Be Sincere and Truthful

Oct.30th 2011 Sunday Homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Mal 1;14b-2:2b, 8-10; 1Thes 2:7b-9,13; Mt 23:1-12

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Tomorrow will be the Halloween day. Originally it was celebrated as the eve of All Saints day wearing costumes of Saints. But now it has become just the opposite. Tomorrow, your doorbell will ring and little children will stand outside saying "Trick or Treat". Children love Halloween because they like to pretend. God has given them huge imaginations and with a little costume and a mask they can be anyone their mind tells them they are. Halloween is one of the few opportunities for their imaginations to soar. The only problem with Halloween is when it becomes a glorification of evil. If it would recover its original meaning and practice, it would be great. For most of us, Halloween is just an opportunity for the children to dress up, make believe, and have fun. Putting on a mask and pretending is perfectly acceptable for a child, particularly on Halloween. But, putting on a mask and pretending is not acceptable for a follower of Jesus Christ. God is not satisfied with people imagining that they are great followers of Christ. We are not called to appear to be a holy people. We are called to be holy people.

Today’s first reading from the Book of Malachi warns the religious leaders of their dishonest and purely external service which brought the true religion into disrepute. They didn’t teach the Law of God to their people for their own faith and belief were lukewarm, if not altogether lost. According to the Second reading, God revealed his purpose for our life through Jesus, who is the Word became flesh. Jesus taught us the eternal truths regarding our life and death. To be true Christians this knowledge should influence our everyday life.

In the gospel of today, Jesus Himself is critical of the scribes , Pharisees and the religious leaders of His time. He openly said that they were making the religion a sham. He tells us to lead a sincere and true life and to avoid all kinds of pretence. He says they wear all the holy costumes, headbands and tassels in front of their eyes containing inscriptions from scripture. The reason why they did that is because in scripture God says, “Keep my words always before your eyes.” So, when the pharisees moved their heads, they would see the words of scripture, thereby keeping God’s words before their eyes. According to Jesus, these Pharisees went trick or treating to all the important banquets so that everyone else could see them. That’s all they really wanted. They were just putting on a show. They knew how to hold their arms up in prayer. They pretended to be holy, but they were not holy.

As we can see in the gospel, the Scribes and the Pharisees were not committed to sharing the love of God. They applied self-love! What did self-love get them? It received criticism from Jesus who is the Word of God. For us Christians to be committed to sharing the love of God, we must do the opposite of what the scribes and the Pharisees were doing. We must be humble! We must serve others! We must not draw attention to our prayer lives in order to receive worldly praise.

Jesus continues His message by saying that the greatest is the one who is the servant. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who are humble themselves will be exalted. To be true Christians we should be committed to serving the community, the needy and not to be served or ministered to by others. It is a well accepted and appreciated truth of all times that the man who thinks humbly of himself will be considered by God and respected by his fellow beings, while the proud man’s folly will be despised by God and fellow beings. True service comes only from a humble heart. The very act of serving presupposes considering others as respectful important and greater.

Jesus doesn’t want us to loose our salvation. With a life of pretence one looses earthly reputation at a certain stage and heaven for all time. Humble, sincere and honest faith living earns lasting appreciation from our fellow beings and grace for entering the eternal life of light and joy. Life of pretence comes from selfishness and self-centeredness while humility, honesty and the respect for others comes from other centeredness. Let us be always humbles, let us be honest, and worthy of God’s kingdom. God bless you.