Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Gal 5:18-25; Lk 11:42-46
The crux of today’s Gospel is the continuation of yesterday.
The Gospel text contains woes against both the Pharisees and scholars of the law.
Jesus has no problem with the commitment of the Pharisees to the religious laws.
But Jesus shows that in their fervor for the law, the Pharisees have abandoned the central commands of the religion, which are about charity and kindness.
For Jesus, love and compassion, not laws and commandments, represent the true religion.
Likewise, the scholars of the law are neither exemplary nor sensitive when it comes to what they teach others to follow.
They fail to make themselves role models of what they teach.
They show utter disregard for the burden of laws they mount on the simple people.
Taken together, the Pharisees and scholars of the law fail God and God’s people.
Jesus is enraged by the fact that they misrepresent the religion whose centrality is love of God and love of neighbor.
For Jesus, if the soul of a religion is not love, compassion, justice, and forgiveness, it cannot help human flourishing.
Let us pray that our Christian lives may represent the God of love.
Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar
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