Saturday, August 23, 2025
Ruth 2:1-3, 8-11, 4:13-17; Mt 23:1-12
In today’s Gospel Jesus instructs his disciples how not to be like the scribes and Pharisees.
In our faith journey, while prescriptions are very important (the knowledge of doing good), prohibitions become necessary too (the knowledge of avoiding evil). The well-known example could be The Ten Commandments, which contains both positive prescriptions (the laws that call for obedience) and negative prohibitions (the laws that call for avoidance). While diligently following the positive ones is more recommended, a careful avoidance of the negative ones becomes a must.
In the secular world, people call it ‘Negative Learning’ when we learn from an unfortunate situation what not to do. For instance, when a teacher proves awful in handling the children, thus affecting the academic environment, a student who aspires to be a good teacher would think, ‘Here is someone who has a lot to teach me about how not to treat children.’
In a way, Jesus gives a lesson on negative learning to his disciples when he tells them, ‘Do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.’ In other words, to explain the ‘how to be,’ Jesus concentrates on the ‘how not to be,’ helping his disciples realize that holistic growth demands the removal of unwanted and unhelpful traits from one’s personality.
However, we must remember that negative learning is not all that negative. Maybe an anecdote could be of great help to understand the truth. ‘A man asked his gardener why his plants grow so beautifully. The gardener replied, ‘I don’t force them to grow; I remove what stops them.’ The conversation helps us understand that true growth often comes not from pushing harder, but from removing the obstacles and limiting factors. The negative traits are more like weeds in a garden that hinder the realization of one’s true potential.
Jesus wants his disciples to see the truth that from some people we learn how to be and from some, how not to be.
Let us pray for the wisdom to remove those traits that hinder our faith journey.
Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar
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