First Reading - Ephesians 1:1-10
Gospel - Luke 11:47-54
The first reading presents a beautiful christological hymn. The hymn can be summarised as 'the dignity of the call in Christ Jesus, which the recipients of the letter have received.' In fact, the hymn reminds the followers of Jesus that they have gained a renewed life in Christ. However, what interests most for me is the opening lines of Paul where he addresses the Christians as 'the saints who are faithful to Christ Jesus.' The faithfulness of Christians to Jesus qualifies their realisation of the richness or dignity of their call in Christ. Hence, faithfulness to Jesus also implies authentic life as Christians according to the teachings of Jesus.
In the gospel, Jesus criticized the blatant hypocrisy and false zeal of the scribes and the Pharisees in decorating the old monuments and building new monuments for the past prophets who had been persecuted and murdered by the forefathers of these same Scribes and the Pharisees, while they themselves did not obey the injunctions of these past prophets. Abel’s martyrdom is the first recorded in the Bible (Gn 4:8). Zechariah was a prophet who died by being stoned in the temple of Jerusalem around the year 800 B.C. because he accused the people of Israel of being unfaithful to God’s law (cf. 2 Chronicles 24:20-22). The murder of Abel (Genesis 4:8) and that of Zechariah were, respectively, the first and last murders reported in these books which the Jews regarded as Sacred Scripture. Jesus remarked that the bloodguilt inherited by the ancestors of the scribes and the Pharisees throughout the Old Testament era would spill over when the priests (most of them scribes), and the Pharisees conspired to execute Jesus the Messiah.
Since the scribes (religious lawyers), were the official interpreters of the Scriptures, they held the “office of the keys.” Unfortunately, their interpretation of the Scriptures became so distorted and difficult to understand that others were “shut out” of the Scriptures. That's why Jesus condemns their action of forfeiting people the kingdom of heaven.
Dear friends, walking our talk is a challenge because it needs guts and conviction to do so. In the first reading, Paul invites all Christians to a faithful observance of the teachings of Jesus which is also the path to authenticity. The gospel contains the accusations against the Pharisees and scribes because they failed to live an authentic life or rather they failed to integrate their preaching with their lives. Their life highly contrasted with their preaching and teaching. Jesus, through his denunciation, invites them, and at large to all Christians, to integrity of life. We are invited by Jesus to live an authentic life as Christians by living, preaching, and teaching our faith through words and deeds.
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