Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees
& of Herod – that's what Jesus tells his disciples in today's Gospel. So, often the disciples don't understand what
Jesus is talking about, just as we might miss his point sometimes as well, or
we might focus on some surface issue, missing his underlying message. Jesus points out to them that being able to
feed them was not a problem, taking note of his miracle in multiplying the
loaves and the fish.
The leaven of the Pharisees is pride and
scrupulosity, it is placing more importance to following a strict, rigid adherence
to the letter of the law, and often violating the spirit of the law. It is molding God and their religion into
what they themselves want it to be rather than letting God be God. Do we do the
same thing in our lives of faith? Are we
so busy telling God how to be God, trying to tell him what commandments we
should be following, that we don't have any time to listen to his will in our
lives?
What could Jesus mean be the leaven of
Herod? Could it be the lure of materialism,
wealth, power, pride and selfishness that he displayed as the king of Israel,
those values that seduce many of us in the modern world today?
The leaven of the Pharisees & the
leaven of Herod – we need to be careful of them as we start our Lenten
disciplines next week, as we enter the holy season of Lent in our preparations
for Easter. May we not fall into
temptation – may our hearts & prayers be set on the Lord rather than the
ways of the world or our own rigid, distorted concepts of God.
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