesus does not want to see us suffer. On the contrary, those who inflict suffering on others are in grave danger of being ‘thrown into the fire’ as Jesus put it in the gospel today.
People slip around poking and prying into things they have no business doing sometimes. They use this information to hurt you, whether it is in a direct way or an indirect way, they can still cause a lot of suffering. Gossip is a classic example of this. So are rash judgements, detraction or defamation of character, but none of us have probably committed these sins if you are reading these words today. People who do things like this are usually jealous and trying to make themselves look better than the person they are putting down. Christ refers to their abusive behavior as ‘thistles, thorn bushes or bad fruit’. Bad fruit can cause a person to be physically ill, but we are talking about spiritual fruit here, which is even worse. It can even damage a person’s faith in God if they carry it to extremes.
The way you judge a person’s true character is not by their tiny little character flaws, minor sins or shortcomings. The Pharisees did that. You judge what they do, what their actions have actually produced. We aren’t supposed to judge at all, but there are times a person’s actions need to be judged, but not the person themselves. God alone knows a person’s heart.
Have our actions in life produced good things? Or have we been selfish a lot in our lives? As long as we live, God alone has the right to judge us, and no one is a finished product until the day they die. There is nothing that we have ever done in our lives that is so bad that it can’t be forgiven and rectified. Nothing is written in stone, except our death one day. In the meantime, we can work on our lives, and trying to make the world a better place to be, no matter what stage of life we are in.
Daily Mass Readings:
Kings 22: 8-13; 23: 1-3 / Psalm 119 / Matthew 7: 15-20
