This people honors me with their lips

In the Gospel there are many criticisms of the Pharisees. But this is not because of them, but because of us. The Gospel was written in response to the needs of the Church, not the Pharisees. The evangelists quote so many words about pharisaism because there is so much of this occurrence in the Church.

The Lord God said, " What God has joined together, no human being must separate." But we have developed a tradition that practically in any situation you can get a divorce, as long as at least one of the spouses wants it.

God said, "You shalt not steal." But we have developed a tradition that if someone can find the right loophole, is allowed to steal even millions with impunity.

God said, "You shalt not kill." We have developed a tradition that during the first three months of conception it is allowed to kill, that it is also allowed to kill a dying person, because he/she would die soon anyway.

It is precisely our generation that should hear especially these words of the Lord Jesus in today's Gospel: " How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition".

We will hear the teaching of the Lord Jesus, where this attitude of tinkering with God's commandments comes from. For " this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me". If we do not build in ourselves an attitude of total trust in God - then our piety must turn into a game of appearances. And there must come a situation when we recognize ourselves as wiser than God, entitled to criticize God's commandments and to establish our own moral laws, supposedly better than God's commandments.

God does not need to be worshiped with the lips. Whatever worship we give to God is necessary for us to adhere to God with our hearts. There is nothing more wonderful than adhering to God with our heart! Whoever achieve this, quickly becomes a completely different person – a GOOD person.

Thought from Saint Faustina: A soul arms itself by prayer for all kinds of combat. In whatever state the soul may be, it ought to pray. A soul which is pure and beautiful must pray, or else it will lose its beauty; a soul which is striving after this purity must pray, or else it will never attain it; a soul which is newly converted must pray, or else it will fall again; a sinful soul, plunged in sins, must pray so that it might rise again. There is no soul which is not bound to pray, for every single grace comes to the soul through prayer. (Diary 146)

Until Tomorrow

fr. george