Devotional Thoughts for the second Sunday after Feast of Holy Cross- Sep 25th 2011
Reading: From the Gospel according to St. Matthew 16: 5- 12
Dear and Respected Brethren,
The first four verses of chapter 16 of the Gospel according to St. Matthew say that many Pharisees and Sadducees had reached our Lord’s presence asking for a sign. Our Lord did not like the question and spoke against such a desire. This made our Lord to address them hypocrites, wicked and adulterous generation. Our Lord realized that the hypocrite and wicked nature as so dangerous and destructive. For this reason only our Lord exhorted the disciples to take heed of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
But the poor Apostles could not realize what was meant by ‘leaven’ referred by their master. They misunderstood that our Lord mentioned leaven as they forgot to take bread with them from the other side of Galilee Sea. Let us think about leaven. The term literally means the substance added to the dough to get fermentation. Let us try to learn the leaven by considering each and every alphabet that combines together in the word.
So let us take the first alphabet ‘L’, which stands for leech. Commonly it is used to denote the blood sucking worm in water. The same word is used for persons who hand about other people. The leech will not leave its prey until it would get the perfect satisfaction that it has sucked the maximum blood. In humanity some take the same nature by holding others under their control and keep in custody until they might get the satisfaction. The leech when sucks the blood of a person or an animal, it is sucking the life giving blood or let us say the life. In a way the leech is in the attempt to kill its prey slowly. The Pharisees and Sadducees had an adamant nature of attacking their opponents without any sort of mercy and compassion. They always stood firm on their claims and arguments, without the mind of compromise.
The next letter ‘e’ stands for enmity. For the Pharisees and Sadducees, all who did not approve their stand or faith were enemies. So they always expressed their hostility, hatred and ill will to their enemies. For the Sadducees and Pharisees was an enemy without any real reason. So they were always after our Lord, opposing and questioning all deeds for the welfare of the poor and needy. Our Lord’s pattern of the Public Mission was threefold, teaching, feeding and healing. But they could not absorb the goodness in them and opposed with high sense of enmity.
The next letter ‘a’ stands for annoyance. The Pharisees and Sadducees often tried to annoy our Lord. They always had tried to hurt or trouble our Lord by word or deed. The next letter ‘v’ stands for the vagary stand of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Deeds of whimsical or extravagant notion are meant to be vagary. The next letter ‘e’ stands for enchaining. The people those who have this nature would always try to chains others in traps.
The next and the last alphabet in leaven ‘n’ stands for nonchalance. The Pharisees and Sadducees always had an indifferent and unconcerned attitude towards the teachings and deeds of our Lord. Now let us examine ourselves to see whether we are influenced by the above natures in our everyday lives. If we would love others without considering anything, we cannot accept the nature of a leech. We would not try to dominate others or to destroy them with or without our knowledge. We could find many in society who live upon the life of others around them.
A real Christian should not and would not live as a leech. The real love will not allow us to hold enmity in us. In our personal lives, family lives, church lives, and social lives, let us try to be promoters of the real love. Let us avoid enmity. Enmity is to be removed from our midst by the self-giving love of Lord. We must make it a principle that we will not annoy others with our word, deed or thought. With the real love only we could keep away annoyance. Let us make sure that we are ambassadors of the real love other than vagary.
The Holy Spirit in us will make us strong to take wise decisions and proper statements when needed. Let us give heed to the Holy Spirit in us before taking decisions or before proclaiming our opinions and statements in public or even in the presence of our own family members. We should not enchain others for our temporary gains of this world. Let us unite others with our Lord God in His selfless and innocent love. Let us listen what our Lord God has to tell us day by day and react positively with God. Let us not be persons of nonchalance. In our family lives too, let us be attentive and co-operative with other members of the family. Likewise we could behave well in the parish, Church and society. Let us leave away the leaven for ever and ever Let us be united and near to our Lord God.
May God bless us all.
Jose Kurian Puliyeril