The Pharisees attached themselves to the Old Covenant, while Jesus was establishing the New Covenant. The Pharisees were religious separatists, while Jesus’ proclamation of God’s kingdom was open and inclusive, with God’s mercy and love for all. The Old Law stands in stark contrast to its fulfillment in the New Covenant: freedom in faith in Jesus Christ, who alone liberates us from sin and death.
Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Galatians 5:1-6
Psalm 119:41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48
Luke 11:37-41
At our OMG Retreat this summer, Bishop Barron reflected on the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. He asked the question early on, “Were the Pharisees bad guys?” And emphatically answered, “No! They spent their lives searching to know and obey God!”
By definition, a Pharisee is a member of a Jewish sect that emerged around 160 BC. They played a significant role in Jewish religious life during the Second Temple. They emerged in opposition to the Sadducees and advocated strict adherence to both written law and oral traditions. Their Influence significantly shaped post-Temple Judaism and helped develop many rabbinic traditions. They frequently appear in the New Testament, often in conflict with Jesus, highlighting their strict legalism. Why were the Pharisees so threatened by Jesus and His proclamation of God’s kingdom?
Although Pharisees were not Israel’s official teachers or leaders, they were popular and held great sway with the Jewish people. They were deeply concerned about the day's cultural and religious crisis. After all, they were living in a land occupied by pagans, the Romans! Thus, the Pharisees believed Israel must separate itself from all Gentile impurity and defilement, since only in this way will God rescue His people from the clutches of Rome!
The Pharisees’ quest for holiness and separation took many forms. First, they paid close attention to ritual purity, including elaborate purity requirements for priests (found in Lev 21-22), which served as a model for Jewish laypeople, and purity requirements in their homes. Second, they were very strict about circumcision, keeping the Sabbath holy, food laws, and tithing. All of these expressed Israel’s Covenant with God, which the Pharisees greatly stressed. Scrupulous observance of these laws proudly asserted their identity among Gentile neighbors.
This background information helps explain the clashes between the Pharisees and Jesus. The Pharisees attached themselves to the Old Covenant, while Jesus was establishing the New Covenant. The Pharisees were religious separatists, while Jesus’ proclamation of God’s kingdom was open and inclusive with God’s mercy and love for all.
I don’t want to leave Bishop Barron hanging on a limb defending the Pharisees; he went in depth on ego orientation and warned against Self-Righteousness, referring to the Pharisee. He also talked about the Tax collector’s humble plea for mercy, leading to the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” He continued, “This is a recommended spiritual practice, especially for those recognizing Pharisaical tendencies in themselves. Repeating this prayer can help recenter the ego center around God.”
This Jesus Prayer parallels perfectly with our Responsorial Psalm from Ps 119, when spoken humbly.
Let your mercy come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise.
Take not the word of truth from my mouth, for in your ordinances is my hope. (The next four verses depend-if spoken boastfully or humbly)
And I will keep your law continually, forever and ever.
And I will walk at liberty, because I seek your precepts.
And I will delight in your commands, which I love.
And I will lift up my hands to your commands and meditate on your statutes.
Our first reading this morning from Galatians was written by St Paul, a former devout Pharisee, and it begins by warning the Galatians and us, “to stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1). The “yoke of slavery” is referring to the Mosaic Law.
We should remember, as St. Thomas Aquinas stated in his Summa Theologiae, “The Law of Moses was divinely revealed and was something good. It suited the circumstances of the time. Christ came to bring this Law to perfection. All the elaborate legal and ritual prescriptions in the Mosaic Law were laid down by God for a specific stage in salvation history, that is, the stage which ended with the coming of Christ, Christians are under no obligation to follow the letter of that Law.”
Scholars believe Galatians was written during or after the Council of Jerusalem. The Council was convened in 49 AD to examine the status of Gentile believers entering the Christian Church. Some leaders insisted they must follow Jewish laws and be circumcised to complete their Christian initiation. The Council rejected adding circumcision to the saving grace of Christ.
This decisive break from strict Jewish law makes the Jerusalem Council the theological center of the Book of Acts: it shows that the Church is a Covenant community distinct from Judaism and a catholic (small “c” universal) community that embraces people of every nationality. St Paul states, “For I through the law died to the law…(now) I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose” (Gal 2:19, 20b-21).
In the Catholic Catechism, paragraph 1972, we read, “The New Law is a law of love because it makes us act out of the love infused by the Holy Spirit, rather than from fear; a law of grace, because it confers the strength of grace to act by means of Faith and the sacraments; a law of freedom, because it sets us free from the ritual and juridical observances of the Old Law.”
So what is St Paul trying to get across by saying, “if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you”? Jose Escriva, in the Navarre Bible, gives this explanation: “There is now not just a clear distinction but actual opposition between following Christ and the observance of the Old Law, with the result that if anyone tries to live by the Old Law only, he is cutting himself off from Christ. Baptism is the sacrament whereby we are inserted into Jesus Christ, becoming members of His body and branches of the vine (cf. Jn 15:5). If we cut ourselves off from Christ, the true vine and source of life, we cannot bear fruit. Nor can we do so by going back and submitting to the Old Law, for that Law is now out of date and no longer operates.”
In summary, the Old Law stands in stark contrast to its fulfillment in the New Covenant: the freedom of faith in Jesus Christ, who alone liberates us from sin and death. I thank God for the respected Pharisee Saul who knew and loved God, and I especially thank God for Saul’s conversion, resulting in St Paul’s zealous fervor following, preaching, teaching, and writing to guide us on the path of freedom to know and love Jesus Christ.
By the way, the Pharisees, as a sect, ended in 70 AD with the destruction of the Temple.