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 men.
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.”
Woe to you!
1. Neither enter nor let in. I believe that many times we live Catholicism without God. Even ideologies are even caught up in Christianity, and that kills the Gospel and the evangelizer. Many times, we see Catholics who pay more attention to whether the priest wears a cassock or not, or to whether a person prays with open or closed hands or receives communion on his knees or with his hand. It seems that we have become Christians who consider that the external is more essential than the soul, and se we’ve become customs officers who decide who can come in and who can’t.
2. Hypocrisy. Don’t be double-faced, confront and accept things. Speak when you have to, but at the right time. It’s a mistake is to say things in anger and rage, because instead of speaking calmly, you hurt others. Don’t fall into the hypocrisy of being with someone just to fill a void and don’t seek to become a fanatic of religion to escape your reality. Don’t cling to impossible illusions, as this makes you live in constant hypocrisy. Live and fight for your dreams and don’t abandon the battles that this implies. Sometimes it’s preferable to be wounded for having fought for your dreams, than to be hypocritical, wanting to look good to everyone, and not living your own life, but simply fulfilling the dreams of others who become your masters.
3. What’s important. I read a text that blew my mind. It was supposedly written by the writer Gabriel García Márquez, but in fact it was written by a Mexican person called Johnny Welch. It’s called “The Puppet” and I’d like to share an extract with you.
“If for a moment God would forget that I am a rag doll and give me a scrap of life, possibly I would not say everything that I think, but I would definitely think everything that I say.
I would value things not for how much they are worth but rather for what they mean.
My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hatred on ice and wait for the sun to come out.
I would convince each woman or man that they are my favorites, and I would live in love with love.
I would prove to the men how mistaken they are in thinking that they no longer fall in love when they grow old-not knowing that they grow old when they stop falling in love. To a child I would give wings, but I would let him learn how to fly by himself. To the old I would teach that death comes not with old age but with forgetting.
If God would bestow on me a scrap of life, I wouldn’t let a single day go by without saying to people I love, that I love them and not foolishly assume that people know.”
Today give yourself the opportunity to live your faith without hypocrisy and love life knowing that faith fills you with opportunity. Remember that something good is on the way!
God bless you and guard you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
