On this Wednesday of the twenty-eighth week in Ordinary Time, the Church remembers Saint Callixtus I, pope and martyr of Rome, and sets two ways before us. Our difficulty is an old one: we can walk a road that looks good and yet leads us away from the Spirit. The Word of God lets us check our bearings, from the letter to the Galatians through the first psalm to the woes of the Gospel.
But woe to you, Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you ignore judgment and the charity of God. But these things you ought to have done, without omitting the others. Woe to you, Pharisees! For you love the first seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the marketplace. Woe to you! For you are like graves that are not noticeable, so that men walk over them without realizing it. Then one of the experts in the law, in response, said to him, "Teacher, in saying these things, you bring an insult against us as well." So he said: "And woe to you experts in the law! For you weigh men down with burdens which they are not able to bear, but you yourselves do not touch the weight with even one of your fingers." (Lk 11:42-46)
Paul, the apostle to the Galatians, sets two ways before every human being. The way of the flesh seeks only its own pleasure; the way of the Spirit bears "charity, joy, peace" (Gal 5:22). The two ways are so clearly marked that anyone, it seems, would choose the second. But Paul does not leave the choice to our good intentions. He names the one who goes before us: "if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law" (Gal 5:18).
The psalm opens on the same road, and blessed is the man who "has not remained in the way of sinners" (Ps 1:1). The next verse says what holds him there: his will is with the law of the Lord, and he meditates on it day and night. So the blessed man is not the one who performs best, but the one whose will belongs to the Lord.
And yet a man can lose that road while believing that he walks it well, and the Pharisees are the proof. In the Gospel, Luke, the evangelist who gathers these woes, shows Jesus, the Teacher, telling them that they "ignore judgment and the charity of God" (Lk 11:42). They tithe mint and rue and every herb, and he does not condemn the tithe, for it is not to be omitted. Rather, he puts it back in its order, beside justice and love, never in place of them.
What does he uncover beneath so much care? The love of the first seats in the synagogues and of greetings in the marketplace betrays a taste for power. Behind it lie pride, fear and envy, which the Pharisees have kept hidden even from themselves. Thus their piety looks like a road and hides a grave, because the motive beneath it is not love.
An expert in the Law protests that these words insult the experts as well. But Jesus does not retreat, and he answers with a further woe. The heavy load is the Law without the Spirit, laid on other shoulders by hands that stay free of it. These men "weigh men down with burdens which they are not able to bear" (Lk 11:46). A responsibility is a service, or it is only a façade, and where the Spirit leads, the fruit of charity takes the place of the façade.
These words are meant for us as well. Which of us has finished leaving the way of the flesh? Pride, fear and selfishness still stir within us, and they can even dress themselves as zeal for the good. Must we then despair of living under the Spirit? We must not: this lies beyond our own power, but the Lord Jesus came to free us from evil and death. And little by little we enter that freedom, whenever we answer the movements of the Spirit in us.
In the spirituality of Bethlehem, simplicity is not a pose of smallness but an undivided heart, in which what we show and what we are have become one. The Child of Bethlehem does not judge, he draws; he changes hearts by gentleness, not by power. That is why what we are speaks louder than what we say, and why a goodness that needs no audience is already a word spoken to others.
Today the Word of God invites us to let the Spirit sort out our motives before the Lord, one after another. It asks of us not a new rule but an inner movement: we bring before the Lord the pride, the fear and the envy that we have kept hidden. Then a heart changed by love may take the place of a rite performed for show.
Let us therefore take the road that Paul and the psalm have marked out, the road on which the Spirit already leads us. The Spirit who gives us life also leads us, for "if we live by the Spirit, we should also walk by the Spirit" (Gal 5:25). Let us walk step by step, in our homes, our parishes and our workplaces, until the fruit of charity, joy and peace shows itself in our love for one another.
Scripture text: Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV), public domain.
Prayer of the Day
Lord Jesus, Child of Bethlehem, who came to free us from evil and death, shows us the way of the Spirit when our own way seems good to us. Unmask in our hearts the pride, the fear and the envy that we hide behind our good deeds, and make us humble and good. Let the fruit of charity, joy and peace grow in us without display. Amen.
For Meditation
- Which of our good habits might be hiding a pride, a fear or an envy that we have never looked at?
- Where do we carry a responsibility as a façade rather than as a service in truth?
- What would it mean, this week, to answer one movement of the Spirit in us?
