Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
(Hebrews 12:5-7.11-13; Luke 13:22-30)
Father Ferapont is an austere but unholy monk of
Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov. When the genuinely good monk Father Zossima dies
and his body begins to putrefy, Ferapont does not hesitate to interpret the
natural decomposition as proof of Zossima’s depravity. Ferapont is a more modern example of vanity
masquerading as religious zeal that Jesus condemns in today’s gospel.
The Pharisees should not be considered as a sect or a
group of fanatics. Actually many serve
the Lord by safeguarding against laxity among ordinary Jews. Still some, as Jesus observes, fail to assist
the people they purport to keep on the straight and narrow. Rather their condescending manners move
people away from true worship.
We who go beyond the minimum obligations that the Church
dictates have to guard against the sanctimony of the Pharisees. We need to give positive example without
condemning and to patiently support rather than precipitously dismiss those who
do not have the wherewithal to yet commit themselves fully to the Lord.
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