Saturday, August 23, 2014
20th Week
in Ordinary Time
ST. ROSE OF LIMA
1st Reading:
Ez 43:1-7ab
Gospel:
Matthew 23:1-12
Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees sat on the seat of Moses. So you shall do and observe all they say, but do not do as they do, for they do not do what they say. They tie up heavy burdens and load them on the shoulders of the people, but they do not even raise a finger to move them. They do everything in order to be seen by people; so they wear very wide bands of the Law around their foreheads, and robes with large tassels. They enjoy the first place at feasts and reserved seats in the synagogues, and being greeted in the marketplace and being called ‘Master’ by the people.
“But you, do not let yourselves be called Master because you have only one Master, and all of you are brothers and sisters. Neither should you call anyone on earth Father, because you have only one Father, he who is in heaven. Nor should you be called leader, because Christ is the only leader for you. Let the greatest among you be the servant of all. For whoever makes himself great shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be made great.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
In today’s Gospel, Matthew lists the preferred titles he wanted people to avoid in order not to compete with the heavenly Father. They are ‘Father’, ‘Master’, ‘Teacher’, and ‘Leader’. Construing the prohibition, however, will lead us to lots of inconsistencies.
Take for example the prohibition of the use of the title “leader”. If we take the prohibition literally, then the President of the Philippines should stop using the title “Pangulo”. If we cannot call the President “Pangulo”, should we call him “Pres”? But this is demeaning because the word is already used for the Press Secretary. Should we call him “dent”? I’d go for “dent”, if only to remind the President to have some teeth in implementing our laws.
Similarly, the Department of Education should issue a memorandum instructing students not to call their instructors ‘teachers’. How do we call them then, “mentors”? But that would be impolite because the word is too close to “tormentors”.
Priests should then be called “fadz” or “derps” or simply priest. Even family members should no longer call their dad ‘father’. Children will be tempted to call their father “Erpat” (father in reverse). But this too is impolite because it sounds like “air pot”.
The foregoing considerations offend logic and so render the Gospels illogical. This is what happens if we interpret the Bible literally.— Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website:www.frdan.org.
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