Saint Paul seems to echo Christ’s words in the first reading for mass today. He said, “For by the standard by which you judge another, you condemn yourself.” This sounds vaguely familiar, because Jesus also taught us, “For as you judge so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.” Mt 7:2. This reading goes on to say “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” This too, is reflected in Saint Paul’s words, “you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the very same things” And, “Do you suppose, then, you who judge those who engage in such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgement of God?”
Saint Paul had become very much like the Lord Jesus. Maybe Saint Paul didn’t use the exact words that Jesus used, but he got the meaning of them just fine. Many Catholics are like that too. We don’t memorize verses in scripture or have the ability to quote the different verses in the bible, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know them. The meaning is actually more important than the knowledge of the exact words used in sacred scripture though.
That’s pretty much Christ’s point in the gospel reading today too. “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.” Everyone knows how much the Pharisees religiously obeyed the smallest rule, but lost the meaning of why they were doing it to begin with. The rules and technicalities became more important than love for God Himself, let alone loving other people.
Jesus offended the Pharisees once again, but also the scholars of the law too. The scholars said, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.” That set Christ off again because he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift on finger to touch them.” Christ had compassion for the people who had to live by the strictness of their rules. Sometimes parents can be overly strict with their children too. Rules are important, but not more than the person themselves, especially if it causes them to feel inferior, not good enough, or not loved and accepted others.
Jesus was pretty angry at both the Pharisees and the scholars of the law, yet there are so many Catholics in our modern times that think you are not a good Christian if you get angry or lost your temper momentarily. Christ shows us otherwise. There is no need to feel guilty about your temper if it is a rare thing and if it’s justified. There is such a thing as justifiable anger, but it should not become a habit.
Jesus only got angry about the really big offenses and even then, it was almost always in response to the accusations the Pharisees made against him. That is another point that Christ demonstrates. Just because someone makes an accusation against you, it doesn’t mean it is true. This is worth repeating because we take these things to heart more than we should sometimes, when really it may be the other person’s heart that isn’t right with God. The problem might not lie with us.
But, we can get in the wrong mindset and pick out the faults in others too sometimes. It’s kind of like looking out of dirty glasses and thinking the car wash attendant didn’t clean your windshield good enough. If we were to wash our own glasses, so to speak, we might see that the windshield is perfectly clean.
The point of both of the readings for mass today is to not look at what other people are doing, but to pay attention to yourself and what you need to be doing instead.
Daily Mass Readings:
Rom 2: 1-11 / Ps 62: 2-3, 6-7, 9 / Lk 11: 42-46
