My dear friends, in the Gospel today, Matthew presents the first four of the seven ‘woes’ of Jesus against the Scribes and Pharisees. He criticizes them for their hypocrisy and deceptive life. Jesus repeatedly calls them ‘blind’, ‘hypocrites’, and ‘fools’ because of their lifestyle and their commitment in following not the spirit, but the letters of the law. He is very hard on them. He does not curse them literally, as many may see it, but warns them over their double standard life. Saying one thing and doing another as teachers of the law and religious leaders of the people is unacceptable.
THE BLIND GUIDES
It is not surprising that Jesus describes the Scribes and Pharisees as ‘blind guides’ (Mt 23:16) as opposed to ‘guide of the blind’ which was a common title for Jewish leaders of his time. This is because only those with clear vision can successfully lead the blind; otherwise they would all fall into the same pit. The Scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ era needed to be guided or led with regard to true devotion to God. They claimed to be experts in this, but were not. They preferred appearance to reality, wanting outward cleanness while the interior (heart) remains dirty. Their outer appearance of righteousness hides their inner lives of greed, self-indulgence, hypocrisy, and lawlessness. They taught the law but never practiced the essential parts of the law of justice, mercy and faithfulness. Rather, they displayed outward piety but lacked true devotion to God and His words in their hearts. And never loved Him as they preached. They trivialize oath-taking by putting its binding force on matters of lesser value instead of teaching people to be truthful always. All these Jesus condemns in them and in us.
BLIND GUIDES EVERYWHERE
The blind guides are not far-fetched in our society today. They could be found in every sector of life. We find them in our families and communities. They are among our friends. Interestingly, we could be one of them if we live like them. In fact, we are blind guides when we teach what we do not practice. We are blind guides and hypocrites when we are interested in what others would see to praise us instead of being sincere to ourselves and God. We are wolves in sheep’s clothing when we deceive people for selfish gains in business; lying to them to make more profit. When we brainwash people into accepting what would eventually destroy them, we are not sincere. We are blind guides when we trivialize matters of huge value with common phrases of: ‘it does not matter’, ‘everyone is doing it’, ‘you are still archaic’, as we often hear in our society today. Such phrases lead people astray and corrupt good morals and values. These hypocritical life styles are what Christ condemns.
In conclusion, we are being cautioned on the type of life we live. And the friends who influence us because the rat that joins the lizard in the rain would not experience dryness like the lizard. We should not lose sight of the values expected of us. There are consequences of the choices we make in life. God does not take pleasure in deceptive life style of anyone. We need to be sincere in all we do and be wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Mt 10:16).
