Gospel: Mt 23:13-22
JESUS said to the crowds and to his disciples:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’ Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’ You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it; one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it; one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.”
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The Temple of Jerusalem was the seat and symbol of the presence of God among his people. It was here that the prophet Isaiah had a vision of Yahweh (cf Is 6:1ff). Ezekiel enhanced the holiness and glory of the temple by his image of the Temple as the source of living water (cf Ez 47:1ff).
The Temple and the altar are the basic realities of the religious life of the Jews, therefore “greater” than the gold and the gift offered there. In view of the principle that for an oath to be valid, one should swear by something greater (cf Heb 6:16ff), oaths taken by the temple and the altar are in themselves binding. But the Pharisees teach that oaths are binding when taken by the gold or the gift. Indeed, the Pharisees are “blind guides,” unable to focus on the “weightier things of the law” (Mt 23:23).
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SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2018,” ST. PAULS Philippines, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
