Woah, woes!

Greetings on this the Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: 2 Thes 1:1-5, 11-12; Ps 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 4-5; Mt 23:13-22

Prayers for the Sick and Dying

This weekend was blessed with aiding a widow in her grief, a spouse in anticipatory grief and a couple anxious about the future. This morning, prayers rise for them and for Fr Carl in his health condition.

We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.

Pain and grief come. We pray for aid in them, asking for relief from them and with the power to endure them but most of all to give them back to the Lord as gift to be united to the Cross of Christ.

Summary

Woe to you, hypocrites.

A hypocrite is one who performs a role as if in a play. There is form only, no substance. The person of the hypocrite is not touched interiorly by the purpose, event, action or intention. A hypocrite performs for self directed purposes having no (or little) connection to the action beside self interest.

Reflection

The woes (the outcomes) are a bit hidden in the condemnation of the actions. Today’s gospel portion has the first three woes.

1. You lock yourself out of the Kingdom of Heaven.
2. You have become a child of Gehenna.
3. You are blind to the truth (blind guide – lack truth, blind fool – values wrong things, blind ones – lacking insight and wisdom).

These woes are not of the ordinary and individual sorrows caused by greed and avarice. These woes are from faulty leaders and leadership harming the many!

Personal Reflection

Everyone likes to pick on the leadership. Politics is sometimes referred to as “blood sport”. But the woes Jesus describes is the sorrow, misery, suffering and troubles the leadership cause themselves! Woe to you is a caution, a sign to change, to reconsider the hypocritical ways of leading and the perversion of religions rites. Jesus wants to save them too. It’s not a “Roast” like on TV. It’s a call to change.

Sacred Readings

Full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082624.cfm

First Reading

We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater. Accordingly, we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God regarding your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions you endure.

The above sacred writing is for those who reject the woes of hypocrisy.

Responsorial

Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.

Gospel Acclamation

My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me.

Gospel

1. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.
2. [You are] a child of Gehenna.
3. [You are] blind.

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry