Tuesday, August 05, 2014
18th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading:
Jer 30: 1-2,12-15, 18-22
Gospel:
Matthew 15:1-2,10-14
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. And they said to him, “Why don’t your disciples follow the tradition of the elders? In fact, they don’t wash their hands before eating.”
Jesus then called the people near him and said to them, “Listen and understand: what enters into the mouth does not make a person unclean, what defiles one is what comes out of his mouth.”
After a while the disciples gathered around Jesus and said, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended by what you said?” Jesus answered, “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be uprooted. Pay no attention to them! They are blind leading the blind. When a blind person leads another, the two will fall into a pit.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Jesus had the power to cure all forms of blindness except the blindness of the Pharisees. Where pride is involved, the issue on personal exercise of freedom comes in. God has deep respect for human freedom. Unless a person humbles himself he continues to be off limits to God’s grace.
In today’s Gospel Jesus called the Pharisees blind guides because in guiding the people they blindly imposed traditions that had little to do with peoples’ spiritual welfare. Jesus made many attempts to open their eyes to the things of real value. One time he told them that it is not what goes into the mouth that makes a person unclean but the vile things that come out of his mouth. This, to no avail! The Pharisees continued imposing on the people many onerous religious traditions.
Jesus was known for his great love for the marginalized including blind people. In curing them Jesus often went out of his way such as when he made mud from soil with his spittle and rubbed it on the eyes of the blind man he was healing. This was a manifestation of love and care. Unfortunately for the Pharisees, their kind of blindness was not the type Jesus could cure. Like window blinds, their blindness did not only afflict their own spirits but also made them blockers of light. As such they either filtered the light by inserting their own personal interpretation of the Law, or blocked the light from illuminating the hearts and minds of people.
In a sense, we share the blindness that afflicted the Pharisees because there are traces of pride in all of us. If we want to be healed the only way is to humble ourselves and allow God to open our eyes to what truly redounds to the welfare of our souls.- Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:[email protected]. Website:www.frdan.org.
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