Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Woe To The Blind Guides

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 8.28.23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Memorial of Saint Augustine,
Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Friends, in today’s Gospel,
Jesus launches a blistering attack on the scribes and Pharisees.

The Son teaches, heals, preaches to,
and forgives those who feel far from the mercy of God.
He is the hand that the Father stretches out
to sinners and to those who are lost.
And by the same token, he is the judge of a sinful world.
When the light of God’s forgiving love appears,
the shadows of sin become all the deeper and more obvious.
In light of him, there is nowhere to hide.
And Jesus, the Word of the Father,
gives voice to this judgment:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
you hypocrites.”

The Son names all those powers that are opposed
to the creative and loving intentions of his Father.
He speaks a word of judgment on a world grown cozy with sin.
He “channels” all of the feelings of the Father toward the world:
intense, forgiving love to those who are lost
and equally intense hatred for the structures of darkness.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Jesus said to the crowds
and to his disciples:
"Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.
You do not enter yourselves,
nor do you allow entrance to
those trying to enter.

"Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You traverse sea and land to
make one convert,
and when that happens you make
him a child of Gehenna
twice as much as yourselves.

"Woe to you, blind guides, who say,
'If one swears by the temple,
it means nothing,
but if one swears by the gold of
the temple, one is obligated.'
Blind fools, which is greater, the gold,
or the temple that made the gold sacred?
And you say,'If one swears by the altar, it means nothing,
but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.'
You blind ones, which is
greater, the gift,
or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
One who swears by the altar
swears by it and all that is upon it;
one who swears by the temple
swears by it
and by him who dwells in it;
one who swears by heaven swears
by the throne of God
and by him who is seated on it."+++