Does being a Pharisee consist in practicing without being true, or being true without practicing? The liturgy of this 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time allows us to reflect on the doctrine concerning the true Pharisee and some of his characteristics.
Newsroom (September 2, 2021, 6:45 PM Gaudium Press) The Liturgy us in the first reading (cf. Deut 4:1-2, 6-8) with the promulgation of an Eternal Law, from which nothing is to be added to or taken away from: the Ten Commandments. In the second reading, James exhorts us to be “doers of the word and not merely hearers” (cf. James 1:22). In the Gospel, however, something seems contradictory: the Pharisees urge Our Lord to practice the Mosaic law. But He, in turn, rebukes them for this attitude. Now, how to explain this apparent paradox?
The answer is in Our Lord’s own words: “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. The worship they give me is of no use, for the doctrines they teach are human precepts. You abandon the commandment of God to follow the tradition of men” (Mk 7:6-8) – Here is the description of the Pharisee.
The Pharisee is not the one who doesn’t keep any law; but the one who changes or misrepresents it. How? By setting aside God’s commandment – and this is contained in the Decalogue – in order to follow the tradition of men, the world, and fashion.
Thus, a Pharisee will never deny the whole law, but he will emphasize only that which is comfortable for him, leaving aside that which is more costly for him. He will know how to fulfill that which comes closest to the worldly precepts, and refuse the divine mandates. The Pharisee exchanges charity for philanthropy, humility for pusillanimity, religion for sentiment, truth for error.
To be or to practice?
Someone will ask: So the Pharisee is only the one who practices what he is not, inwardly?
No, I answer. The Pharisee is also the one who desires to be without practicing, as St. James says in the second reading (cf. James 1:22, 27).
Indeed, what is the use of someone saying that he loves God if he practices the opposite? In this case, one amputates not the law, but nature, for man, being a rational being, must live by his thinking, and think according to his works; otherwise, he will be deceiving himself and others. From a heart which loves God, there cannot come “evil intentions, immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, inordinate ambitions, wickedness, frauds, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, lack of judgment” (Mk 7:22-23). Often, it is the exterior that reveals the interior.
Therefore, today’s liturgy exhorts us to be the true children of the Father of Light, listening and living the word of God in each day of our lives, so that, at the end of this earthly trajectory, we will deserve to dwell in his Holy Heavenly Mount.
By Thiago Resende