Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You devour widows’ property; and as a show, you
pray long prayers! Therefore, you shall receive greater condemnation.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel by sea and land to make a
single convert; yet, once he is converted, you make him twice as fit for hell as yourselves!
Woe to you, blind guides! You say: To swear by the temple is not binding; but, to swear by the gold of
the temple is binding. Foolish men! Blind men! Which is of more worth: the gold in the temple, or the
temple which makes the gold a sacred treasure? You say: To swear by the altar is not binding,
but to swear by the offering on the altar is binding. How blind you are! Which is of more value: the
offering on the altar, or the altar which makes the offering sacred?
Whoever swears by the altar, is swearing by the altar and by everything on it. Whoever swears by
the temple, is swearing by the temple, and by God, who dwells in the temple. Whoever swears by
heaven, is swearing by the throne of God, and by him, who is seated on it.
Reflect:
Paul commends the Thessalonian Church for her faith, love, and endurance amidst persecutions.
She has lived her faith well. However, he also prays that God may make her worthy of His calling.
This is the nature of God’s calling: He calls us when we are still unworthy; in spite of our
unworthiness and not because of our worthiness. God, then, keeps working in us – provided we
open ourselves to His Grace – to make us worthy of the call that He had gratuitously given
to us already. We are an unfinished work until our last breath and until we reach Him. Mother Mary,
whose queenship we celebrate today, is our prime example of what destiny awaits us if we
cooperate with God’s Grace in His work of making us worthy. And if we resist, we resist at our
own peril: the woes pronounced by Jesus would then be our destiny.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2022