31st Sunday of Year A, November 5, 2017

May the good Lord during this Sunday's Eucharistic celebration bestow on you the graces that will enable you radiate missionary tenderness and love among the people whom you will encounter this week. Happy Sunday! 

+ John Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Malachi 1,14-2.8-10; 1 Thess. 2,7-9,13; Matt 23,1-12: 31st Sunday of Year A, November 5, 2017)

The first reading from the Prophet Malachi as well as the gospel reading criticises the manner the priests of the Old Testament in the time of Malachi and religious leaders (the Scribes and Pharisees) of Jesus’ time exercised their leadership. The second reading from the letter of Paul to the Thessalonians brings out positively the tender pastoral charity of Paul that is manifest in the brief pericope that was proclaimed to us.

There was no doubt, according to prophet Malachi, that the priests of the Old Testament were entrusted with the sacred duty of enhancing the glory of God. They had  the divine mandate of teaching the Torah / Law of God to the people. But they were not faithful to the mission. Instead of working for the glory of God, they were busy pursuing selfish interests. The priests, by their call, were also channels of divine blessings for themselves and the people of Israel. The blessings helped the people of God to find adequate ways to confront the difficulties of life; they also assured prosperity, fecundity and happiness. But unfortunately the priests were not able to communicate the blessings to the people, because they failed to cultivate good relationship with God. Moreover, the blessings started turning into curses. God had to rebuke the priests for swerving from the just path and becoming stumbling blocks with their teaching. Instead of teaching the people the Torah/Law (directives that lead them into good relationship with God) of God they priests were rather peddling information that enhanced their ego.  What the passage of the prophet Malachi teaches in effect is that those who have religious responsibility should be very faithful to their mission, conscious of their duties and avoid seeking the adulation of people or going after selfish interests.

In the Gospel reading, addressing the crowds and his disciples, Jesus issued scathing denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees. While Jesus recognises the authenticity of their office as the successors of Moses in teaching authority, he criticised them for the disparity that exists between what they teach and how they live. The disparity was evidenced of the duplicity of their lives. He counsels his hearers: Listen to them but do not follow their examples. Jesus’ criticism focuses on two Pharisaic practices. The first is their casuistic method of interpreting the Law. It was their devotion to the Law that prompted the Pharisees to develop the vast array of detailed minor rules, refereed to as the hedge around the Law meant to ensure obedience to the commandments. This collection, the number of which eventually reached 613, came to be a  very heavy burden for the people to carry and the Scribes and Pharisees did nothing to alleviate this onus. The second feature for which they were criticised was the love for praise. Devout men scrupulously adhered to the admonition to bind the Scriptures on the heads and foreheads (Deut. 6,8). This led to the practice of placing scriptural passages in small leader boxes called phylacteries and binding them on their foreheads and upper left arm. They also exaggerated in their use of tassels. In addition to this outward display, they sought other ways to be treated with deference and enjoy privileges. At banquets they coveted  the places of honoured guests who flanked the hosts, the most honoured hosts sitting at right and the second most honoured at the left. In the synagogues the Pharisees sat in the front benches, which were the most important seats and the Scribes and Pharisees loved ostentatious greetings. Jesus declared that such pomposity should have no place among his followers. His is to be a community of equals, and so his followers must shun titles that implied status. They are not to be called Rabbi which means my great ones because there is only one great rabbi and they are equal disciples of that teachers. Jesus also indicates also that his community  is to consider no one their master, the great guiding mind of the community; they have one master and that is Christ.

While the first and gospel readings comment negatively on the activities of the religious leaders of their times, the perspective of the second reading is quite the opposite as it brings out the pastoral charity of  the missionaries, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy. The reading shows the deep affection with which the missionaries held their converts. Paul uses the metaphor of a nursing mother to represent their sentiments. He speaks first of  gentleness. This calls to mind the tenderness with which the mother holds the suckling child to her breasts, a gesture that is both calming and reassuring. With a comparable love, the missionaries embraced the Thessalonians, holding them tensely and protectively. Born anew in Christ, the coverts were indeed infants in the faith, and needed care and tender sheltering. The metaphor suggests that the missionaries’ love preceded the Thessalonians’ acceptance of the faith, it was not a reward for it. The image of a nursing mother also effectively characterises the apostolic self-giving of which Paul speaks. The woman’s love for her child prompts her to give to that child both what she has and literally what she is. The child was first fashioned of her very substance and is now nourished from her body. Analogously, the missionaries have wholeheartedly shared the gospel with the Christians and have magnanimously given their very selves  to them as well.

There is yet another example of the Missionaries’ pastoral charity. Caring for the physical needs and the traveling of preachers seemed to have been the custom of the day (cf Luke 10,7). Thus Paul and his companions would have been within the right circumstances to expect such hospitality from there converts.  However, they chose to forgo their prerogative. They worked at their respective trades (cf Acts 18,3), earning their own upkeep, being a financial burden to no one. They proclaimed the gospel as they saw fit, asking for nothing in return. 

Today’s readings offer us much to learn about our roles as baptised Christians. Listening to the readings one may say that they do not concern us as most of us are not religious leaders. In the first reading the priests of the Old Testament were the targets  of prophetic rebuke and in the gospel reading the Scribes and Pharisees were the objects of criticism. Yes, applying the readings concretely to our contemporary situation, the religious leaders of our time, members of the ordained clergy should take time to reflect on the readings and see how they readings could engender positive transformation in their pastoral life and ministry. Just as the members of the clergy have responsibility in the Church, so do all baptised Christians. We all share in the responsibility of building up and transforming the church of God  and the Christian community we live in. The readings of today will be a good help in this wise, they talk to us as heads of our families, parents of families, leaders of various segments, association and organisation in the church, as chairpersons or in any other capacity or position of leadership where we have opportunity to do good, perform something better or improve on things. What do we do in this situation? Do we waste the opportunity searching for personal interests and praise? No, it should not be. The call is more on working on ourselves to make sure that the rebuke meted out to the priests of the Old Testament by prophet Malachi and the criticism of the lifestyle of the Scribes and Pharisee will never be our portion. Our aim, therefore, should rather be how to become not only channels of God’s blessings to other people but also how to become missionaries like Paul and his companions whose ministry was compared to the tenderness of a nursing mother in the metaphor and image in today’s second reading. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

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