The act of finger pointing comes to mind today as the texts
from the Roman Catholic Lectionary probe our attitude to finding fault with
others. Paul addresses the Romans and describes our tendency to look critically
at the faults and failings of others and as a result somehow depend on the corruptness
of their life style to justify or own behaviour, which in our eyes, is less
severe. The failure to forgive and seek forgiveness when we find ourselves in
this state is to forget the praise of the psalmist that God is our rock and
salvation and in Him is our deliverance and honour. Mercy which invites us to
intimacy with God is the invitation we need to extend to others. The Gospel
from Luke today may appear to be a contradiction to the message of Romans. Scholars
suggest the term “woe” is used here by Jesus as an expression of pity for those
who are under the judgment of God. In this way the distress of Paul that the
Roman community was not seeing the error in their judgement, is similar to the
pity of Jesus for the leaders of the people, Pharisees and lawyers, who fail to
see the hypocrisy in their actions which Mercy will reveal through the light of
Truth and Love. We become aware that when we impose burdens of accusation and
neglect of their needs on others, we shine a light on ourselves which
illuminates our pitiful state of reliance on our self gratification for our
security.
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