Sing to the LORD a new song of praise in the assembly of the faithful. Let Israel be glad in their maker, let the children of Zion rejoice in their king. The Lord takes delight in his people.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 23:13-22, today’s readings).

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.”

Out of frustration but also out of love for the Father and those who hear him, Jesus criticizes the scribes and Pharisees for obstructing themselves and others from the path to God. “You do not enter [the Kingdom of heaven] yourselves,” Jesus says, “nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.” Jesus points out that these “blind guides” swear by the gold of the temple and the gift on the altar and believe that makes them obligated—all while neglecting to recognize what makes the temple and altar that make these things sacred. Jesus directs the gaze of the scribes and Pharisees beyond the constricting rituals that produce children of Gehenna to the perfect love and mercy of the Father enthroned in heaven and incarnate in his Son.

Father in heaven, redirect my gaze to you when I get caught up in hierarchies and orders of things that end up only keeping me from you. Let me hear the invitation to stay close to your Son, as I hear in the Gospel acclamation: “My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me.” As Jesus says, one is not obligated to or by the gold of the temple or the gift on the altar but by you who make all that is sacred. Give me the grace, Lord, to look to you and you alone and not what surrounds you, to go to you where I find you truly present—body and blood, soul and divinity—in the Eucharist.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.