Daily Reflections - October 16,2012

AGAINST SUPERFICIALITY AND LEGALISM

 

An incident during a meal made it into a heated discussion between Jesus and His Pharisee-host in today’s Gospel episode. More than just a question of table etiquette, the whole point was on religious hypocrisy.

What’s sad is when we become imprisoned in our pseudo-religious prescriptions and practices just because “that’s the way things are done.” Even worse is when it is against charity and respect for the person. The real purposes of the religious practices are lost, and we substitute it with a legalistic and hypocritical compliance. Plus, there’s also our “obsession with ritual and form at the expense of interiority and substance,” as columnist-critic Conrado de Quiros points out.

Paul’s tirades against the Galatians should therefore apply to us: “Stand firm, and do not take on yourselves the yoke of slavery!” But Jesus gives us a possibility to redeem ourselves, should we be guilty of such pharisaism. After his denunciation in the table incident, he told the Pharisee, “But if you give what you have as alms, all will be wiped clean for you.”

Of course, our Lord is not advocating an instant wiping out of our faults simply by making a charitable donation or two while intending to continue evading taxes. Or by offering a lighted candle or a Mass intention while planning to go back to lying and cheating afterwards. Or still, by flagellating ourselves on Good Friday while continuing to steal on all other Fridays of the year. If it were just so, then we are simply back to exactly what we are combatting: the misuse of religion for vain and selfish purposes, together again with the fetish for form and ritual.

But as the Lord has unmasked for us the “outside of cup and dish” and uncovered the inside “filled with rapaciousness,” we go deep inside our hearts to humbly recognize and acknowledge such a superficiality and our need for repentance. We then plumb the depths of our sinfulness and allow God to liberate us from our slavery. Fr. Martin Macasaet, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Do you try to know and understand the purposes of your religious rituals? Or do you do them blindly?

 

Lord Jesus, forgive me for sometimes misusing my religion for vain and selfish reasons. May I grow beyond mere rituals and develop a real relationship with You.