Catholic lectionary for 27 August 2025

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

1 Thessalonians, Chapter 2, verses 9-13

¹ In what manner the gospel was brought and preached to the Thessalonians, and in what sort also they received it

⁹For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.

¹⁰Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:

¹¹As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,

¹²That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

¹³For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

Read more:1 Thessalonians, Chapter 2

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2

2:10 Holily - In the things of God. Justly - With regard to men.Unblamable - In respect of ourselves. Among you that believe - Who were the constant observers of our behaviour.

2:11 By exhorting, we are moved to do a thing willingly; by comforting, to do it joyfully; by charging, to do it carefully.

2:12 To his kingdom here, and glory hereafter.

Matthew, Chapter 23, verses 27-32

¹³ He denounceth eight woes against their hypocrisy and blindness

²⁷Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

²⁸Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

²⁹Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

³⁰And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

³¹Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

³²Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

Read more:Matthew, Chapter 23

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23

23:30 We would not have been partakers - So ye make fair professions, as did your fathers.

23:31 Wherefore ye testify against yourselves - By your smooth words as well as devilish actions: that ye are the genuine sons of them who killed the prophets of their own times, while they professed the utmost veneration for those of past ages.

From the 3d to the 30th verse Mat 23:3-30 is exposed everythingthat commonly passes in the world for religion, whereby the pretenders to it keep both themselves and others from entering into the kingdom of God; from attaining, or even seeking after those tempers, in which alone true Christianity consists. As,

Punctuality in attending on public and private prayer, Mat 23:4-14.
Zeal to make proselytes to our opinion or communion, though they have less of the spirit of religion than before, Mat 23:15.
A superstitious reverence for consecrated places or things, without any for Him to whom they are consecrated, Mat 23:16-22.
A scrupulous exactness in little observances, though with the neglect of justice, mercy, and faith, Mat 23:23-24.
A nice cautiousness to cleanse the outward behaviour, but without any regard to inward purity, Mat 23:25-26.
A specious face of virtue and piety, covering the deepest hypocrisy and villany, Mat 23:27-28.
A professed veneration for all good men, except those among whom they live.

23:32 Fill ye up - A word of permission, not of command: as if he had said, I contend with you no longer: I leave you to yourselves: you have conquered: now ye may follow the devices of your own hearts. The measure of your fathers - Wickedness: ye may now be as wicked as they.

NOTES

This passage speaks in the most definite terms about what in Russian has come to be associated with the term “Pharisaism”: outward, ostentatious piety and complete corruption within, at the very core...

Jesus' words leave the impression of the Judgement coming upon Jerusalem and of retribution for all the evil committed in its streets over the centuries. One could, of course, say that the coming of the Messiah marks the beginning of the Judgement, and this would be true. But there is something here that does not fit the messianic expectations traditional for that time. What is most striking is that...

Jesus' words leave the impression of the Judgement coming upon Jerusalem and of retribution for all the evil committed in its streets over the centuries. One could, of course, say that the coming of the Messiah marks the beginning of the Judgement, and this would be true. But there is something here that does not fit the messianic expectations traditional for that time. What is most striking is that Jesus links the city's condemnation precisely with its rejection of Him as Messiah. Here it is no longer God who punishes Jerusalem; Jerusalem punishes itself by rejecting its own salvation.

This rejection is evidently connected with the same religiosity that prevented so many Pharisees from seeing the Messiah in Jesus and entering the Kingdom. And it seems not to change over the centuries, while adapting perfectly to new realities and incorporating into its tradition even that to which it has no moral right. For Jesus, the monuments over the prophets' graves become a symbol of such opportunism: once they were killed by the predecessors, the “fathers,” of those who now erect monuments to them and honour their tombs.

History, of course, knows many similar examples: contemporaries seldom appreciate great people in accordance with their greatness, especially in matters of spiritual life. But the issue is evidently not belated recognition as such, but its causes. And those causes do not change over the centuries: formal, legalistic, or ritual religiosity, hostile to any revelation that threatens in any way to disrupt the integrity of its religious system. Jesus, of course, understands perfectly well that the Pharisees of His day who reject Him would have rejected in exactly the same way the prophets to whom they erect monuments had those prophets appeared before them alive. He likewise understands that the road leading Him to the cross has been laid out by the same forces that brought about the death of the prophets who, in their time, bore witness to the very Kingdom that He has now brought into the world.

"Religion is an ecological niche," "religion is a social game." This is how many thoughtful and serious people speak about religion. A game... That is exactly what Jesus calls the Pharisees...

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