5th Sunday after the feast of the exaltation of the H. Cross

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Devotional Thoughts for 5th Sunday after the feast of the exaltation of the H. Cross - 19th Oct 08

Reading: From the Gospel according St. Matthew 23:1-12

Dear and Respected Brethren,

Today's reading also so familiar to most of us. Our Lord cautions His listeners and the blessed Apostles saying: "The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat." When and where we proclaim that our priesthood is the continuation of the priesthood of Moses and Aaron, could we ignore what is told by our Lord and Savior? Is it applicable to us also? As our answer is 'Yes', let us think more about the saying of our Lord. The Old Testament Fathers used to address the Israelites from the seat of Moses and had considered it as a symbol of authority. They had connected the pulpit to the seat of Moses. In Nehemiah 8:4 we find Ezra the scribe standing on a pulpit to read the book in the law of God. In our worship we sing: "Firstly Aaron accepted priesthood, along with Moses….." As we too feel proud of the succession of priesthood from Aaron and Moses, let us give heed to what our Lord and Savior has to tell each and everyone of us. In Malachi 2: 7 we read, "For the Priest's lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts." We too see our priests as messengers of God as they are taking the Holy mysteries with their own hands and administers them to the faithful. In verse 3 our Lord asks us "All therefore whatsoever they bid, you observe but you should not go after their works" because their word and the deed are different. Here our Lord examines the deeds of the clergy of those days and says that they do what they like to show the men. In those days enlarging the borders of the garments and making broad phylacteries were noticed as signs of high spirituality. In fact it was an order from Jehovah (See Numbers 15: 38 and Deuteronomy 22:12.) In addition to all these, they used to occupy very prime seats in the synagogue and the most important seats in the feasts. .

Our Lord had his own teachings. Lord Jesus taught, if you are invited for a feast, occupy the last seat and let the house Lord take you to one of the prime seats. The priests of these days are supposed to follow the teachings of our Lord and Savior, than following what the Pharisees and Sadducees did.

In verse 8 and 9 our Lord forbids us from calling others Rabbi and Father. And he clearly establishes that Lord Christ is the only one to be called so. Rabbi means Master as Lord Jesus was honored by even the Jews as a Master. But they could not accept Him as the begotten son of the Heavenly Father. What is our position? Do we consider Lord Jesus as our master, God and Savior? We all will have to accept Him as the son of God, our savior and the second personality of the Holy Trinity, our God Almighty. In verse 10 we read, "Neither you be called Masters, for one is your master, even Christ.

In the human nature, we all might be interested to be called as Masters or above, by our dependants especially those that might do the unskilled works in our house or so. There was a time when our elders were called 'Thamprans' by the Adiyaars. The low class people who used to work in the mud and hot sun used to respect the high class people as their masters. This type of social humiliation were continued among our societies until the recent two generations.

The same sort of attitude is still in the minds of many. If and when a chance arise for such, they forget all manners and behave unjust to the socially and financially poor guys. We should not forget the truth that we should not misuse the situations, provided God Almighty raises our financial and social status all on a sudden. We must train ourselves to treat the poor and downtrodden around us also as the creation of God Almighty and the less fortunate. We must love them as much as we could and extend the love enjoyed by us at least in a minimum scale.

It will be very difficult for many of us to grasp the teaching in verse 11, where we read, "But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant." Our human nature is to get served by anyone and not to serve somebody else. How many people are struggling for our well being and happiness? Are we grateful to them in return? Would any one of us come forward to give a glass of water, in addition to the money we might have agreed to pay? In Job 22: 29 we read, "when men are cast down, then shall say, there is lifting up and he shall save the humble person". King Solomon the wise, advises us to be humble always in Proverbs 15: 33.

Our Lord teaches us in verse 12, "Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and ht that shall humble himself shall be exalted". Let us train ourselves to be humble in our word and deed.

May God bless us all

Jose Kurian Puliyeril
Abu Dhabi