March 18: Our Faith and Our Practice / Nuestra Fe y Nuestra Práctica

In many languages today, the word “Pharisee” is synonymous with “hypocrite.” This is probably due to the latter part of Matthew 23, which has the repeated phrase, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” Jesus acknowledged the value of some of what the Pharisees were teaching: “Do whatever they teach you.” But what He objected to was the discrepancy between that and their own lives. They had made themselves interpreters of the Law of Moses and they were applying it without mercy.

A professor at Mt. Angel Seminary used to repeat this to his students (all of whom were “future priests”), “If you don’t love people, for God’s sake don’t preach! You may be able to express some true opinions, but you will not be able to ‘speak the truth in love.’” (His final words were quoted from Ephesians 4, 15)

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An important Lenen lesson is this: We need to live the faith we profess! Our faith tells us that we are all brothers and sisters, children of the same Heavenly Father. Hence, we should always pray for each other and do our best to love each other. Instead of judging or criticizing others, we should be serving them both directly and through our efforts to create a more just world.

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Cuando conocemos nuestra fe y nuestra práctica, nuestras obligaciones y observancias religiosas  (por ejemplo, cuando vamos a Misa, recibimos los sacramentos, y practicamos penitencia en Cuaresma) … ¿somos buenos cristianos? Sí, pero sólo si nuestro corazón está en lo que hacemos. Sí, pero si obramos como creemos y hacemos lo que decimos. Sí, pero si nuestra fe afecta a nuestro vivir de cada día y a nuestras relaciones con nuestro prójimo. En una palabra, sí,  si construimos de verdad el Reino de Dios. De otro modo, nuestra fe es hipocresía y nada más.

Ojalá el Señor nos dé un sentido de honestidad con él y con nosotros mismos, para que no pretendamos ser mejores de lo que somos y que no hagamos nada con el fin preciso de ser vistos y aplaudidos por los demás. Dios sabe todo, y eso basta.