In the gospel today, Jesus talks about the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. When Jesus said the word “leaven” the disciples were quick to latch on to that, because they were thinking about the shortage of bread for their journey. Jesus often spoke in parables that did not make much sense at first though. They only made sense later when you had time to think about it.
If you noticed that the first reading for mass today has to do with temptation, and the gospel reading for mass has to do with the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod who committed many evil acts, then it isn’t much of a stretch to realize how the devil infiltrates our world, just like yeast does in bread. You can’t see the yeast that is baked inside a loaf of bread. Negative influences surround us and influence us in many ways in our everyday life, without us being conscientiously aware of it either.
The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the Jewish people, but most of them did not have good hearts. The “leaven” that came from the Pharisees to the people, through their teachings, was not based in goodness, love and concern for the people. It was all about the rules, not the love behind the rules. The “leaven” that the Pharisees spread throughout the people of God was not a good thing. Jesus told the people of that time to do everything the Pharisees taught them, but don’t become like them. The Pharisees’ teaching was sound, but their hearts were not. All the ingredients in a loaf of bread can be of good quality, but if the yeast spoils, it will ruin the whole loaf of bread.
It goes without saying that King Herod was the same way. His evil acts affected everyone in his kingdom. What came out of King Herod’s heart that infiltrated his kingdom was evil acts like murder, greed, self glorification, power and domination of his people. His evil influence was felt throughout his kingdom much like an unseen leaven that affected everyone. Actually, it would have been like that with the Pharisees too. Their coldness, judgmental attitudes, strict adherence to the rules and negativity would have affected everyone in the Jewish community as well. If you’ve ever had to work or live with someone who was not a nice person, that was always negative, or in a bad mood, or upset with people all the time, then you know what a dark cloud it is that hangs over everyone. This is the kind of leaven Jesus was talking about.
Jesus was warning his disciples to not be so concerned about their next meal, but to be concerned about Herod and the Pharisees’ influence on them and God’s people. We should be aware of the influences that angry, negative, sinful, atheist or agnostic people have on us too. Things haven’t changed much in 2,000 years.
Television, movies, music and the internet can become a harmful thing that infiltrates our lives a little at a time, without us being very much aware of it. We might be offended by something we see on the television and change the channel the first time or two we see it, but after a while it can be easy to pause for a moment longer and end up watching things that directly contradict our Christian values. This alone isn’t that big of a deal, but then it is easy to allow this type of entertainment to become a way of life. Pornography addiction often starts out this way too, with one glance that leads to another. This is what the first reading for mass is talking about: “Each person is tempted when lured and enticed by his desire. Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.”
Venial sins gradually lead the way to mortal sins. The same principle applies to the violence in the movies at the movie theater. Young people grow up to become killers after a lifetime of watching violent movies and playing violent video games. They don’t become a violent person overnight. It was a long slow process of being constantly exposed to violence, that influenced what kind of person they were and formed them into killers .
If you contrast all of this with Christ’s duplication of the loaves of bread that fed five thousand people, then it’s easy to see that Christ’s love was the “leaven” that went out into the world and fed everyone present. Love is what came from the goodness of Christ’s heart, that multiplied and spread to thousands of people. His love spread throughout the entire crowd of people before him. Jesus loved all of them and was concerned for them, and fed them, simply because they were hungry.
Jesus is the leaven that feeds the whole world, through the bread that we eat at mass. The Eucharist is the bread of life that we consume, and then bring Christ’s love into the rest of the world. We become like “leaven”, infiltrating the world with Christ’s goodness and love. May we remember to be like him with everyone we come in contact with today. Goodness has a way of multiplying even in our secular world.
Daily Mass Readings:
Jas 1: 1-11 / Ps 119: 67, 68, 71, 72, 75, 76 / Mk 8: 11-13
