Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod, Jesus warns his disciples in the Gospel. So often the disciples don't understand what Jesus is talking about. They wonder if he is talking about bread. We also might miss his point, or we might focus on some surface issue or some issues on the fringes on his main point. Jesus points out that being able to feed them was not a problem, taking note of his miracle in multiplying the bread and the fish.
The leaven of the Pharisees is found in their pride and scrupulosity, in the way that they place more importance on a strict, rigid adherence to the letter of the law. Yet, at the same time, they violate the spirit of the law. The Pharisees try to mold God and their approach to religion into what they themselves rather than being open to the will of God. We might have a tendency to do same thing in our lives of faith. We might be busy telling God how to be God, trying to tell him what commandments we should be following, barraging God with words in our prayers rather than being open to listen to him.
We have the leaven of the Pharisees. Jesus also refers to the leaven of Herod. This could be making an idol of our material treasures and wealth, of being attached to pride and selfishness. Those are the things that Herod clung to in his power and arrogance. We need to be careful of many things on our journey of faith. May we not fall into temptation. May our hearts and prayers be set on the Lord rather than the things of this world. May we not fall into the trap of having a rigid, distorted concept of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment