I could wish that I myself were accursed and separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers (Rom 9, 3)<\/i><\/p>\n
The Pharisees avoid sinful company so as not to put their salvation at risk.\u00a0 These \u201cseparated ones\u201d keep themselves apart even from other members of the laity, so distinguished they think they are because of their knowledge of the Mosaic law, their strict interpretation of it and their exact religious observance.\u00a0 They are faithful not just to the Torah.\u00a0 They keep besides, in contrast to the priests, the \u201ctradition of the elders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Observing such tradition that serves as a fence around the Torah, the Pharisees take precautions against the least violations.\u00a0 They thus are guaranteed salvation.\u00a0 They believe they stand head and shoulders above everybody in righteousness.\u00a0 They are exclusivists who scorn particularly \u201cthe people of the land,\u201d who do not know and do not care.\u00a0 They feel threatened by people like Jesus who may contribute to their losing their professorial chair.<\/p>\n
Jesus does denounce them.\u00a0 He calls them hypocrites, brood of vipers; he unmasks their falsehood.\u00a0 He questions their religious leadership and proposes a righteousness that surpasses theirs.\u00a0 He reminds them of the weightier matters of the law:\u00a0 justice, mercy and faith.\u00a0 And since they and the high priests turn strange bedfellows in their opposition to Jesus and in their lack of faith and repentance, they likewise deserve to be warned:\u00a0 \u201cAmen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.\u201d<\/p>\n
No, those who are under the illusion that they are self-sufficient cannot feel the need for a Messiah who will call them to repentance and save them.\u00a0 They call upon God more to congratulate themselves that they not sinners like the rest nor are they like the despicable tax collectors.\u00a0 They reduce God to a lifeless idol, silent in the face of their self-righteousness and their mistaken belief that justification starts and ends with them.<\/p>\n
And as they never feel themselves lacking in anything, the Pharisees do not know the joy of receiving something that is needed or of finding something lost.\u00a0 Since they have never left their father’s house and never disobeyed him, they know nothing of the joy of the forgiven brother or of the forgiving father.\u00a0 They cannot have the blessedness of the poor, to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs.\u00a0 Thinking themselves established in holiness, they neither hunger nor thirst for righteousness.\u00a0 It is so much enough for them to be assured of salvation that they do not care if others are lost.<\/p>\n
But the salvation of others matters to Jesus.\u00a0 Just as Moses, his type, focused on interceding for a stiff-necked people, instead of getting distracted by the promise, \u201cI will make you a great nation,\u201d so also Jesus fix his attention on ransoming everybody, emptying himself and sacrificing his own life.\u00a0 He gives his body up and sheds his blood for all, so that sins may be forgiven.<\/p>\n
Indeed, Jesus strives to save others, while the Pharisees are determined to save themselves.\u00a0 He expects us to do the same, to burn our pharisaic idols and repent of our pharisaism, to confess that we are foremost sinners and to accept that \u201cChrist Jesus came into the world to save sinners.\u201d\u00a0 He wants us to have the conviction St. Vincent de Paul learned from him:\u00a0 \u201cIt is not enough for me to love God, if my neighbor does not love him\u201d (Coste XII, 262).\u00a0 Would it be enough for me that I am saved, if Assad is not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"