Hello everyone, welcome back.
My name is Elise Brooklyn and this is Scattering Flowers, a podcast where we scatter flowers of faith.
Today is Monday, August 26th, and we will be reading Matthew 23, 13-22.
Follow along in your Bible if you have one.
Now let’s read Matthew 23, 13-22.
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men.
For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte.
And when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Woe to you, blind guides, who say, If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing but if anyone swears by gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.
You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold of the temple that is made with gold sacred?
And you say, If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.
You blind men! For which is greater, the gift of the altar that makes the gift sacred?
So he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.
And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it.
And he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
Have you ever played Simon Says?
You know, the one where someone is giving you directions of what to do, like, Simon says, pat your head, Simon says, jump on one foot, Simon says, stop, now pat your head.
Ah! You would be out if you pat your head, because I didn’t say Simon Says.
This is kind of what the passage of scripture is referring to.
Jesus is talking about the teachers of the law and the Pharisees.
Everything that they did was done so that others would see them and think how great they were.
They were hypocrites.
But they didn’t do what they told other people to do.
You might think Jesus can just say, you don’t have to do what they say.
But he said, obey these teachers and do everything they say.
But do not do what they do, because they do not practice what they preach.
When it comes to living out our Catholic faith, we need to make sure we do what we say.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, dear God, help us to be people who do what we say, so that others can see the love of Jesus.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Thank you so much for listening.
I’ll be back tomorrow, scattering more flowers.
See ya! Go! Go! Go! Go!