Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 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.”
Open the doors.
1) The doors: this is a very complex issue, I start to analyze and even make a self-criticism. Priests and people committed to the Church that close doors rather than opens them. We apologize for closing the doors to the Church that is your family, your home. We apologize for the times you went to confession and instead of receiving comfort you received challenges after challenges. We are sorry because we even challenged you for not knowing how to say your condolences … sorry for closing the doors when that person from Church approached you the first time you went to the chapel and instead of welcoming you, he ask you more questions than the secret service. Sorry for the times that we at Mass put on a bad face and made you feel that your son bothered when he cried. Sorry, dear teenager, because you dared to have your baby when you got pregnant and you didn’t abort him, however we kicked you out of the parish school because you weren’t a good example, thanks for not having aborted.
Let’s ask to open the doors of kingdom. Seek that all be saved and that Jesus can reach everyone.
2) The prose-fanaticism: this is another issue that we must work internally in the Church, where it seems that instead of being a house and school of communion we make it a soccer championship; the only thing we are missing is that each group or parochial or diocesan movement goes to the Church with the soccer game shirt. We all kick for the same team, For heaven!!! but instead of taking out the best of the Church, it is like we want our institution to be the best, an institution is not better because of the greater number of members, it is because of the greater service it offers from prayer and humility. In Church we don’t evangelized by proselytism but rather by attraction.
3) when the means becomes the end: this is a third issue that we must work on. When the parish works to get money rather than getting souls. This is what happens when you mix things up, when you go to Mass for the priest instead of going for Jesus Eucharist, we priests are means not end. This also happens when you are making money for your home and family, but you don’t enjoy either the home or your family.
Come on, everything with Christ can be done, open doors and be a great family that welcomes and comforts everyone, and the dirtiest people we don’t kick them out, we embrace them , clean them and we walk together.
God bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Don’t forget: Heaven is Our Goal!
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