Sunday, June 12, 2005
MATTHEW 23:27-32
In todays Gospel,Jesus compares the Pharisees to whitewashed tombs-beautiful externally, through their manifest appearance of piety and respectability, but full of uncleanness within,referring to their practices of plunder and self-indulgence. In effect,Jesus was renouncing the hypocrisy of the religious authorities of that time.
Today, the same message applies to us. We must be able to see through the mask that whitewashes the evils that are made to appear moral just because "everyone is doing it". Thus, pornography flourishes under the guise of freedom of expression, abortion is tolerated as an exercise of freedom of choice, violence is promoted by video games which prey on the minds of the young. Before we realize it,what is morally unacceptable becomes a way of life. In time,our moral and spiritual values collapse.
Jesus is challenging us to stand up against this kind of "whitewashing" in our world today. The influence of media and peer pressure are formidable forces we have to deal with. But the prospect of our children and grandchildren losing sight of their ultimate goal, waylaid by strategies that appeal to their lower senses, should motivate us to instill in them genuine spiritual values-"inner purity that makes the whole man clean" (John P. Meier)
Today, the same message applies to us. We must be able to see through the mask that whitewashes the evils that are made to appear moral just because "everyone is doing it". Thus, pornography flourishes under the guise of freedom of expression, abortion is tolerated as an exercise of freedom of choice, violence is promoted by video games which prey on the minds of the young. Before we realize it,what is morally unacceptable becomes a way of life. In time,our moral and spiritual values collapse.
Jesus is challenging us to stand up against this kind of "whitewashing" in our world today. The influence of media and peer pressure are formidable forces we have to deal with. But the prospect of our children and grandchildren losing sight of their ultimate goal, waylaid by strategies that appeal to their lower senses, should motivate us to instill in them genuine spiritual values-"inner purity that makes the whole man clean" (John P. Meier)
# posted by F O O D F O R T H O U G H T @ 5:25 PM 
