Stay Alert For God's Judgment

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝟑, 𝟑𝟎𝟑𝟔: 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏: 𝐈𝐬𝐚 𝟏:𝟏𝟎, 𝟏𝟔-𝟐𝟎

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟓𝟎:𝟖-𝟗, 𝟏𝟔𝐛𝐜-𝟏𝟕, 𝟐𝟏-𝟐𝟑 “𝐓𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐨𝐝.”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓 𝟐𝟑:𝟏-𝟏𝟐

𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞: “𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐝.” (𝐯.𝟏𝟐) 

         Are you comfortable living in a world in which our society gives more importance to accomplishments and achievements than anything else. At the same time, who amongst us wouldn’t want to be praised and be respected at least by our peers. Expecting to be acclaimed or honored as the best in our field or in our career is a natural tendency of every human person and it is not exactly bad.

        We often see this in both the private sector and even in government in which achievers are rewarded with promotions and perks that are so substantial it would take a lowly laborer many years to even get to half of the rewards given to these executives and officials.

         At times, new hires also suffer from a certain degree of discrimination as graduates of exclusive educational institutions, Especially those who completed their disciplines with honors are given priority over the ordinary college graduate from an obscure school.

         People nowadays also love to be recognized, appreciated, honored and praised and it’s perfectly normal especially for people who are propelled by success that drives them to aim for more honors. There are some, however, who will resort to publicity especially these days, with the popularity of social media and spending quite a sum just to gain attention to themselves. Accomplished athletes, on the other hand, are a different breed and they don’t normally rest until they have broken all the records in their field.

         In my younger days, a large TV news network I worked for has a policy that offered monetary rewards for exclusive stories or what was commonly referred to as a “scoop.” Enterprising as I was and having developed a network of contacts, I submitted stories that were exclusively given to me by my news sources. Success, however, has a way to make or break a person. You can either just stand on the sidelines and rest on your laurels, or you flaunt it.

        Some years back, it became my habit to identify myself with the highest office in the land, especially in times when I had to wiggle myself out of a traffic violation or when I wanted to be given preference when I transact business in a government office. 

        As I mused about these incidents, shame had overcome me especially when I was already in the renewal movement and I have asked God in my prayers to forgive me for allowing my pride to get the better of me. I’ve been in the Media all my life and somehow developed a flair for flaunting my influence and reputation. I resigned from the Media when God found me and brought me to the renewal. That was 40 years ago and I definitely do not regret having made the decision to allow God to turn my life around.

       In today’s Gospel passage from 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓 𝟐𝟑:𝟏-𝟏𝟐 we see Jesus directing the attention of the crowd who were listening to him on the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who were making it hard for the people to know God as a loving God.

         While Jesus was telling the people to respect the Scribes and Pharisees who sit on the seat of Moses, he was also telling the people to refrain from doing what the Pharisees are doing. In effect, what Jesus was saying was that many of the Pharisees only have a head knowledge of the Scriptures, but they do not do what they teach. Knowledge is not enough and at times pure knowledge can be disastrous as we may be drawing too much on our human wisdom instead of God’s wisdom.

         Knowledge must be accompanied by obedience which is one of the two pillars of a fruitful and fulfilled Christian life – the other being humility which Christ also teaches at the end of this passage.

         And here Jesus outlined the things that the Pharisees do which contradict their teachings. Beginning in 𝐯.𝟑, Jesus accused the Pharisees of “𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡.” Walk the talk is what we often hear not only in the Church and even in the secular world. What this simply means is to do what we proclaim with our lips.

        Jesus never taught what he had not done or experienced. Let’s say for example that you took up law or engineering, it follows that you can teach law or engineering but not chemistry or English. In the Church, we cannot teach about obedience if we ourselves are not. We must have a first-hand knowledge of how it is to be obedient.

        He also criticized the Pharisees for their vainglory saying: “𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞.” (𝐯.𝟓) The Pharisees loved to sit at the head table, in front of the congregation and at times pray aloud on street corners for people to see. This is the same with us at times. Don’t our ears flap at each flattery that comes our way?

        It is not at all bad to ask others what they think of your teaching or your talk for as long as you use these to further improve your skills. In my life in the Church, I have seen many who have fallen into this error. Desire for positions of leadership in business and in church is common. But it becomes a dangerous proposition when love for position becomes stronger than love for God.

        We can make use of this Lenten Season to reflect on what Jesus is saying in that holiness is basically internal and not an external disposition.

       And the only connection between the two is the fact that this internal holiness is the one that drives us to love our neighbors.

        As Jesus gives us a teaching on humility he warns us not to be carried away by titles and honors that come our way because titles and honors have no value in the kingdom of God and at the end of the day, we will be judged by how well we obeyed his Word.

        We are clothed with authentic and true humility when we can place ourselves in the service of the church and others without any expectation whatsoever. Jesus is challenging us now to give of ourselves to God and to others because greatness comes from serving God and our neighbor.

       St. Bonaventure describes humility as a voluntary self-abasement resulting from our understanding and knowledge of our own frailty. In other words, humility should move us to trust wholly in God and not fear men and or attach our hearts to things that are transitory regardless of how good these may be.

        Humility is the surest way to sanctity for as St. Peter says in 𝟏 𝐏𝐞𝐭 𝟓:𝟓 “𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞.” Indeed, humility is the most powerful weapon to defeat the evil one because humility is the virtue that the devil fears most because this is a virtue that the devil is unable to imitate. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 - 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 3, 2026)