A reading of the holy gospel according to saint Matthew. Now this is this chapter 23. It's called the chapter of the woes of which more are none. Woe is you. Woe is you.
Seven of them. Can you imagine this if this was actually face to face with the scribes and the pharisees? Our lord is speaking, however, to the crowds, to the public in some place en route to Jerusalem. So this is a continuation. This is just a few of the woes.
Our lord says, woe to you scribes and pharisees. Now remember, these were the leaders of the people. These were the good men. These were the educated men. These were the holy men.
These were the these were the trusted servants of the of the lord. Now listen to what he says, and this is all just a few of the seven of these. No no wonder they didn't care for him a lot. So our lord says to you, woe to you scribes and pharisees, you frauds. You are like whitewashed tombs, Beautiful to look at on the outside, but inside, you're full of filth and dead men's bones.
Thus, you present of you a holy exterior, while hypocrisy and evil fill you within. Woe to you scribes and pharisees, you frauds. You erect tombs for the prophets, and you decorate the monuments of the saints. And then you say, had we lived in our forefathers' time, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophet's blood. Thus, our lord is continuing now.
Thus, you show that you are the sons of the prophet's murderers. Now it is your turn. Fill up the vessel measured off by your forefathers, and this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. Well, you don't get the full spirit of this passage from Saint Matthew by just listening to these few lines.
As I say, if you'll take the time to go and read this entire it's chapter, if it's almost all of it, these woes, each each, verse begins with a woe. It's awful, awesome, frightening because whether we like it or not and no matter how hard we try, we are gonna find ourselves with the scribes and the pharisees more or less sometimes and at others. Let's not make any mistake about it. The whole point of these of our lord see, what makes this whole picture complicated is that our blessed lord had some good friends among the pharisees. After all, he went into their house, and he he ate and had a banquet with him.
He a a a a pharisee came to him at night. He conversed with him. But notice, he these this is frightfully hard, and as I say, there are seven of these, one after the other. Now the the the the essence of our lord's denunciation of the scribes and the pharisees as a group was their hypocrisy. And you just remember this the the parable.
It's a parable of our of our blessed lord when he tells us about two men went into the temple to pray. That's the temple of Jerusalem. There was only one temple. Now there's no no temple. And, one was a scribe a pharisee, and the other was a publican.
Now a publican was outside the pail. But remember, our blessed lord ate and had friends with publicans. What is our lord's charge? The pharisee goes up right up to the altar and tells god what a good man he is. Have you ever read that seriously and thought about it?
He was a good man. As far as his actions go. Most of us, including me, I would like to be able to say those things, and there's no reason to doubt that the Pharisee did them. These were the externals. But he was a good man as far as all the externals go.
And the poor old publican comes in and stands with him. He doesn't even he just stays at the back of the church. And then he tells the publican tells god, you know, I'm not much of a guy, you know, but still here's what I tried to do. And our blessed lord then says that the publican left justified. There's you know, when people talk about following Christ, you see, anyone who takes it seriously to follow Christ is in trouble.
They're in deep trouble. It's not a bed of roses. It's not easy. It's not something you're gonna get a pat on the shoulder for from the world. You're gonna get a good kick in the pants for it.
Put Christ on the cross. I mean, we forget this. We forget what it means to be a Christian. We've had it too easy. But the one thing our lord is talking about in these woes to these scribes and pharisees, don't be a hypocrite.
In in other words, don't lie to yourself. Don't be a liar because that's what hypocrisy means. We are lying. We do not see the truth. And the and the language that our lord uses here is vile.
He talks about tombs and the filth of the tombs and the bones in the tomb. See, how many of us have ever been around a tomb that's been opened up after the person's been buried for for some time? We see, these figures of speech, they don't mean much to us, but they should. This is serious stuff. Because remember, if Price meant what he said, if he and his doctrine is clear.
If people wanna hear it, there's such a thing as intellectual pride of which we have an awful lot today. When you have when you have every Tom, Dick, and Harry standing up against the holy Roman Catholic church and saying what they think about things. Who cares what a father Kern says or a Schillebuck? Who are they? Or a sister this or a sister that tells us what she thinks of the bible, what she thinks of homosexuality.
Who cares what they think? Who cares about their opinions? Because to follow Christ is to follow God. And if it's not that if it if that is not true, then let's go bowling or sailing or go have a drink or or do something serious. You see, the thing what what impinges on me so much day after day is that most people who call themselves Christian, they don't seem to realize what they're in for, what they are in for.
They are in for a heck of a crucifixion. You say, where do we see that today? Of course you don't see it because in many ways, the great the teachers who ought to be teaching the truth of Christ, they're not. They're wimps because they're playing the game. They're negotiating.
They're compromising. And if there's one thing you can't do with Jesus Christ is compromise because you're being dishonest with yourself, and that's hypocrisy. And that's what the the text is today about, that we have got and now remember, this is the struggle. This is not easy. It's not accomplished by saying, yes.
I believe. Lord, help my unbelief. Sure. That's fine. But what happens afterwards?
Thomas became a martyr. And time after time, as we say our breviary today, we're told that this saint or that saint received the gift of martyrdom. Do you know what that means to receive the gift of martyrdom? In other words, you're you're being paid off as far for following Christ by being turned into a martyr. Now I'm not exaggerating this picture.
This is what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Christ. And he never said anything to minimize it, to weaken it, to soften it. On the contrary, our blessed lord said, unless you take up your cross and follow me, that's the important thing, because plenty of people take up their crosses. But we're not stoics. We're not hedonists, or we're not supposed to be.
We're followers of Christ. And if we pick up the cross, we're picking up the cross behind him. And then our lord says, if you do that, then you will find that cross sweet and the burden light. You talk about a contradiction in terms of oxymoron. There it is.
But who said it? Jesus Christ, the son of a virgin Jewish girl, the son of god said it. And we call ourselves, and rightly so, his followers. In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.