Our Lord in his conversation with the Pharisees and the scribes this day seeks not to destroy
them but to bring them to an understanding for he would constantly strive to point out
to them that they were in error and so today he points out that if they persist in that
error then they will certainly suffer a woe but rather than take the correction of the
Lord himself the Pharisees and the scribes insist upon their position and the correctness
of it for nothing is more unpleasant to the proud than to have than to have error being
pointed out to them and particularly that they are dwelling in that error and so rather
than repent of their sins they often they often ratchet up the assault on the one who
seeks to correct them and so they would ultimately ratchet it up to the point where they were
inspired where they were where they would influence Pontius Pilate to deliver the Lord
to that most ignominious death but in doing so the Lord is never defeated and never conquered
indeed it will be his passion and death on the cross that will win for each and every
one of us the greatest opportunity and that is often good for us to reflect upon within
the mystical body of Christ for all that happened prior to the crucifixion of Christ was a leading
up to that sacrificial act of love by which by which our Lord truly shows his deep and
profound love for God his Father and his deep and profound love for fallen humanity and
his desire to reconcile fallen humanity to the love of Christ the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
And so we often must reflect that what was prefigured in signs and wonders is surpassed
by the reality that reality ultimately begins in earnest with the crucifixion and death
of our Christ and because of it all have the opportunity to repent and to repent in a most
extraordinary way for as St. Bonaventure will point out that we have no need to blame our
fallen parents Adam and Eve because what God has done is not to blame our fallen parents
but to give us even greater opportunity for more glory in heaven than our first parents
had before the fall and so we have and this is so as he points out because we have the
opportunity now to merit and so let us truly not imitate the Pharisees and the scribes
in today's gospel but let us truly repent let us truly know that the Lord came to tell
us that we were sinners and it is the admission of that fact that is ultimately the road to
which we gain God's mercy and so let us strive always to repent of our faults our failings
and our sins always knowing that we will ultimately come before the judgment of God and indeed
that is what the Lord is telling the Pharisees and the scribes today they pay no attention
to the judgment and to the love of God that is by not loving God they will be subject
to the to the judgment at the end of time and the particular judgment upon them.
They are passing from this life into life into life eternal and so let us truly strive
to always remember that in the end God will judge God will judge according to how much
we have loved him in this earth for those who have loved him despite their faults their
failings and their sins they will go to their eternal reward for those who have despised
the Lord which ultimately means not recognizing that they dwell in error and that they are
attached to their lives.
They will ultimately receive the judgment of eternal reprobation where they will be
sent to suffer the pains of hell for all eternity and so let us strive always and everywhere
to recall that our Lord allowed himself to be taken ultimately by the Pharisees and the
scribes to Pilate and sent by Pilate to Calvary because he did not despise neither the Pharisees
the scribes nor Pilate nor the whole of humanity.
But precisely because of his deep and profound love he was willing to be crucified to make
that reparation alone which was pleasing to the Father that reparation that was necessary
for the sins of humanity and so in his sacred humanity he truly repairs all things well
with the Father and gives us that greatest of all opportunities and so it is a wonderful
thing to be born.
After the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because it allows us to enter
into that mystery that mystery that will be present in humanity until the end of time
the mystery of Christ's love for mankind that mystery that also allows us to remain free
to respond to that love and so let us constantly strive when we have fallen to pick ourselves
up.
Let us take ourselves of the mysteries of the Lord that is the sacrament of confession
and then continue to put our hands to the plow going forward always knowing that we
serve a good God we serve a merciful God but that good and merciful God will one day be
our eternal judge.
Let us pray that he may find all of humanity fulfilling that precept by which they truly
do not have to fear the judgment of God because they have loved him and they have loved him
in this life and we'll enjoy him for all eternity in the life to come.
Amen.
Amen.
to bear and trees to be.