The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

"Unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and of the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

The Scribes were learned men, versed in law, who interpreted and explained the Sacred Scriptures to the people. They were usually priests and Levites; they were often Pharisees also, or at least they embraced the maxims of the Pharisees. The Pharisees have their name from Phares, which signifies to separate, to distinguish, to differ; and they were called Pharisees, that is, separated from the people, because they differed from the people in their way of living. As regards externals they led a good, mortified life, prayed and fasted much, gave alms abundantly, and tithes even of the fruits which they were not bound to give. They wore on their foreheads and the seam of their garments larger tablets than those of the others, washed themselves frequently, and carried their zeal for purity so far that they would not converse or eat with any man who lived too freely. But, with all their apparent virtues, they had gross faults and sins, for which Christ frequently censured them, as He did in the gospel of this day.

It is not the good that these men did that Christ condemned, but rather their motives and the way in which they did them. They became obsessed with the secondary things while letting the primary ones slip away. For example: they often encouraged young people to forget the needs of their parents so that they could contribute a larger sum to the temple. They did this because they themselves benefited from the gifts given to the temple. The fourth commandment was easily and conveniently set aside for their own selfish interests.

Their piety was all external and became only a show for the eyes of men. They were filled with their own pride and vanity. They fasted not for the good of their souls or for any true spiritual reason, but rather to be seen by others and to be praised by them. They prayed many and long prayers with their lips but their hearts were far from God.

In short all their actions were vitiated because of a bad intention or a bad will.

The Pharisees may not be as obvious among us today but, their spirit lives on perhaps even more strongly today than ever.

What has spawned so many different "Christian" sects in the world today? Each one claims to be closer to God or better than the next one, but at the heart of the matter we see nothing but the desire to condone their own particular vices or the desire for singularity to feed their pride and vanity.

To be set apart physically from the rest of men does nothing if one remains spiritually united to the sins of the rest of men. So many religious and clergy physically set themselves apart from the world but, their hearts never left the world. They harbored in their hearts the same evils that they made the appearance of leaving behind.

So many "Traditionalists" make the same grave mistake. They bandy about phrases like: "It is only the Mass that matters". They look only for a ceremony cloaked in the old familiar language and style, while they ignore the more important matters of faith and doctrine. An invalid "priest" is no priest at all and he "offers" perhaps a beautiful show, but since he is not truly a priest he confects no sacrament and there can be no grace from this, but on the contrary it is an insult to God of idolatry and blasphemy. There are countless pseudo clergy and religious all vying with each other yet untied together against the truth. We must all beware of the modern Pharisees around us today. But, we must watch even more closely the motives of our own hearts. There is a potential Pharisee in each of us. We cannot love God while we harbor hatred for our neighbor, relative, friend, or enemy. We are not pure if we harbor lustful thoughts in our hearts, even if we are physically chaste. We are not pleasing to God if we neglect our ordinary duties under the pretext of serving God better with some extraordinary devotion. We must first do that which has been given us to do. Let us keep the commandments first then when this is done, we may add more. It is a tremendous evil to ignore or set aside even one word of God under the pretext of serving Him better under some other aspect of devotion.

God wants all of us: heart, mind, and soul. We cannot honor Him with only the externals; we must honor Him with all that we have and all that we are. Just as He has given Himself completely to us, so He demands that we give ourselves completely to Him.

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