Gospel: Lk 11:47-54
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Also highly critical of Jesus is the group of lawyers. Because they are experts in the Law of Moses, ordinary citizens rely on them to explain and interpret details of the law. They feel alluded to and are offended when Jesus earlier made a pronouncement against the Pharisees.
Jesus lashes out at some of the sins of the lawyers. He accuses lawyers of laying legal burdens on the shoulders of people without doing anything to help them. They show contempt on the simple people who have to contend with many of their man-made rules and regulations.
Jesus also tells the lawyers how they are following the footsteps of their ancestors who killed the prophets. Jesus is aware that the lawyers harbor in their hearts a murderous intent to get rid of him. They cannot dissociate themselves from their ancestors and from their wicked ways even if they have erected memorials for the prophets.
Jesus points out how God sent prophets and apostles, from Abel to Zechariah, and how people who rejected God’s salvation had killed them.
Lawyers profess loyalty to Scriptures, yet they become stumbling blocks for people to know who Jesus is.
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The Lord said: “Woe to you! You build the memorials of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building.
Therefore, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’ in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood! Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” When he left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.
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SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2020,” 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.
