A Reflection for Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Unusual Time
Find today’s readings here.
“You impose on people burdens hard to hold,
but you yourselves don’t lift one finger to the touch them.” (Lk 11:46)
Today’s Gospel reading includes a Jesus we don’t all the time see: fiery, fed-up Jesus. This denunciation of the Pharisees and students of the law for his or her hypocrisy is commonly coupled with the passage from Matthew’s Gospel wherein Jesus flips the tables within the temple; they’re prime examples of a type of “righteous anger” that motivates the church’s approach to social justice.
Personally, I like this Jesus. I do know a whole lot of other Catholics who do, too. He feels very human, and his fervor is so familiar to those of us who can’t help but be offended in regards to the injustices of the world today.
I also know, though, that I’m not nearly as good at knowing when my anger is definitely righteous as Jesus is. I’m much quicker to assume that I’m right, that others are fallacious, that it’s my place to enumerate all of the explanation why. When Jesus does this, it’s rare, and for that reason it speaks volumes.
Next time I’m tempted to make use of Jesus’ righteous anger as permission to take joy in winning an argument or “owning” my enemies, I’ll consider today’s first reading, which lists the works of the flesh, taking care to incorporate such examples as “hatreds, rivalry…outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions” and more. (Gal 5:19-20). The letter to Galatians pulls no punches; “those that do such things is not going to enter the dominion of God” (Gal 5:21).
How often is my anger motivated by a heart for justice? How often is it as a substitute driven by those works of the flesh, even when my opponent can also be fallacious or jealous or devolving into outbursts of fury? It’s not all the time really easy to know when the fight for justice calls us to outrage as a substitute of to serenity.
Sometimes it’s my job to call out other people once they are acting like modern-day Pharisees and students of the law, but way more often, it’s my job to be certain that I’m not falling into the exact same trap.
For me (and possibly for you too), true humility is knowing this: Sometimes it’s my job to call out other people once they are acting like modern-day Pharisees and students of the law, but way more often, it’s my job to be certain that I’m not falling into the exact same trap.
As Jesus so aptly tells them, “you impose on people burdens hard to hold, but you yourselves don’t lift one finger to the touch them” (Lk 11:46). Upon hearing that statement, we will all think of individuals to point fingers at, from our political (and non secular) leaders to our own community members.
However the fight to finish bitterness and hypocrisy and greed starts with ourselves. So we pray for patience and faithfulness and peace, after which we practice it. Since we’re not nearly as good at knowing when our anger is righteous and when it’s not, it’s helpful to look to Jesus’ example and to ask him for his guidance.
Lord, help me to be more such as you. If I’m honest, I do know I’ve got the table-flipping part covered. That comes way more easily to me. Help me to be more such as you in my gentleness, my kindness, my patience, my peace. Those, for me, are much harder.
Help me to be more such as you.
