From the responsorial psalm: “Before the Lord, for he comes; for he comes to rule the earth. He shall rule the world with justice and the peoples with his constancy. The Lord comes to judge the earth.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 23:23-26)
Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”
Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for their handling of Mosaic law, the way they overemphasize unimportant aspects of it while neglecting more important matters. Judgment, mercy, and fidelity have greater weight than tithing. Inner purity and repentance matter; external appearances do not. And out of love, Jesus rebukes them for their misguided words and actions. Turning to God and living in his truth allows us to let go of the blindness of seeking external validation before others. Christ then has room to fill that space in a way that Paul describes in the first reading: “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.”
God, help strengthen in me the desire for the greater things that Christ calls me to: right judgment, mercy, fidelity, repentance, hope, goodness, and purity. Show me through the opportunities you place before me how to put aside self-regard and instead put to use love and mercy in what I say and do. You loved me first, Lord, and heaven and earth are yours. “The Lord comes,” the psalmist says, “to judge the earth.” Let me leave judgment to you, Lord, so I am free to love you and do as you will. Saint Monica, pray for us!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.