Christian Faith as a Practice of the Heart!

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Malachi 1:14-2:2,8-10; 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9, 13; Matthew 23:1-12

The thirty-first Sunday in ordinary time invites us to make our Christian faith a practice of the heart. In this regard, the three readings make the connection obvious. 

The first reading highlights God’s anger toward the unfaithful priesthood of Israel. They portrayed religion and worship of God as only outward signs. Their surface-level relationship with God betrayed the shallowness of their faith. Their worship of God was merely a formal religiosity, and it never blossomed into a spiritual intimacy. In short, God is disappointed by the fact that their religion is not of the heart.

The second reading demonstrates Paul’s exemplary lifestyle when he lived among the Thessalonians, announcing the Good News. Paul cites his commitment to hard work to provide the Thessalonians with a credible pathway to practice the faith they have just received. Paul’s exemplary lifestyle also signifies the integrity of the Good News he proclaimed among the Thessalonians. 

The teaching of Jesus in the gospel can be understood through three questions. 

1.Who are the Scribes and the Pharisees? The Scribes and the Pharisees occupy the seat of Moses, which symbolizes authority. Hence, Jesus had no problem recognizing the authority of the Scribes and the Pharisees. However, Jesus doubts their capacity to be worthy models, and that leads us to the second question. 

2. What do they do? Though they preached religious truths, the Scribes and the Pharisees failed to live by what they preached. Hence, looking at the scandal of hypocrisy, Jesus was forced to conclude that ‘they will not lift a finger to move.’ Their piety and charity were a show-off. If the best advice is the lived one, they did not do justice to the truth. 

3. How should you be? In one word, the followers are called to be ‘different.’ That difference lies in the way it exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and the Pharisees (Mt 5:20). For this reason, Jesus recommends virtues like humility and piety to distinguish Christians from the rest.

The readings of the day contain practical implications for our discipleship. 

1.Authentic spirituality means personal intimacy with God. Such profound relationality with the Divine so transforms our lives that the love of neighbors becomes the natural corollary of our love for God. 

2. Mother Teresa said, ‘Helping hands are better than praying lips.’ We should prioritize practice over rhetoric and allow the former to impact the latter. There is a severe dearth of witnessing, and we should rectify it through our lives. 

3. Christian life is about the ‘contrast and difference.’ Forgetting the truth that we ‘are’ (not that we ‘should be’!) the salt and the light would amount to overlooking the invitation to be different. As people ‘called to be a cut above the rest,’ we should carefully imitate the model of Christ.

By adorning ourselves with these qualities, we can make our Christian faith a practice of the heart!

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar