Choice discipline hypocrisy exaggeration

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah brings a passage to the Roman Catholic Lectionary about choosing life or death. This is a theme of Lent and the text today compares the people of the time of Isaiah to the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah. The choice is one of direction. If we choose to leave the path indicated by the resonance of our indwelling Spirit with the Spirit of God, the consequence will be the isolation of self satisfaction, self gratification and searching from one vice to another for the fulfillment of our being. The resultant self destruction is death. The life choice brings us to practice the work of God in our lives by attending to the excluded and marginalized in our environment. These encounters will draw our movement and desire away from ourselves and re-direct us to action which follows Jesus example. The Prophet Isaiah offers the people of his time the "suffering servant" as model of the life lived in the will of God. The psalmist advocates that we need discipline to create the opportunities to hear the words of God and approach our circumstances with the thanksgiving from which our choice of the life direction is more likely. In the Gospel of Matthew, a volume written to a Jewish audience, Jesus paints a picture of the hypocrisy of the practices of some scribes and Pharisees. We know of such religiosity in our own communities. The Recovery Rabbi, Shais Taub, speaking on the CBC Tapestry episode of January 29 2012, compared the suppression of ego by over the top religious discipline to the same suppression of ego desperately sought by the addict through substance abuse. These tortured people may show us hypocritical behaviour which is driven by deep internal hurt. Compassion calls us to be present to them and yet it is so often or distain for hypocrisy that drives us away from them and the institutions in which they display their desperation. Jesus also advises that the words of the hypocrite may be worth listening to. The Pharisees of His time knew the details of the Law. Our "modern Pharisees" can be great sources of the details of the tradition and liturgies. Friar Jude Winkler warns that the Jewish writing style of the time of Matthew tended toward exaggeration. The apparent absolute prohibition of use of some words in this text is likely an example. Contemplation of this text in the quiet of our spiritual resonance will help illuminate the direction wrapped in the hyperbole of the writing style.