HOMILY
FOR THE 31ST SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A
Rev.
Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi
A pretentious lifestyle
does great harm to the person in particular and to the society at large. When
we pretend, we retard. A pretentious life says what we are really not. In
living such a life, we tend to move away from how God has created and fashioned
each one of us, together with the God-given talents. Those talents that needed
to manifest with our real nature and selves are strangled and sacrificed on the
infamous altar of pretence. Pretence gives birth to some other vices such as
sycophancy and ostentation. Sycophancy leads one into using obsequious
compliments to gain self-serving favour or advantage. Those led into this are
the super flatterers. Ostentation leads one to a vain show or an ambitious
display intended to excite admiration or applause. Those led into this are
flamboyant about their personality. Ostentation is theatrical not real, just as
flattery is obsequious, not truthfully assertive.
In the Gospel (Matthew
23:1-12) of today, Jesus warns us against the religion of ostentation.
Ostentation can only end up destroying the very cradle on which deep
spirituality is built. And that cradle is in action and the relationship we are
expected to have with our fellows. It was vivid that the lifestyle of the
Pharisees was an ostentatious one. They converted religion into a ‘showbiz.’ And
Jesus had to lay bare those actions and customs in which they lived such an
ostentatious life. There are three points to note here:
1) They appear, dress
and cloth themselves to draw attention to themselves. They widen their phylacteries. These were little leather type boxes
which contained a piece of parchment with four passages of Scripture written on
it. The passages were from Exod. 13:1-10, 13:11-16, Deut. 6:4-9 and Deut.
11:13-21. The reason behind the use of the phylacteries is most probably that
we are to have the word of God in our minds just as vivid as we have them in
our eyes. Now, the problem with these Pharisees is that they enlarged their own
little leather boxes to draw attention to themselves and to give the impression
that they are more religious than the others. They lengthen their tassels. God had instructed the people in Deut.
22:12 to make fringes on the borders of their garments, so that it constantly
reminds them of the commandments of God. However, these Pharisees made their
tassels oversize so that they become an ostentatious display of piety, worn not
to remind a man of the commandments but to draw attention to himself.
How often do we wear
clothes that expose the body and attract attention to certain parts of the body?
Jesus warns us against any clothing worn to attract attention. The Pharisees
have done theirs to attract attention, but today we also do it to appear
appealing. Modesty and decency are gradually becoming very subjective to every
person. Every one now claims to have his/her own definition of what is actually
descent. We are reminded that decency is a norm, especially when it concerns
religious gathering (1 Tim. 2:9-10).
2) They loved positions
of honour, special seats, and places of recognition. In Palestine, the back
seats were occupied by the children and the most unimportant people; the
further forward the set, the greater the honour. The most honoured seats of all
were the seats of the elders which faced the entire congregation. If a man
seats there, he must be noticed by all, and must compose himself with a show of
piety which the congregation could not fail to notice. The problem here is not
just in occupying positions of honour, but in the inordinate love of them.
Someone has to hold upper positions and fill the major places of
responsibility. It is the feeling of pride that goes with such positions that
must be guided against. For people who are inclined to this type of life, they
are easily flattered. This leads them to a feeling of excess worth, which leads
them to a life of always expecting praise from people, even when they have done
nothing. In this case, the words of the Psalmist become relevant: in his riches, man lacks wisdom, he is like
the beast that are destroyed (Ps. 49:12).
3) They loved the
titles that honoured and exalted them. The Pharisees liked to be addressed as
Rabbis and be treated with the highest form of respect. They claimed greater
respect than that given to parents; for they claimed that a man’s parents give
him ordinary physical life, but a man’s teacher gives him eternal life. They
exaggerated their positions as teachers. The problem here is not in titles but
in the intent and desire for them. Very often today, some change their clothing
and seek upper places, positions and titles to draw attention to themselves and
their abilities. In this case, they are honoured, and not the Lord (Matt.
6:1-7, 16-18). In this case, they prefer those positions without the desire for
service. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles
himself will be exalted (Matt. 23:12).
There is nothing wrong
in being religious and to practice our righteousness. What is wrong is to draw
attention to oneself instead of to the Lord. Christ warns us not to practice
our righteousness in front of others so as to be seen by them. If you do, he
says, you will have no reward from your father in heaven (Matt. 6:1). We should
not overdo our outward being to draw attention to ourselves. We ought to walk
humbly among men, walk as one of them, for in such a way, we point Christ to
them by our lives. God has no favourites among men. Why should we then seek to
appear as the favourites of God? Why should we seek position, honour, and
appearance that would point us as being special?
If there should be any
one who should walk humbly before men and point them towards God, it is the man
who professes to serve God. And that was why God was very bitter with the
priests of old in the First Reading (Malachi 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10). God spells out
the sins of the Levitical priests. They offer polluted sacrifices (Mal. 1:6-14)
and they abrogate their roles of teaching and leading (Mal. 2:1-9). The Lord’s
response to the polluted offerings is a cessation of all temple sacrifices.
This would cause some tension among the priests. There is also a condemnation
of the failure of the priests as teachers and leaders because they abandoned
personal integrity. The Lord’s response is that the priests will be cursed if
they fail to heed to the Lord’s warning. They have not been faithful to their
roles as priests. Since they voided the covenant of Levi, the Lord has stripped
them of their status. This is a strong message for all Christians today, who by
virtue of their baptism are common priests; but even more for the ministerial
priests. We must all make effort to keep to our duties as priests. We must
preach and at same time practice what we preach.
There are many ways we
behave like the Pharisees or repeat the errors of these levitical priests today.
When we pray just to be called powerful man of God, when we sing to flaunt our
good voice for self praise, when we desire putting on good cloths for going to
church just to win people’s admiration, when we desire to preach so as to spur
applause, when we admonish others without meaning what we tell them, when we
extort people financially under the guise of Christian charity, we become those
Pharisees of Jesus’ time. Paul presents himself as a good preacher worthy of
emulation in the Second Reading (1 Thess. 2:7b-9, 13). The preacher must not
burden the people with his personal issues, and must not extort people
financially. If he recognizes as St. Paul that what he preaches is the word of
God and what he does is the work of God, then he will learn to take care of it
as God wants and not as he desires. May the Lord be our strength as we work to
keep to our duties. May he give us the courage to work authentically and not
merely to be seen. I wish all of us a week of authenticity. Amen.
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