Jesus told the crowds and his disciples: "The scribes and the Pharisees have succeeded Moses as teachers; therefore, do everything and observe everything they tell you. But do not follow their example. Their words are bold but their deeds are few. They bind up heavy loads, hard to carry, to lay on other men's shoulders, while they themselves will not lift a finger to budge them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and wear huge tassels. They are fond of places of honor at banquets and the front seats in synagogues, of marks of respect in public and of being called Rabbi.' As to you, avoid the title Rabbi.' One among you is your teacher, the rest are learners. Do not call anyone on earth your father. Only one is your father, the One in heaven. Avoid being called teachers. Only one is your teacher, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be the one who serves the rest. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, but whoever humbles himself shall be exalted." (Matthew 23:1-12)

Now what are we to do with this morning's Gospel? It is one of the difficult passages in Matthew's Gospel--difficult because we're not quite sure what Jesus meant. Another difficulty is that we are not quite sure if Jesus is saying all of these things or if Matthew is putting some of them in Jesus' mouth because of situations that have arisen in Matthew's own community. One of the things that we can say is that this particular passage, like "Call no one your father, you have only one Father, the one in Heaven," is a favorite of Protestants, for the title that we give to the priests, "Father. " In fact, one of our theologians at Whitworth College writes this in his commentary on Matthew, "Certainly this verse obliges Catholic Christians to reconsider their tradition." Well, he's a good Presbyterian and he would have all of us called "elders," I suppose. But what are we to make ofthis?

Certain things here require us to examine our consciences. It's always good at times to examine our consciences. Obviously, in Chapter 22 there has been the attempt to trip Jesus up, but the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Herodians. They attempted to do this by that series of questions that they posed to Jesus, getting Him, as you remember, to come down on one side or the other of a question so that can pounce on Him because He doesn't hold the opposite view. Now it is time for Jesus to address His own disciples, His own followers, and we begin to have in Chapter 23, first of all in this morning's Gospel, that immediate address to His disciples on how they should conduct themselves in the Christian assembly, and following this we will have those terrible woes addressed to the Scribes, the Pharisees, the lawyers, and sad to say, with a tinge of anti-Semitism, not that Jesus was anti-Jewish, but Matthew's community certainly had the problem of anti-Semitism. Another thing that we can draw from this is an examination of conscience.

One of the first things that we can examine our consciences on, this statement of Jesus, "They bind up heavy loads, hard to carry, to lay on other men's shoulders, while they themselves do not lift a finger to budge them." Any one of us who is in any kind of position of authority-- parents, teachers, employers, priests, bishops, popes--always have to ask ourselves, am I taking into consideration human nature? Am I demanding too much of human nature? Not that there should not be some kind of regulation, not that there shouldn't be, and isn't, objective truth-- because there is objective truth. But am I too harsh? Arn I too unrelenting? Am I too demanding? Am I going over and above what Jesus Himself would demand? Arn I demanding it in such a way that an individual can never fulfill it, never carry it out? Do I take into consideration human differences, human abilities, even human weaknesses? It is very easy for anyone who has been in authority to try to treat everyone the same, and therefore demand the same of everyone. But not everyone is capable of giving the same. There always has to be a kind of adjustment to the individual person, the individual situation. It's one of the things that Benedict in Chapter 2 of the Holy Rule always reminds the Abbot. He says the Abbot must adapt Himself to the variety of persons, the variety of characters, it is not the persons who have to adapt themselves who have to adapt themselves to the Abbot. And using that as a kind of guideline, how many times do we expect people to adapt themselves to us, that everyone can change, should change, must change to satisfy me? In other words, what happens there is something else that Jesus admonishes about. We go from the position of service to a position of self-service, and by demanding that everyone satisfy me, is it Jesus (God) who is served, or is it I who am served? And I think those are very legitimate questions that each of us has to ask.

I think one of the most damning things I ever heard said of a priest was by a Bishop who once said, "You know, if you let that priest be your conscience, he'll be your pastor. But if you won't let him decide what is right and wrong, he will not be your pastor. He will have nothing to do with you." I think that's exactly what Benedict meant in his admonition to a superior, which could be an admonition to parents, an admonition to teachers, an admonition to anyone in a position of authority. Am I entering into a realm of self-service? And it seems to me that one of the problems that began to emerge in Matthew's community was this desire for titles, a desire for prestige, a desire for position. Whenever there is a desire for titles, or position, or prestige, or honor, it's a sure indication that one is going from a life of service to a life of self- service, and I need to ask myself, is that what is happening, if I demand a certain kind of treatment, if I stand on my honor, so to speak.

Another thing that I think Jesus would ask us to do is to examine ourselves on how we use religion. You might think that's a funny question, but it's not. Do I use religion sometimes as a kind of showtime? A kind of display? Do I use God for my personal advantage? Do I use my religion for my personal advantage? Or my piety for my personal advantage? To get people to think better of me? To get a kind of respect, a kind of admiration, a kind of adulation from how I use it? You know, I think ostentation in religion doesn't impress Jesus at all. That is His complaint against the scribes, the pharisees, the Herodians, the chief priests, the elders. But you see, ostentatious religion uses God not to grow holy, but it uses God and the things of God for the honor it brings me. And one of the things that we have to always recognize in the spiritual life is that we constantly have to be pointing people to Jesus, not to ourselves. He is the one that is important, He is the one who is the redeemer, the Holy Spirit is the one who is the Sanctifier. And it's not I who redeem, it's not I who sanctifies, it is the Spirit. And so even for parents, the object is that they are not to point to themselves, they are not to serve themselves; they are to pointing their children, just as a priest or a bishop must point those in their care, to Jesus. You see, even our life for God can at times have as its ultimate purpose to impress people. And what Jesus says is, that is wrong.

Another thing Jesus would have us examine our consciences on, this might be very timely in our age, when we are having all these arguments about inclusive language and who should do what in the Church. The church can never place its equality on a Jeffersonian ideal. The democracy or equality that exists in the church can never be a purely political expedient. Nor is it based on political reasons. The equality that exists in the church is there because of what God has done for us through His Son. It's based on the freedom that Jesus has given us, it's based on God's love for us. And one of the most amazing things that I think we have to remember is that in the church no one has a right to demand anything. One only has a right to accept what God freely wishes to give. There's no such thing as rights as you and I understand them in our country, in the church. No one can come along and say, for example, "I have a right to be ordained." Ordination is a gift, a call, and only God can call. All that we can do is respond to the call. And yet I've had in my personal experience many young men who have said, "I have a right to be ordained." "Oh, no, Father you don't have a right." You see, there is no right in that sense. Vocation is gift, it's a call. So one of the things that we have to ask ourselves is, "Do I accept equality in the church because of the gift of Jesus from God--not because I can demand it, but because it's a gift in the first place, and all I can do is receive the gift." There becomes a great confusion in life when we try to impose on the church a political stance, rather than to recognize that the church is a gift from God, because God wants to love us, God wants to redeem us, God wants to share His life. I can never demand God's life, but what I can do is open my heart to receive it. I can let other people receive it. I can rejoice in receiving it, and I can rejoice in the fact that other people receive it.

Another area in which we can examine our lives is this fact that Jesus says, that the scribes and the pharisees have succeeded Moses as teachers, yes, and therefore we must do what they tell us, yes. But do not follow their example. It always amazes me how we think of the fourth commandment as a children's commandment, "Honor thy father and mother." But we often forget that what is important there is, "So live that mothers and fathers may be honored." And the Fourth Commandment, honoring father and mother, is not a children's commandment at all; it's really an adult commandment. And in our age, in our society, it's a very important commandment. Do I take into consideration my parents, if they are still alive. Do I visit them? DO I show concern for them? Do I help them if they need my help? If you go around to nursing homes or to shut-ins in the parish, one of the things you notice is that the great trial of the elderly is not necessarily physical pain or illness, but loneliness. Terrible loneliness, where not even their children visit them, not even their children seem to be concerned about them. And if our parents are alive, it's a question we have to ask ourselves: do I honor my father and my mother?

My father never got along with his father, and I can remember as a young child, years ago, that my father's father died. And my father never had anything nice to say about him, and I won't use the language that he expressed here this morning, but I remember something he said to me when I was in the fourth or fifth grade: "No matter your parent ever does to you, remember he is your father; she is your mother. " Honor father and mother. I suppose Jesus would put everything down to one thing: do I truly serve or am I self-serving? And of course the exemplar in that is Jesus Himself, who came to serve, as he said, rather than to be served, and who served by giving his life for you and for me.