In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees had unfortunately developed some pretty
bad habits. They were very good at telling the people down to the
smallest detail what the Law of Moses prescribed them to do, but they
exempted themselves from having to fulfill it.
Note that Jesus does not tell crowds to rebel against the Pharisees.
But we should not do as they do. We should not lord it over others.
Sometimes, we can fall into this way of living, and when we do, the
first thing to be thrown out of our Christian living is the law of
love.
Jesus has called us to go well beyond the bad example of the
Pharisees. He calls us to put his law of love into practice at all
times. We need to be on guard against looking at our faith as a series
of “do’s and don’ts,” of mere rules to follow like a robot. We need to
love God above all else in order to see that everything that he asks
of us is to our benefit and is a joy, because the truth alone sets us
free.
We imitate Jesus when we go about our daily duties the way Jesus would
do and love people the way Jesus would have us love them. Dear
friends, put Jesus’ words in today’s gospel reading into practice by
doing an act of charity to someone in your family or workplace
