10th March >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 23:1-12 for Tuesday, Second week of Lent:  ‘You have only one Teacher, the Christ’. (2024)

10th March >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 23:1-12 for Tuesday, Second week of Lent: ‘You have only one Teacher, the Christ’.

Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)

Matthew 23:1-12

They do not practise what they preach

Addressing the people and his disciples Jesus said, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees occupy the chair of Moses. You must therefore do what they tell you and listen to what they say; but do not be guided by what they do: since they do not practise what they preach. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but will they lift a finger to move them? Not they! Everything they do is done to attract attention, like wearing broader phylacteries and longer tassels, like wanting to take the place of honour at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues, being greeted obsequiously in the market squares and having people call them Rabbi.

‘You, however, must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one master, and you are all brothers. You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted.’

Gospel (USA)

Matthew 23:1-12

They preach but they do not practice.

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Reflections (10)

(i)Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

Jesus is critical of the religious leaders of his time because their teaching, their interpretation of the Jewish Law, is unnecessarily burdensome for people, ‘They lay up heavy burdens and place them on people’s shoulders’. Jesus was aware that many of his contemporaries felt burdened by religious obligations. In contrast to the religious leaders, Jesus calls out to people, ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest’. Jesus was saying that his teaching, his interpretation of God’s will, far from burdening people will give people rest. What does Jesus mean by ‘rest’ here? He is not referring to inactivity or sleep, clearly. There is a line in the psalm, ‘The Lord is my shepherd’ which might help us to understand what Jesus means by ‘rest’, ‘near restful waters he leads me to revive my drooping spirit’. The restful waters revive and energize those who are drooping. The teaching of Jesus is rest-giving in the sense that it energizes and enlivens us. His word is life-giving, not burden imposing. Certainly, the teaching of Jesus is demanding, even more demanding than the Jewish Law, but what Jesus asks of us corresponds to the deepest desires of our heart, and in coming to him and submitting to his word, that deepest desire will be satisfied and, as a result, we will be revived and energized. Jesus did not come to burden further an already burdened people; he came that we may have life and have it to the full.

And/Or

(ii)Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

In the gospel reading Jesus refers to the Pharisees as those who tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders. In contrast, Jesus had said earlier in Matthew’s gospel, ‘Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest’. Jesus’ work consisted in lifting unnecessary burdens from people’s shoulders rather than laying such burdens on people’s shoulders. Most of us have to deal with burdens of one kind or another as we go through life. Some burdens are necessary and unavoidable; they are the burdens of love, the burdens that come to us from giving ourselves to others in one way or another. Jesus is critical of those who impose unnecessary burdens on others. We can all be guilty of doing that from time to time. Rather than imposing unnecessary burdens on others, our calling is to help carry each other’s burdens, to make life less burdensome for each other. In doing that we will be acting in the spirit of the one who said, ‘Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest’. The Lord helps us all to carry our burdens, both the necessary and inevitable ones and the unnecessary ones. As St Paul knew from personal experience, he is strength in our weakness, and in times of weakness we can turn to him for strength.

And/Or

(iii) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

In the gospel reading this morning Jesus contrasts the attitude of the religious leaders of his day who wanted and expected to receive various forms of honour with what should be the attitude of his own disciples, namely the readiness and willingness to serve others. As Jesus says towards the end of that reading, ‘the greatest among you must be your servant’. Jesus defines greatness in terms of service of others. Rather than looking for honours from others, Jesus puts before us the ideal of honouring others by serving them. Rather than trying to attract attention to themselves, like the religious leaders of his day, Jesus calls on his disciples to give attention to others. It is those who humble themselves in the service of others who will be exalted, whereas those who exalt themselves and look for honour for themselves will be humbled. Jesus gives expression to his teaching in his own life. Paul says of Jesus that he emptied himself taking the form of a servant and that he humbled himself, even to the point of death, death on a cross. We are called to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. Lent is a time when we try to enter more fully into the mind and heart of Jesus.

And/Or

(iv) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

This morning’s gospel reading shows a reserved attitude towards titles among the followers of Jesus. Matthew portrays Jesus as anxious to ensure that the community of disciples is a community of brothers and sisters, in which all members stand on the same level before Christ, their Lord and Master, and before God, their heavenly Father. ‘You have only one Master and you are all siblings’. Paul understood very clearly this vision of church as one spiritual family in Christ and under God. Even in the letters where he speaks of himself as the spiritual father of the church he addresses the members of the church as his brothers and sisters. As Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, in virtue of our baptism we are all one in Christ Jesus. This morning’s gospel reading brings home to us that in the presence of Christ we are all learners, we are all pupils, because he alone is the authentic Teacher of us all. Together we look to him to show us the path that leads to authentic life.

And/Or

(v) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus seems to speak against the kind of distinctions within the church which would place one person above another. Because we all have the one Father, who is God, and the one Teacher or Master, who is Jesus, then we are all children of the one God and pupils of the one Teacher. We are all brothers and sisters under God and learners under Christ. At the end of the day, we are all looking in the one direction, towards God and towards his Son. We may have different gifts and different roles within the church but fundamentally we are one. We share in the one relationship with God and with his Son. In virtue of our baptism we are one in Christ, in the words of Saint Paul. Within the church there should be no room for seeking after honours or status or position. This is what Jesus criticized the religious leaders of his day for. What we can seek within the church is the opportunity to serve others in whatever way we can with whatever gifts we have been given. In that gospel reading Jesus defines greatness within the church in terms of service. We serve after the example of the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve, who came not to receive honour and status but to empty himself for others.

And/Or

(vi) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus rules out the making of sharp distinctions between his disciples, regardless of their role in the community of believers. He declares that there is only one Master and one Teacher, who is himself, Jesus, and there is only one Father, his and our heavenly Father. Before God and Jesus we are all brothers and sisters and we are all pupils. There are differences within the church. Paul speaks of the church as the body of Christ with a great diversity of members, all of them gifted by the Spirit in a different way. Yet, although there is great diversity among us, there is also great unity and equality there too. Before God and before Christ we are equal. We all come before the Lord in our ignorance and in our need. The Lord’s Prayer is given to us all to say. We are all equally in need of daily bread, forgiveness, God’s help in time of temptation. In today’s gospel reading Jesus was very critical of the religious leaders who acted as though they were more important than others, those who sought out the seats of honour and expected to be greeted as if they were the superior of others. We all have to keep on learning the lesson that it is as brothers and sisters that we journey towards the Lord.

And/Or

(vii) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus is very critical of the religious leaders of his day because in various ways they work to draw attention to themselves and they go out of their way to be honoured, to receive honour from people. Jesus calls on his disciples to have a very different stance towards life. They are not to look for honour or recognition for themselves because there is only one who is worthy of honour and recognition and that is God, more precisely, God our heavenly Father and his Son Jesus whom God sent as our teacher and master. Jesus says, with reference to himself, ‘you have only one Teacher, the Christ’. If there is only one teacher within the family of the church, then everyone else is a learner. Having just one teacher, namely the Christ, has a levelling effect on everyone else and leaves no room for some people to promote themselves as deserving of greater honour and recognition than others in the community. We are always learners before the Lord and we continue to learn from him. The conclusion of the gospel reading suggests that the most important lesson to be learned from Jesus is that greatness within the family of faith consists in self-emptying service of others.

And/Or

(viii) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

In the gospel reading, Jesus warns against giving more honours to religious leaders than is appropriate. Jesus was not opposed to some form of leadership among his own followers. Jesus appointed Peter as the rock on which he would build his church and entrusted to him a share in his own teaching authority. However, elsewhere in the gospels Jesus makes clear that he understands leadership in terms of service, the kind of service that involves becoming as humble as a child. In this morning’s gospel Jesus implies that a religious leader is not in any sense above those he has been asked to lead or guide. As Jesus declares, we are all brothers and sisters, regardless of our role in the church. We are all spiritual siblings and that is because we all have one Father who is in heaven and we all have one Teacher who is Jesus. We all stand under God the Father and his Son. We are all looking in the one direction, towards God our Father and Jesus our teacher. We are called to be a support to one another as we strive to live as sons and daughters of our common heavenly Father and as we try to live out the message of our shared Teacher.

And/Or

(ix) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

The words of Jesus in today’s gospel reading suggest that preaching can be a dangerous business. It leaves the preacher open to the criticism that Jesus levelled against the religious leaders of his day, ‘They do not practice what they preach’. Those who preach need to see themselves as preaching to themselves as much as to others. We are all pilgrims on a shared journey of faith. None of us have arrived; we are all on the way. Hopefully, we are all trying to help each other on this shared journey of faith, with each of us giving from what we have received and receiving from what others have been given. This egalitarian vision of church is reflected in the words of Jesus in the second part of today’s gospel reading. He tells us that we are all brothers and sisters with one heavenly Father and with one Lord and one Teacher, Jesus. Behind this lies Jesus’ vision of his followers as a family. Elsewhere in the gospels Jesus speaks of his disciples as his brothers and sisters. Within this family, Jesus declares that there can be no room for attention seeking, much less honour seeking. Rather, within this family of faith, loving service of others is the golden norm. ‘The greatest among you must be your servant’. As a church, we still have some way to go before this vision of Jesus for his followers comes to pass. Yet, the important value is to keep this vision of Jesus in our sights and to keep coming back to the path he sets before us whenever we stray from it.

And/Or

(x) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

It is evident that the church, since its earliest days, has not taken some of the words of Jesus in today’s gospel reading literally. Jesus calls on his disciples not to allow themselves to be called teachers, since they have only one Teacher, the Christ. We have no difficulty in referring to those who teach, including those who teach the faith, as teachers. Jesus also calls on his disciples not to call anyone on earth their father, since they have only one Father, in heaven. Again, we have no difficulty to referring to male parents of children as fathers, and within the Roman Catholic tradition, priests are often referred to as ‘father’. It is likewise the case that the teaching of Jesus elsewhere in the gospels has not been taken literally by his followers. However, that is not to say that Jesus’ words are not without relevance and meaning for us today. There is a sense in which we have only one teacher, Jesus, and, we have only one Father in heaven. Because Jesus is our one Teacher, we, his followers, are all his pupils, including those of us who might be teachers. We all look to him to teach us about God and about how God wants us to live. Jesus speaks in the gospels with an authority that no earthly teacher has. Because God is our one Father, we, Jesus’ disciples, are all sons and daughters of God. We share in Jesus’ own relationship with God as Father, and, as a result, we are all brothers and sisters of Jesus. Regardless of our role or position in life or in the church, we are all equally privileged to call God our Father and Jesus our brother. We were given this privilege at baptism through the power of the Holy Spirit. This shared privilege makes very relative whatever distinctions of role, rank or position that may exist between us.

Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland.

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