Today’s Gospel of Matthew shows us Matthew’s perspective of the Pharisees as somewhat “bad people.” Matthew’s understanding of the Pharisees comes from his experience of them, not from their beginnings but from how he saw and interacted with them. Scripture scholars want us to know a few things about the Pharisees—the “Big Picture,” if you will.

First, the Pharisees were originally reformers of the Jewish faith and they did a lot to help the people and a lot of good for the Jewish faith and faithful. Next, in time the Pharisees became what today we might call “the establishment” and so sought to protect their practice of the faith. Today Jesus points out that to protect the laws of their faith, the Pharisees put a lot of “fences” around the faith known as violations, or as Jesus refers to them, “heavy burdens” which were meant to signal to the people that they were in violation of a law or tradi-tion of faith. Finally, today Jesus asks us to not use or get caught up with “titles” but of course He is not speaking literally. For we do have “teachers” and “fathers” in our lives; rather, what Jesus is speaking to is the idea of “exalting” one’s self. Jesus uses the phrase: “…The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Now is a great time to consider the virtue of humility in all aspects of life. Defined in a Catholic theological sense, humility is understood as “The moral virtue that keeps a person from reaching beyond himself. It is the virtue that restrains the unruly desire for personal greatness and leads people to an orderly love of themselves based on a true appreciation of their position with respect to God and their neighbors.  Religious humility recognizes one's total dependence on God; moral humility recognizes one's creaturely equality with others. Yet humility is not only opposed to pride; it is also opposed to immoderate self-abjection, which would fail to recognize God's gifts and use them according to his will”. (Etym. Latin humilitas, abasement, humility, from humus [St. Thomas Aquinas], ground.)

As “teachers/Rabbi, father and mothers, ‘masters’ and more—we are called to be in right relationship with God and all with whom we interact. To be in right relationship with God means to understand that God is the Creator and that we are the created; that our gifts and talents come to us from God the Crea-tor, and are meant not for our self-magnificence or benefit, but for the good, or excellence, of all.

To then use our gifts and talents in right relationship we cannot lord our gifts and talents over another. We cannot use them to make others feel less of a person or inferior but rather use them for their good. In teaching, in protecting, in par-enting and in leadership at the collective level (in the public are-na), we are called to dispense such magnificence equally and for the building up of the common good. We cannot and must not enact laws for one group of people and not abide by them our-selves; we cannot boast a good for one group, and exempt anoth-er. In the eyes of God we are all equal, for God Himself spoke thus: “Then God said: Let us make* human beings in our image, after our likeness,” (Gen. 1:26) for there is no difference in the One God, whose divine image and likeness we all share. In this understanding of God and His Love, we can clearly hear today’s Gospel’s singular theme: “For they preach but they do not practice.”

Many Catholic priests carry the title “Pastor” (The parish priest or pastor is the priest that many Catholics are most familiar with. He is appointed by the diocesan bishop to a particular parish and has the duty to exercise the pastoral care of that community)and more specifically comes to us from the word “pastoral” (“Pastoral theolo-gy” includes everything connected with the priestly ministry to the faithful; it is a practical science which tries to apply the revealed truths of our faith, and the directives of the Magisterium, to the problems of daily living. Thus, the pastoral priest, according to this understanding, is a practical man who in-structs and helps his people lead a fully Christian life so that they can finally attain eternal salvation). Unlike the Pharisees, the pastor is meant to apply the laws of the faith with pastoral care. While one does not deviate from the truths which we all seek—and are all called to seek—we also understand that each and every circumstance is different and while we all walk the same road to heaven, our jour-neys are different. While the Truth cannot change, we care for people where they are and seek to call all back to the Truth of Christ. This is always done with love and compassion which we see as the fundamentals of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Perhaps it is easier to state it as: being authentic is to practice what you preach!

Source: CatholicCulture.org and Pastoral Review.