Good morning. In today’s Gospel, we just heard three (3) of the seven (7) woes, or prophetic warnings, from Jesus to the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites. Another time that we hear our Lord Jesus Christ speak of “woes” is in the account of the Sermon on the Plain, in the Gospel of Luke, when Christ taught the people the Beatitudes, saying: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”
What are we to make of the “woes” that Christ speaks to the Pharisees and scribes? Let us look at the first woe: “You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter,” and ask ourselves, how are we preventing ourselves and others from entering the Kingdom of heaven? When we pray the Confiteor at Mass, we say: “I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do. . .” How have we allowed our thoughts, words, things that we have done, or things that we have failed to do, keep us and others from entering the Kingdom of heaven?
Let us also look at the second woe: “You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.” As missionary disciples of Jesus, we bring others to Christ in his one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Yet, how have we, in how we live our lives, not been authentic witnesses of Christ to our new sisters and brothers in Christ when we do not wait on the path that leads through the “narrow gate”? One of the Scripture verses that I share with all parents and godparents when I teach Baptism class is this passage from the Gospel of Matthew: “And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (18:2-6).
Finally, let us look at the third woe; “Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred?” and “You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?” In a recent homily, the Holy Father had this to say and I thought it is so on point for today’s Gospel, in particular this third woe. Pope Leo XIV said: “While we may sometimes be judgmental towards those distant from the faith, Jesus calls into question ‘the security of believers.’ He tells us that it is not enough to profess the faith with words, to eat and drink with him by celebrating the Eucharist or to have a good knowledge of Christian doctrine. Our faith is authentic when it embraces our whole life, when it becomes a criterion for our decisions, when it makes us women and men committed to doing what is right and who take risks out of love, even as Jesus did. He did not choose the easy path of success or power; instead, in order to save us, he loved us to the point of walking through the ‘narrow gate’ of the Cross. Jesus is the true measure of our faith; he is the gate through which we must pass in order to be saved (cf. Jn 10:9) by experiencing his love and by working, in our daily lives, to promote justice and peace.”
And so, sisters and brothers in Christ, in a few moments from now, we will receive the greatest gift, the greatest act of mercy and love that the world has ever known - our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Eucharist - let us continue to reflect on our lives, in relations to Jesus’ woes, or prophetic warning, to us and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us today as we go forth from Mass glorifying the Lord by our lives.
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