Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,
“The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people’s shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,
greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’
As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called ‘Master’;
you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” MT 23:1-12
There is obvious conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees in today’s Gospel. Why? Jesus is God, who empties Himself to be a slave and die for us. If we are to follow Him, we cannot be boastful. We must strive to be humble, practice what we preach, and always give God His due as the one Father and Christ our Master Teacher. If we hold high positions, we are called to serve.
I am humbled every day as a teacher and father making mistakes, being called out on not practicing what I preach, and sometimes bragging a little bit-okay a lot:). I love to talk trash, something that has stuck with me playing sports. Jesus knows we will struggle with these things and from time to time be a Pharisee, but with His grace we can be transformed into humble servants who love the one Father and Master and in turn love our neighbor.
Today’s challenge: Be humble and thankful. Get out of the way and allow Christ to work in your life. Enter each room asking how you can help. When you achieve something, give glory to God. Find a good model of humility in your life. Learn from God, the most humble.
Priests just read the gospel before every mass so that when they say their homilies they can tell what the gospel was about
I think that this reading is trying to tell us that we need to back up what we say. We should go around telling everyone how to shoot a three pointer, if you cannot shoot a three pointer. This is exactly what Jesus said the Pharisees were doing and we shouldn’t. There is nothing wrong with guiding people in their faith and trying to get them to Heaven, but we shouldn’t be teaching people how to get to heaven when we do not always know how.
I think today’s scripture passage is trying to tell us that we should not do things just for others to see. You could act religious and pray around others, but not practice your faith by yourself. We need to pray and do things for God, not just to be seen, but to build a stronger relationship with him.
I think it was saying that if you are not willing to do what you preach why are you preaching. Jesus did what he said always and he always fulfilled his promises.
God is telling me that I need to be more humble. We all judge people and make fun of them behind there backs. We never really think much of it but what is one day you hear someone talking trash about you. You might not do anything so you just go on with your day. If you don’t day anything about that then that person is not going to learn to be humble. So we all need to stand up for each other so we can all learn to be humble.
A phrase that stuck out to me was Call no one on earth your father you have but one Father in heaven Do not be called Master you have but one master, the Christ. I like this phrase because it has meaning that we do not call our earthly brother and sister father or master. It also says to me that he loves his father more than we could love our earthly things.
The reason Jesus says to not be like the Pharisees is because they are hypocrites. They seem to set a good example in their prayer but they don’t do anything to actually live their faith. They make it seem like they are good examples, but they only do it to appear that way so people will think highly of them. Jesus shows us this when He says, “For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them”.
Some people will listen, but not do as the faith says. As for show it to make them appear better to others. That’s not what the faith is about. We must listen, say, and DO.
Today’s scripture reflection means a lot to us. Most of us can relate to us. The meaning I got from this today is that we need to be willing to give ourselves away. Our lives are meant to be given away. For example we go to Mass, but do we actually take it in or do we just rush through it to get to something we think is funnier. We need to practice during Lent to actually slow down and prepare for our Jesus resurrected not just rushing through the stations because we have to go to them during school. We need to give ourselves away before asking to receive things. For example, we shouldn’t get Jesus if we truly don’t want him and are going to use him in the wrong way. During this time of Lent try to take in everything slower instead of just going through the motions.
I think this scripture tells of how there is only one true God. We are called to spread the Word and follow in his example. If we follow Him that means we serve Him too. Serve Him to spread kindness and love to others and to reach Heaven.
I’m not really sure how to interpret this Gospel, but it speaks to me in this way: God wants us to be the servant for others, not the master over slaves. He wants us to serve others, and help those in need.
Jesus tells us to practice what we preach. The sufferings we suffer for Christ will be rewarded in heaven. We have to keep our eyes on God and not let other things get us off track.
I think this scripture is saying that we must still serve God even if nobody is watching. Small acts of kindness can have a big impact on ones life. We can’t be selfish and be holy when someone see you. We must always love and praise God even when you think nobody sees you, because God sees everything.
What the scripture is saying to me is that we should not treat other things the same way we treat God and also shouldn’t call anything that would be remarkably close to the name of God.
One of my favorite prayers is the Serenity prayer, which talks about accepting what we can’t change, changing what we can, and having the wisdom to know the difference between them. We have to know what is right and wrong and follow the right acts. Jesus talks about how we shouldn’t do what the Pharisees do, but rely on the one master. I think Jesus also talks about being humble, which is what he said the Pharisees were not. “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” There will be a great reward in heaven for those who do the Father’s will.
What stood out to me was, ” If we hold high positions, we are called to serve.” It means that if we have faith so strong we will serve God. By being a nun, priest, brother, or sister.
Why would we teach something but not do it ourselves. We have to practice our faith to be all in it.
We shouldn’t give our works or make excuses for ourselves for not doing the right thing, or what we need. We all have our humanly works, but we also have our vocation and the work God has called you to do. We need to do what we are asked. Not delegate it off like the scribes and the pharisees and never do anything good. Making excuses, delegating, and procrastination is not practicing what we preach. We shouldn’t put off what can be done today to tomorrow because you don’t know the circumstance of tomorrow. Do what is right, when it is right, and don’t gloat about it.
I think the scripture is saying that whoever is the lowest on earth will be the greater in heaven. For suffering their suffering isn’t for show and is actual burdens in their life. Whoever pretends that they have the same burdens and miserable and pretends to do things they are not will be punished.
“You have but one master the Christ.” This verse stands out to me because we are on this earth not to serve ourselves but to serve God. A saying I like to say during prayer is “I am God’s tool and he is the carpenter.” We are meant to love knowing e and serve God. More often we should work on serving God.
This Gospel tells us that we should do what we preach. Jesus also tells us not to call anyone our rabbi, father, and master because we have one in heaven already.
We need to truly believe something in order to preach so if we don’t believe, why are we preaching? Just to go to heaven? We need to actually do it but not for others, but ourselves.
I feel this passage is saying we can never be greater than God. He will always be greater than us in any way. We can all become better version of ourselves, but never be greater than God.
I think Jesus is trying to tell me that if we preach and spread the Word of God, but don’t actually listen to the Word of God then what’s the point? We need to believe in our faith ourselves, before we teach other people to believe.
I think Scripture is telling us that we are all the same. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. God created all of us in his image and likeness. We are all humans who sin.
In today’s gospel I liked the line “They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them.” It reminds me of a passage in a book about men carrying stones and people getting out of the way, not for respect of the man, but because they do not want to get crushed by his burden, but none of the people go to help the man because as much as they wish not to be crushed, they also don’t want to have to burden themselves. The Pharisees (and us sometimes), are a lot like those bystanders, the issue the command but they do not wish to do the deed they have assigned themselves.
Today, Jesus is telling us that we have to work if we ever want to reach Heaven. We have to carry our burdens if we want to be holy, we cannot give our burdens to others so that we don’t have to work
It’s so easy to put others to shame for things they’re doing wrong in their faith, but most of the time I do it too. I act so holy but I’m weak in my faith and we’re all sinners. With some people I’m so quick to judge but I need to realize that it’s easier said than done. It’s hard to break a habit once you’ve convinced yourself it’s normal. Just because sinning is normal it doesn’t make it OK and I need to start making more of an effort to get to confession more often.
In today’s Gospel Jesus tells the people do do what the Pharisees tell them to, but do not follow their example. This is also one of the many time the the Pharisees are proven to be hypocrites. As for us, it is better that we do things like praying and fasting without drawing attention to ourselves because it doesn’t matter what other people see when they look at us, it only matters what God sees.
We have to practice our faith so we can be good Catholics and be followers of Christ just so we can be with God in Heaven for the eternal reward.
what im getting from this is that why are you giving advice to other people and not taking your own advice sometimes
what im getting from this is that why are you giving advice to other people and not taking your own advice sometimes. If you are going to tell other people to pray and worship Jesus then do the same thing you are tell other people.
Honestly, with social media and high standards everywhere, we’ll find that if we meet them then we’re better than others. This may not be true for all, but it is for many. But the thing is, we should never put ourselves over another. We should also not only be humble when others are around, but instead always be humble no matter what.
“Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Jesus teaches us that we should not put ourselves above other people. We have one master, greater than every one on Earth. We should strive to be like him and to do his bidding. By putting ourselves above others, we are putting ourselves above Jesus. In order to find true JOY, you put Jesus first, Others second, and Yourself last.
We shouldn’t just pray to pray. We should pray to build our own personal connection with God. To trust him fully. To be able to realize, that he loves us.
I think Jesus is saying that we do not need other leaders other than himself. Jesus guides us in our faith, and in what we do.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, Jesus talks about how the Pharisees tell others how to be holy but do not do what they tell others to do.
You may do what you are told to do but will you do it on your own. We have to practice praying and learning more about Jesus so we can tell people about the things he did.
This “For they preach but they do not practice.” stuck out to me because it made me remember that actions speak louder then words. I think that i thought of this because of what He said, “For they preach but they do not practice.” It shows that we can just do the motion but that doesn’t mean anything if your hearts not in it.
I think the scripture is telling us that we can still follow a Jesus even if no one is watching. But, in order to follow Him we have to have a sense of humility and grace.
We shouldn’t let our faith become a way to flex on other people. We shouldn’t do it just for show, or just to look good. We need to actually have faith. If we don’t, we will stand at the gates of heaven and Jesus will say “Depart from me for I never knew you”. We must not create a facade, instead of doing it to look good, we should spear the Word to all.
This scripture is telling me that we need to follow the true divine beings. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. We do not need to call people master or Rabbi when the one we should be saying that to is Christ.
In this Gospel Jesus is saying don’t be called Master because their is only One Master in the world and that is Jesus. He also said don’t be called Rabbi because their is only One Rabbi and that’s HIM.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. To be humbled is to work in silence to do your kindness in silence. If you try and show your humbleness and talk about your humbleness that exalts yourself.
In this scripture, it tells us that whatever meets the eye may not seem the same. We should not be tempted or distracted by the false teachings that are shown to the world that makes the world vulnerable, publicly, and shown on social media.
But do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. i think personally that nowadays we are the opposite we practice but do not preach. we need to preach to the crowds and get them to practice and preach to more people. that’s how the word of god is spread.
Work and Practice. WORK AND PRACTICE! If you don’t, life almost has no meaning. Get those two down!
This scripture is teaching us that you can not just pray to God there is so much more you need to do than just go to church.
He’s telling us not to make other people do the work that you need to do. Whoever humbles themselves and serves others will have great favor in the Lord.
We need to not be hypocrites like the Pharisies. They preached but didn’t practice. This applies to all areas in our lives. What good is a math teacher who can’t do math or a gym teacher who can’t do a push-up. You need to practice what you preach. Don’t tell others to stop sinning until you yourself have stopped. Then, and only then, can you tell others to do something you have gotten over.
What this scripture reflection says to me is that we all need to try to only worship one thing. Because if we let other things take over our lives, then what left do we have to give to Jesus. Because if we let video games, or social media take over our lives, then we won’t be able to go to heaven.
I think this Gospel is saying we need to do our own things. We can’t just rely on others to do things for us. We need to do our own work so we can get ourselves to Heaven.
Today’s Scripture passage is saying that we should be humble no matter what we possess in life. God is the one true Father and Master and we should listen to Him always. We should give thanks and praise Him. By practicing what we preach we will grow closer to God.
The gospel is telling me not to honor anyone else other then Jesus. And we should pray to honor the Lord.
The gospel was talking about the hypocrites of the pharisees. If you don ´ t know how to do something don ´ t teach it. If you don ´ t know how to talk properly don ´ t teach grammar. Or if you aren´t good at math and did bad in school don´t teach your skills that you did bad on to others because the bad skills that you had could pass on then those kids would be bad at the subject you teached.
I think this passage wants us to be able to back up and show what we preach. Just like Jesus did.
Everyone wants power. To be in control of your life is one of the best things for any of us to achieve. Although we struggle for power. Instead we are taken over by this sin and suffering and we don’t know how to get our lives back. God is waiting for us to give him our sin, our suffering, our hatred, our brokenness. He wants to take the burden off of you if we just let him take control. We struggle for power so much and maybe it’s because we are not supposed to be in control over our lives. Maybe we are supposed to let God be in power, and take over our lives so he can do great things with us.
The ones who preach but do not practice are hypocrites. This, I am guilty of myself. However, we need to turn to God when we are going through tough times, love him with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. God’s love is infinite and if we turn to him, we will all be filled with his grace, joy, love and compassion.
The scripture is telling us we need to do more than just pray to God. Getting to Heaven is a lot harder than just praying and going to church.
The Pharisees are hypocrites, they told everybody that they needed to pray but they themselves did not pray. Jesus has told us that we can throw the first stone if we are sinless. But none of us humans are, and we need prayer.
The Pharisees put them up above people and don’t think about others because they don’t have God. I think that we need to be more loving and less like the Pharisees and more like Christ.
In this scripture this sounds like one of those really confusing things that Jesus would say in the bible about doing something but not doing something but I think that the Pharisises will do good things in front of people but once there off stage they will do bad things in their free time.
To me this means that we should be preaching the way of God and not just sit around on our electronics like our phones. We should be telling our non catholic friends all the great things about God and all the stories about him.
in todays Scripture Jesus wants us to spread the word of God
This is telling me that I need to pray, if I pray then it will help me get to Heaven. I understand that getting to Heaven is a lot more then prating. But when you pray it’s one little step to getting there and you have to work on one thing at a time.
Today’s Scripture is telling us we need to do more than just pray to God. Getting to Heaven is a lot harder than just praying and going to church.
I think that this passage states that we shouldn’t call attention to our good deeds. Good deeds are meant to have a greater impact on those that we do them for, not for us to gain from our good deed. Instead, do your good deeds in secret, anonymously.
“For they preach but they do not practice.” this is what Jesus said today. I think about it like, we have school and religion class and we talk about God. We say things about God. We pray to God. but when we go home we go back to your phones, iPad, video games. We do not practice our faith.
Scrolling around and social media there can be a lot of false teachings, so instead you can read the Bible and read and see the real teachings of God because after all the Bible is the word of the Lord.
I think that this reading is trying to tell us that technology is a great tool but that we should not let it control us. It is great for helping us with things but they should not control us.
I think this scripture is trying to tell us to be thankful for what we have, especially for what God has given us. Showing gratitude is an act of love and appreciation. If we make being grateful without complaining a regular thing that we do, we can make it a virtue.
“Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven”. We only have one God. Christ is King and we have to worship only him. If we worship one else, it is a sin.
I think this is saying that we need to practice our faith, while preaching it. God wants us to spread the word, but if we do not read scripture, what do we preach?