XXXI Sunday of Ordinary Time A
Mt 23:1-12
Chapter 23 of Matthew's Gospel is considered a transitional chapter. After the many parables and controversies, in which we saw Jesus dialoguing with the religious leaders of the people, and after they show that they are unwilling to open themselves to receive the good news of the Kingdom; Jesus now addresses the crowd and his disciples (Mt 23:1).
Jesus thus speaks to the people, but in this discourse, he warns them about those leaders with whom he has just finished conversing: They are the leaders of the flock, but how can they lead it if they close themselves off from grace and resist the Lord's visit? How will people be able to access the Kingdom if those who lead them insist on staying outside?
Truly the problem is a serious one.
Jesus uses very harsh words toward these religious leaders, but actually, these words are addressed to everyone: The evil that dwells in their hearts is at home in ours as well. That is why we must always be vigilant.
Today's passage (Mt 23:1-12) answers two questions.
The first is this: How do you determine someone's greatness?
The Pharisees are important people, with a public role, they know the Law; they do righteous works; they occupy places of honor at banquets, and everyone calls them "rabbi."
Is this true greatness?
Jesus says no.
A person's greatness is not measured by what he says, or by what he does.
One may say good words and may do good things. But, as in the case of the scribes and Pharisees, everything they do they do for themselves, for their own glory, for their own complacency.
This is not a great place to be.
Jesus says that true greatness is for those who know how to put themselves at the service of others, so life is measured by one's ability to serve: "The greatest among you must be your servant" (Mt 23:11).
But what defines a servant?
If the Pharisees are those who bind heavy burdens on people's shoulders, but they do not even move them with a finger (Mt 23:4), then, the servant is the one who does exactly the opposite: The one who takes on the burdens of others, the one who bears them upon himself. The servant is the one who unties others from the burden of life; who takes it upon himself, and helps them carry it.
And who can do this?
I would say that those who don't look for the praises of others, can do this: If we work in the vineyard with child-like faith, If we are invited to the wedding banquet of a great king, there is little need for us to add more to life. If not just one thing, which is precisely that of loving, because if you love, you no longer need to be admired. Loving is enough to live a beautiful life.
And here we come to the second question, which is: What frees us from the need to be seen, and admired?
For Jesus, the only thing that can free us is precisely to put ourselves at the service of others, is to live by loving.
No longer to bind heavy burdens on others, but to bind ourselves to others with a bond of brotherhood: "You are all brothers" (Mt 23:8), all with equal dignity in front of the Father.
Only in this way can we be free from the heavy burden of always having to show off, of having to earn our lives from a spasmodic search for ourselves: it is not the gaze and approval of others that can give us life, that can nourish our need for love; it is not roles or power that fill our hearts.
Real life begins when we get off the position on which we sometimes install ourselves and try to live as people who are willing to work hard and to do so together, like everyone else, in the school of the one Master, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light (Mt 11:30).
+Pierbattista
