Fête de la Toussaint

Les Béatitudes (du latin beatitudo, « le bonheur ») sont le nom donné à une partie du Sermon sur la montagne rapporté dans l’Évangile selon Matthieu (5, 3-12) et à une partie du Sermon dans la plaine de l’Évangile selon Luc (6, 20-23). Elles sont au nombre de huit dans l’Évangile selon Matthieu et de quatre dans l’Évangile selon Luc où elles sont suivies par quatre malédictions. Il existe d’autres béatitudes dans les sources juives antérieures aux évangiles, dans la Bible, en particulier dans le Siracide (Si 14, 20-27), ou dans un des manuscrits de la mer Morte provenant de la grotte 4 (4Q525 2 II).

Les Béatitudes de l’évangile selon Matthieu présentent une structure qui repose sur le même procédé que celui utilisé pour ces deux derniers textes, ce qui a des conséquences directes sur l’étude du texte de cet évangile. Les Béatitudes des deux évangiles sont citées dans la Liturgie Divine de Jean Chrysostome, liturgie qui continue à être la plus souvent employée dans l’Église orthodoxe.

Évangile de Jésus Christ selon saint Matthieu

En ce temps-là, voyant les foules, Jésus gravit la montagne. Il s’assit, et ses disciples s’approchèrent de lui. Alors, ouvrant la bouche, il les enseignait. Il disait : «Heureux les pauvres de cœur, car le royaume des Cieux est à eux. Heureux ceux qui pleurent, car ils seront consolés. Heureux les doux, car ils recevront la terre en héritage. Heureux ceux qui ont faim et soif de la justice, car ils seront rassasiés.

Heureux les miséricordieux, car ils obtiendront miséricorde. Heureux les cœurs purs, car ils verront Dieu. Heureux les artisans de paix, car ils seront appelés fils de Dieu. Heureux ceux qui sont persécutés pour la justice, car le royaume des Cieux est à eux. Heureux êtes-vous si l’on vous insulte, si l’on vous persécute et si l’on dit faussement toute sorte de mal contre vous,à cause de moi. Réjouissez-vous, soyez dans l’allégresse,car votre récompense est grande dans les cieux» (Mt 5, 1-12a)

Les béatitudes

Les guérisons et les actes miraculeux, dont les foules furent témoins les préparèrent à recevoir les paroles étonnantes qu’elles entendirent. Comment auraient-elles pu croire heureux ceux que l’expérience et le bon sens proclamèrent malheureux, si elles n’eurent contemplé les merveilleuses délivrances que Jésus tint en réserve pour eux  ? La montagne désigne ici une hauteur, par opposition à la plaine.

C’est ainsi que les habitants des vallées disaient : aller à la montagne, sans indiquer par la un point spécial de la chaîne dont il s’agit. La tradition fut plus précise que les évangélistes ; elle plaça la montagne des Béatitudes non loin de la ville de Tibériade, située sur le bord du lac de ce nom.

Derrière la montagne qui domine Tibériade est un large plateau, montant en pente douce du coté d’un rocher qui en forme le sommet. C’est sur ce rocher que Jésus passa la nuit en prières et qu’au lever du jour il appela ses disciples et choisi ses apôtres .

Puis il serait descendu près de la foule qui l’attendait sur le plateau, et il enseigna le peuple. Selon Luc, Jésus descendit, et ce fut dans une plaine qu’il  prononça son discours (Lc 6, 17). Selon Matthieu, il serait monté sur une montagne avec le peuple.

Il ne rapporta que le fait général, la prédication aux personnes assemblées sur une montagne. Luc rapporta un détail de plus, Jésus montant d’abord au sommet, puis redescendant sur un plateau. Au pied du rocher, au haut du plateau, se trouve précisément une petite plate-forme, une sorte de chaire naturelle, d’où l’on peut aisément être vu et entendu d’une grande multitude.

«C’est la qu’aurait été assis le Seigneur. Je me demandai s’il était possible qu’il y eut au bord de ce lac, et même dans toute la Palestine, une autre montagne a laquelle s’appliquassent aussi complètement les détails que nous pouvons recueillir a ce sujet dans saint Luc et saint Matthieu.» (Félix Bovet, Voyage en Terre Sainte)

Ses disciples, ceux d’entre eux qu’il venait d’appeler à l’apostolat et ceux qui déjà avaient entendu et goûté sa parole, l’entouraient comme toujours. Ce discours, qui exposa les principes spirituels et sublimes du royaume que Jésus vint fonder, ne put être compris de tous, comme il ne put être mis en pratique que par ceux qui furent animés de l’esprit de ce royaume.

Ainsi commence le Sauveur. C’est là une entrée belle, douce, pleine d’amour, dans sa doctrine et sa prédication. Il ne procède pas, comme Moïse ou un docteur de la loi, par des ordres, des menaces, des terreurs, mais de la manière la plus affectueuse, la plus propre à attirer les cœurs, et par de gracieuses promesses. (Luther)

Toutefois, cet amour recouvra un profond sérieux, car ceux que Jésus déclara heureux furent bien misérables dans leur, milieu de vue. Ils ne furent heureux qu’à cause de la promesse qui accompagna chacune de ces déclarations et qui la motiva.

Les pauvres en esprit sont ceux qui se sentent pauvres dans leur vie intérieure, moralement et spirituellement pauvres, et qui, par là même, soupirent après les vraies richesses de l’âme (L’esprit désignant ici la faculté par laquelle nous entrons en relation avec Dieu et réalisons la vie morale. Ce sentiment de pauvreté devant Dieu n’est pas encore la repentance, mais une humilité profonde, douloureuse, qui y conduit.

«Les pauvres en esprit sont tous ceux qui ont l’esprit détaché des biens de la terre. Ô Seigneur ! Je vous donne tout : j’abandonne tout pour avoir part a ce royaume ! Je me dépouille de cœur et en esprit, et quand il vous plaira de me dépouiller en effet, je m’y soumets» (Bossuet)

Qu’il s’agisse de pauvreté spirituelle ou de pauvreté temporelle, d’humilité ou de détachement, ou de tous les deux a la fois, a une telle situation répond la déclaration positive et actuelle : parce qu’à eux est le royaume des cieux.

Ceux qui pleurent, ou qui sont dans le deuil, la tristesse. ceux qui pleurent sur leurs péchés. Mais comme il y a en ces affligés le sentiment humiliant de leur pauvreté morale, leur tristesse est une repentance à salut. Aussi seront-ils consolés, parce que cette tristesse les amène a la source du pardon, de la paix, de la vie.

L’abandon à la volonté de Dieu, en présence des violences, de l’injustice et de la haine, est produit par le sentiment humble et attristé de ce qui nous manque. Elle implique le renoncement aux avantages et aux joies de ce monde ; mais, par une magnifique compensation, ceux qui la pratiquent hériteront la terre. La terre de la promesse,

Les miséricordieux sont les personnes qui ne pensent pas seulement a leur propre misère, mais qui compatissent a la misère des autres. Il faut avoir senti sa propre misère, avoir souffert soi-même, pour pouvoir sympathiser avec la souffrance d’autrui. Il faut avoir été soi-même l’objet de l’amour infini de Dieu pour pouvoir aimer les autres et pratiquer à leur égard la charité.

Telle est la double pensée qui rattache cette béatitude aux précédentes. Elle est liée à elles aussi par cette considération que ceux que Jésus appela au bonheur de ses disciples auront besoin encore d’obtenir miséricorde au jour du jugement suprême, car bien qu’assurés du royaume des cieux, bien que consolés et rassasiés de justice, il restera dans leur vie beaucoup de manquements et d’imperfections à couvrir. Il leur sera pardonné et fait miséricorde selon qu’ils auront fait miséricorde. (Mt 6, 14-15)

Le cœur est, selon l’Écriture, l’organe de la vie morale. Être pur de cœur, c’est, par opposition à des œuvres extérieures, être affranchi de toute souillure de toute fausseté, de toute injustice, de toute malice dans ce centre intime des pensées et des sentiments. Tel n’est pas l’état moral de l’homme naturel (Mt 15, 19).

Chaque promesse répondant parfaitement à la disposition décrite dans chacune de ces béatitudes, ceux qui sont purs de cœur sont heureux, parce qu’ils verront Dieu : ils vivront dans la communion avec Dieu, et le contempleront un jour immédiatement dans la beauté suprême de ses perfections, source intarissable de la félicité du ciel. Ceux qui font la paix. Ceux qui non seulement sont paisibles eux-mêmes, mais qui, après avoir trouvé la paix, s’efforcent de la procurer à d’autres et de la rétablir parmi les hommes, là où elle est troublée. Ils sont heureux, parce qu’ils seront appelés de ce doux et glorieux titre : fils de Dieu.

Ceux qui sont persécutés à cause de lui sont heureux, parce qu’à eux est le royaume des cieux. Dans la huitième béatitude, Jésus revint donc à la première. Il clôt ainsi un cycle harmonique d’expériences et de promesses.Les quatre premières concernent ceux qui cherchent dans leurs profonds besoins, les quatre dernières, ceux qui ont trouvé et qui déjà développent une certaine activité dans le règne de Dieu.

Chaque promesse, source du bonheur (heureux !) répondant exactement et abondamment à chaque état d’âme décrit, fait resplendir un rayon de la gloire du royaume des cieux : aux affligés ; la consolation ; aux doux, la possession de la terre ; aux affamés, le rassasiement aux miséricordieux, la miséricorde  ; aux purs de cœur, la vue de Dieu ; à ceux qui procurent la paix, le beau titre d’enfants de Dieu. Mais dans la première et la dernière béatitude, Jésus, qui est le Maître du royaume des cieux, le dispensa tout entier aux pauvres et aux persécutés.

La récompense, qui n’affaiblit en rien la vérité du salut par grâce, par la foi est grande en proportion de la fidélité et de l’amour avec lesquels les disciples de Jésus souffrirent pour son nom. Toutefois, nul chrétien ne cherche cette récompense en dehors de Dieu et du bonheur de le servir, sans cela, il perdrait ce qui en fait la grandeur et la douceur.

Diacre Michel Houyoux

Complément

◊ Diacre Michel Houyoux : cliquez ici pour lire l’article → La solennité de la Toussaint

Sites intéressants à voir sur Internet

◊ Cathobel : cliquez ici pour lire l’article → Les Béatitudes comme chemin de joie

◊ Catéchèse pour des enfants : cliquez ici pour lire l’article → Les Béatitudes

◊ Église catholique en France : cliquez ici pour lire l’article → Qu’est-ce-que la Toussaint ?

◊ Diacre Paul Laurent : cliquez ici pour lire l’article → Le premier novembre, nous fêtons tous les saints

Vidéo Fête de la Toussaint → https://youtu.be/y2BcIr7OOpQ

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

Sermons against the scribes and Pharisees

# The Pharisees were a religious and political group of fervent Jews who, together with the Sadducees and the Essenes, emerged in Palestine during the Hasmonean period, around the middle of the 2nd century BC, in response to the Hellenisation desired by the authorities of the time.

Sermons against the scribes and Pharisees

The Pharisees were given the authority as successors of Moses. It was therefore agreed to obey their precepts, but one had to be careful not to follow their example, because they did not put into practice what they taught, but were content to burden others. Whatever they did, they did it to be noticed and praised by others. To the foolish vanity of the Pharisees, Jesus contrasts the humble attitude he prescribes to his disciples: let them not be called Rabbi, Father, Warden, for they are all equal before God; let the greatest among them be the servant of all; he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Jesus silenced his adversaries. He formulated their condemnation: this discourse was first addressed to the crowds and the disciples, whom Jesus wanted to protect from the spirit of the leaders of the people, then he targeted the latter, whose vices he unmasked and censured in a series of sharp apostrophes.Matthew is the only one to report this discourse; Mark and Luke only reported fragments of it, which they placed at other times as modern critics attribute to Matthew.

« It is very appropriate that at this moment Jesus expresses all his thoughts about his opponents » (De Wette). « This discourse is so full of life and unity that there is no doubt that it was delivered in this way, even though it perhaps contains some elements borrowed from other discourses of Jesus. » (Meyer) The chair of Moses refers to the activity and authority that Moses exercised as lawgiver and leader of the people. They sat on this chair as successors of the great servant of God. The rabbis used the same expression to say that one teacher succeeded another in teaching.

Because the men of this party had hitherto shown increasing hostility to Jesus, because they had resisted his warnings and planned to take over from him, he renounced all consideration for them and broke with them. The scribes, similar in every way to the Pharisees, had taken the same position. They were the sopherim of the Old Testament, the men of the books. In the Gospels they are called scribes, or legalists, or teachers of the law, because the main object of their studies was the law of Moses itself and its various applications to the life of the people.

Since this law was both religious and civil, the scribes were both theologians and legalists. They were often appointed with the Pharisees, because most of them belonged to that sect, or with the chief priests, whose advisors they were in the application of the law and in cases of conscience. The scribes always played a very active role in opposing Jesus. They spied on him, criticised his conduct and tried to surprise him with insidious questions. Most interpreters place several restrictions on this recommendation of Jesus, since the scribes and Pharisees could teach false things that, in this case, the disciples were neither to observe nor do.

Jesus assumed that they taught the Law of Moses from the pulpit where they sat. To bind burdens is a figurative expression that means : to gather into one body all the commandments of the law, with the innumerable and meticulous ceremonial prescriptions that the Pharisees had added to them, in order to demand their observance. These burdens, heavy and difficult to bear, where neither grace nor love helped to carry them, the Pharisees imposed them on others; but far from taking them upon themselves, they did not even stir them up with their finger. « And all their works they do to be seen of men; for they enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen the fringes of their garments ». (Mt 23, 5)

Jesus cited these details as examples of their vain and hypocritical desire to be seen by people. Phylacteries, still in use among Jews, are strips of parchment on which words of Scripture are written. During prayer they were attached to the left arm or forehead. This is why the Jews called these scrolls tephillim, prayers. « These objects were also given the superstitious idea of an amulet or talisman. They made them more narghile,’ Jesus said, ‘to be even more sure of being seen by the people. The fringes, a kind of tassel that the Jews wore on the edge of their cloaks, associated them with a religious idea. »

Rabbi means teacher or doctor. The title of father, understood in a spiritual moral sense, is higher than that of teacher and indicates a greater dependence on the person to whom it is attributed. If God alone is the Father of those whom he begets with his Spirit for a new life, Christ alone is the director of those whom he leads by his word and example into the ways of this new life. All these titles: master, father, director, when applied to persons, do nothing but deprive God and his Christ of the glory that is theirs. This is how parties and sects are born.

These signs of human flattery have entered the Christian Church just as they once did among the Jews. From humility to greatness, from humiliation to glory : this is the path to the kingdom of God, the path Jesus followed, the only one possible for his disciples. Addressing the scribes and Pharisees directly and shouting at them seven times: « Woe to you! » Jesus censures all the hypocrisy of their behaviour: the hypocrisy of their position as leaders of the people : they themselves did not enter the kingdom of heaven and closed it to others.

The hypocrisy of their behaviour made souls more certain to be lost. The hypocrisy of the casuistry they applied to oaths. The hypocrisy of their formalism, which observed the minutiae of the law and neglected the more important duties. The hypocrisy of cleaning the outside and leaving the inside dirty. All this hypocrisy made them like whitewashed sepulchres. It led them to build the sepulchres of the prophets. In painful accents, Jesus expressed the deep pity he felt for this Jerusalem that had killed the prophets.

He recalled the futile efforts he had made to draw her to himself; he announced her doom and told her that she would not see him again until the day she welcomed his return in glory.

Deacon Michel Houyoux

♥VideoWoodland Hills → https://youtu.be/CsqelDvE1c0

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

 

 

# The Pharisees were a religious and political group of fervent Jews who, together with the Sadducees and the Essenes, emerged in Palestine during the Hasmonean period, around the middle of the 2nd century BC, in response to the Hellenisation desired by the authorities of the time. The author of the Oral Torah, which anticipated rabbinism, this movement was part of Second Temple Judaism, whose development it influenced.

 It died out towards the end of the 1st century and we have news of it through various sources, whose renewed studies since the end of the 20th century have highlighted the difficulty of understanding its complexity. Their movement is known as Pharisaism or Phariseeism. Since the rigorous application of the criteria of historicity to the sources and the more sceptical attitude of exegetes towards them, the information considered reliable on the Pharisaic movement has been considerably reduced; thus, paradoxically, this exegetical progress has made the contours of the movement more blurred and less certain.

 It is now necessary to examine each of these sources separately, taking into account the period and context in which they were written.The points of convergence between such varied sources with divergent interests constitute a favourable argument at least for establishing the historicity of Pharisaism, about which, however, it must be admitted that we ultimately know very little about this nodal group in the attempts to reconstitute Judaism in the Second Temple period.

 There are three main sources on the Pharisaic movement, none of which are without problems.Chronologically, these are the New Testament writings of the early believers in Jesus of Nazareth, written in Greek between 50 and 100 A.D., the works of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote in Greek at the end of the 1st century – this is the main source – and rabbinic literature, most notably the Mishna and Tosefta dated between 200 and 220. More recently, a significant part of contemporary research has included among the sources some Dead Sea Scrolls, which mention a group known as the lightning or flattery seekers, identifiable with the Pharisees

 From the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Matthew

At that time, Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying : « The scribes and Pharisees teach from the Mosaic pulpit. Whatever they tell you, do it and observe it. But do not heed their works, for they say and do not do. » hey bind heavy burdens that are difficult to carry and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves do not want to move a finger.They do everything to be noticed by people: they widen their phylacteries and lengthen their fringes ; they love places of honour at dinners, places of honour in synagogues and greetings in the squares; they love to be called Rabbi by people.

As for you, do not allow anyone to call you Rabbi, for you have one master who teaches you and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have only one Father, who is in heaven. Let no one on earth call you teacher, for you have only one teacher, Christ. He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Mt 23, 1-12).

Sermons against the scribes and Pharisees

The Pharisees were given the authority as successors of Moses. It was therefore agreed to obey their precepts, but one had to be careful not to follow their example, because they did not put into practice what they taught, but were content to burden others. Whatever they did, they did it to be noticed and praised by others. To the foolish vanity of the Pharisees, Jesus contrasts the humble attitude he prescribes to his disciples: let them not be called Rabbi, Father, Warden, for they are all equal before God; let the greatest among them be the servant of all; he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Jesus silenced his adversaries. He formulated their condemnation: this discourse was first addressed to the crowds and the disciples, whom Jesus wanted to protect from the spirit of the leaders of the people, then he targeted the latter, whose vices he unmasked and censured in a series of sharp apostrophes.Matthew is the only one to report this discourse; Mark and Luke only reported fragments of it, which they placed at other times as modern critics attribute to Matthew. « It is very appropriate that at this moment Jesus expresses all his thoughts about his opponents » (De Wette). « This discourse is so full of life and unity that there is no doubt that it was delivered in this way, even though it perhaps contains some elements borrowed from other discourses of Jesus. » (Meyer)

The chair of Moses refers to the activity and authority that Moses exercised as lawgiver and leader of the people. They sat on this chair as successors of the great servant of God. The rabbis used the same expression to say that one teacher succeeded another in teaching. Because the men of this party had hitherto shown increasing hostility to Jesus, because they had resisted his warnings and planned to take over from him, he renounced all consideration for them and broke with them. The scribes, similar in every way to the Pharisees, had taken the same position.

They were the sopherim of the Old Testament, the men of the books. In the Gospels they are called scribes, or legalists, or teachers of the law, because the main object of their studies was the law of Moses itself and its various applications to the life of the people. Since this law was both religious and civil, the scribes were both theologians and legalists. They were often appointed with the Pharisees, because most of them belonged to that sect, or with the chief priests, whose advisors they were in the application of the law and in cases of conscience. The scribes always played a very active role in opposing Jesus. They spied on him, criticised his conduct and tried to surprise him with insidious questions. Most interpreters place several restrictions on this recommendation of Jesus, since the scribes and Pharisees could teach false things that, in this case, the disciples were neither to observe nor do.

Jesus assumed that they taught the Law of Moses from the pulpit where they sat. To bind burdens is a figurative expression that means: to gather into one body all the commandments of the law, with the innumerable and meticulous ceremonial prescriptions that the Pharisees had added to them, in order to demand their observance. These burdens, heavy and difficult to bear, where neither grace nor love helped to carry them, the Pharisees imposed them on others; but far from taking them upon themselves, they did not even stir them up with their finger. « And all their works they do to be seen of men; for they enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen the fringes of their garments ». (Mt 23, 5)

Jesus cited these details as examples of their vain and hypocritical desire to be seen by people. Phylacteries, still in use among Jews, are strips of parchment on which words of Scripture are written. During prayer they were attached to the left arm or forehead. This is why the Jews called these scrolls tephillim, prayers. « These objects were also given the superstitious idea of an amulet or talisman. They made them more narghile,’ Jesus said, ‘to be even more sure of being seen by the people. The fringes, a kind of tassel that the Jews wore on the edge of their cloaks, associated them with a religious idea. »

Rabbi means teacher or doctor. The title of father, understood in a spiritual moral sense, is higher than that of teacher and indicates a greater dependence on the person to whom it is attributed. If God alone is the Father of those whom he begets with his Spirit for a new life, Christ alone is the director of those whom he leads by his word and example into the ways of this new life. All these titles: master, father, director, when applied to persons, do nothing but deprive God and his Christ of the glory that is theirs. This is how parties and sects are born. These signs of human flattery have entered the Christian Church just as they once did among the Jews. From humility to greatness, from humiliation to glory : this is the path to the kingdom of God, the path Jesus followed, the only one possible for his disciples.

Addressing the scribes and Pharisees directly and shouting at them seven times: « Woe to you! » Jesus censures all the hypocrisy of their behaviour: the hypocrisy of their position as leaders of the people : they themselves did not enter the kingdom of heaven and closed it to others.The hypocrisy of their behaviour made souls more certain to be lost. The hypocrisy of the casuistry they applied to oaths. The hypocrisy of their formalism, which observed the minutiae of the law and neglected the more important duties.  The hypocrisy of cleaning the outside and leaving the inside dirty. All this hypocrisy made them like whitewashed sepulchres. It led them to build the sepulchres of the prophets.

In painful accents, Jesus expressed the deep pity he felt for this Jerusalem that had killed the prophets. He recalled the futile efforts he had made to draw her to himself; he announced her doom and told her that she would not see him again until the day she welcomed his return in glory.

Deacon Michel Houyoux

Links to other Christian sites

Young catholics : click here to read the post → 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

Corazonzq.org. : click here to read the paper → XXXI Sunday in Ordinary Time – A

♥ Video Woodland Hills → https://youtu.be/CsqelDvE1c0

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

Sermons against the scribes and Pharisees

# The Pharisees were a religious and political group of fervent Jews who, together with the Sadducees and the Essenes, emerged in Palestine during the Hasmonean period, around the middle of the 2nd century BC, in response to the Hellenisation desired by the authorities of the time. The author of the Oral Torah, which anticipated rabbinism, this movement was part of Second Temple Judaism, whose development it influenced.

 It died out towards the end of the 1st century and we have news of it through various sources, whose renewed studies since the end of the 20th century have highlighted the difficulty of understanding its complexity.Their movement is known as Pharisaism or Phariseeism. Since the rigorous application of the criteria of historicity to the sources and the more sceptical attitude of exegetes towards them, the information considered reliable on the Pharisaic movement has been considerably reduced; thus, paradoxically, this exegetical progress has made the contours of the movement more blurred and less certain.

 It is now necessary to examine each of these sources separately, taking into account the period and context in which they were written.The points of convergence between such varied sources with divergent interests constitute a favourable argument at least for establishing the historicity of Pharisaism, about which, however, it must be admitted that we ultimately know very little about this nodal group in the attempts to reconstitute Judaism in the Second Temple period.

 There are three main sources on the Pharisaic movement, none of which are without problems.Chronologically, these are the New Testament writings of the early believers in Jesus of Nazareth, written in Greek between 50 and 100 A.D., the works of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote in Greek at the end of the 1st century – this is the main source – and rabbinic literature, most notably the Mishna and Tosefta dated between 200 and 220.

 More recently, a significant part of contemporary research has included among the sources some Dead Sea Scrolls, which mention a group known as the lightning or flattery seekers, identifiable with the Pharisees

 From the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Matthew

At that time, Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying : « The scribes and Pharisees teach from the Mosaic pulpit. Whatever they tell you, do it and observe it. But do not heed their works, for they say and do not do. »  hey bind heavy burdens that are difficult to carry and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves do not want to move a finger.They do everything to be noticed by people: they widen their phylacteries and lengthen their fringes ; they love places of honour at dinners, places of honour in synagogues and greetings in the squares; they love to be called Rabbi by people.

As for you, do not allow anyone to call you Rabbi, for you have one master who teaches you and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have only one Father, who is in heaven. Let no one on earth call you teacher, for you have only one teacher, Christ. He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Mt 23, 1-12).

Sermons against the scribes and Pharisees

The Pharisees were given the authority as successors of Moses. It was therefore agreed to obey their precepts, but one had to be careful not to follow their example, because they did not put into practice what they taught, but were content to burden others. Whatever they did, they did it to be noticed and praised by others. To the foolish vanity of the Pharisees, Jesus contrasts the humble attitude he prescribes to his disciples: let them not be called Rabbi, Father, Warden, for they are all equal before God; let the greatest among them be the servant of all; he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Jesus silenced his adversaries. He formulated their condemnation: this discourse was first addressed to the crowds and the disciples, whom Jesus wanted to protect from the spirit of the leaders of the people, then he targeted the latter, whose vices he unmasked and censured in a series of sharp apostrophes.Matthew is the only one to report this discourse; Mark and Luke only reported fragments of it, which they placed at other times as modern critics attribute to Matthew.

« It is very appropriate that at this moment Jesus expresses all his thoughts about his opponents » (De Wette). « This discourse is so full of life and unity that there is no doubt that it was delivered in this way, even though it perhaps contains some elements borrowed from other discourses of Jesus. » (Meyer)

The chair of Moses refers to the activity and authority that Moses exercised as lawgiver and leader of the people. They sat on this chair as successors of the great servant of God. The rabbis used the same expression to say that one teacher succeeded another in teaching.  Because the men of this party had hitherto shown increasing hostility to Jesus, because they had resisted his warnings and planned to take over from him, he renounced all consideration for them and broke with them. The scribes, similar in every way to the Pharisees, had taken the same position.

 They were the sopherim of the Old Testament, the men of the books. In the Gospels they are called scribes, or legalists, or teachers of the law, because the main object of their studies was the law of Moses itself and its various applications to the life of the people. Since this law was both religious and civil, the scribes were both theologians and legalists. They were often appointed with the Pharisees, because most of them belonged to that sect, or with the chief priests, whose advisors they were in the application of the law and in cases of conscience.

The scribes always played a very active role in opposing Jesus. They spied on him, criticised his conduct and tried to surprise him with insidious questions. Most interpreters place several restrictions on this recommendation of Jesus, since the scribes and Pharisees could teach false things that, in this case, the disciples were neither to observe nor do. Jesus assumed that they taught the Law of Moses from the pulpit where they sat. To bind burdens is a figurative expression that means: to gather into one body all the commandments of the law, with the innumerable and meticulous ceremonial prescriptions that the Pharisees had added to them, in order to demand their observance.

These burdens, heavy and difficult to bear, where neither grace nor love helped to carry them, the Pharisees imposed them on others; but far from taking them upon themselves, they did not even stir them up with their finger. « And all their works they do to be seen of men; for they enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen the fringes of their garments ». (Mt 23, 5) Jesus cited these details as examples of their vain and hypocritical desire to be seen by people. Phylacteries, still in use among Jews, are strips of parchment on which words of Scripture are written. During prayer they were attached to the left arm or forehead. This is why the Jews called these scrolls tephillim, prayers.

« These objects were also given the superstitious idea of an amulet or talisman. They made them more narghile,’ Jesus said, ‘to be even more sure of being seen by the people. The fringes, a kind of tassel that the Jews wore on the edge of their cloaks, associated them with a religious idea. »

Rabbi means teacher or doctor. The title of father, understood in a spiritual moral sense, is higher than that of teacher and indicates a greater dependence on the person to whom it is attributed. If God alone is the Father of those whom he begets with his Spirit for a new life, Christ alone is the director of those whom he leads by his word and example into the ways of this new life. All these titles: master, father, director, when applied to persons, do nothing but deprive God and his Christ of the glory that is theirs. This is how parties and sects are born.

These signs of human flattery have entered the Christian Church just as they once did among the Jews. From humility to greatness, from humiliation to glory : this is the path to the kingdom of God, the path Jesus followed, the only one possible for his disciples. Addressing the scribes and Pharisees directly and shouting at them seven times: « Woe to you! » Jesus censures all the hypocrisy of their behaviour: the hypocrisy of their position as leaders of the people : they themselves did not enter the kingdom of heaven and closed it to others.

 The hypocrisy of their behaviour made souls more certain to be lost. The hypocrisy of the casuistry they applied to oaths. The hypocrisy of their formalism, which observed the minutiae of the law and neglected the more important duties. The hypocrisy of cleaning the outside and leaving the inside dirty. All this hypocrisy made them like whitewashed sepulchres. It led them to build the sepulchres of the prophets.

In painful accents, Jesus expressed the deep pity he felt for this Jerusalem that had killed the prophets. He recalled the futile efforts he had made to draw her to himself; he announced her doom and told her that she would not see him again until the day she welcomed his return in glory.

Deacon Michel Houyoux

Links to other Christian sites

Young catholics : click here to read the post → 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

Corazonzq.org. : click here to read the paper → XXXI Sunday in Ordinary Time – A

♥ Video Woodland Hills → https://youtu.be/CsqelDvE1c0