In the last couple of Sundays, pharisees and scribes have been questioning Jesus, trying to make Him fall into an error or contradiction, this Sunday is Jesus turn to question their intentions and behaviour.
What the pharisees and scribes have been really trying to say to Jesus with their questions is: “you don’t have the credentials to be considered a teacher (unlike us, who do have those credentials), you shouldn’t be followed.” And is this lack of humility to learn from someone who doesn’t belong to their circles, that Jesus is mostly criticizing in the gospel.
Now, we might think that because we are not priests or catechists, or (if we are priests or catechists) that because we are not like the other priests or catechists, this gospel is not particularly for us — but for those who (unlike me) need them. The truth is that if we are honest with ourselves, these words apply to all of us.
Very often, while I’m doing my examination of conscience at the end of the day, trying to see where did I hear God through the day, I find that I am too quick to judge others, and to dismiss or ignore their opinions: “oh that was just classic Larry, he’s always wrong”, “of course that cannot be true, it was said by X”, “I was right and I did the right thing”. And I am like the pharisees, trying to test others to let them know that I am smarter or that I should be first, instead of being humble and admit that I can learn from them.
I was recently reading a book about prayer by the late Franz Jalics SJ, and something that really touched me is that he says that how we relate to others, is how we relate to God; so if we easily ignoring or dismissing others, is very possible that we are also ignoring or dismissing God when He’s trying to talk to us.
So, today, listening to the words of Jesus, let us pray for help to be more humble, and for this week let us try to pay attention to how God is talking to us through the others.
Luis Esquivel – St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta.
Fot. Etienne Boulanger/Unsplash.com