This morning’s Gospel reading is Matthew 23:1–12:

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.”

The peace of Christ be with you. But what is “peace,” in the sense Jesus means or the scriptures teach?

Our responsorial today from Psalm 131 offers us a definition, or at least a glimpse into its meaning. In the translation from the lectionary, we are called to respond, “In you, Lord, I have found my peace,” and then the psalmist (David) describes what that means for us.

I busy not myself with great things, nor with things too sublime for me. Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted my soul like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap, so is my soul within me.

The Ignatian Bible translation offer a more prosaic description, one which matches the mood of the Gospel passage:

I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother’s breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul.

What does this tell us about true peace? It provides us a path to both truth and the nature of peace, which can be found in accepting our right relationship with the Lord. Only by acknowledging His authority and fathership, and putting our trust in His judgment rather than our own, can we find true peace within us.

The Psalm itself gives us the alternatives — obsession over “great things … too sublime for me.” This speaks to attempts to wield authority over matters outside our jurisdiction or comprehension, which then leads to the anxieties and errors of attempting to claim such authorities and competences. This is precisely what happened in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve became convinced that they were the Lord’s equal in authority and judgment, and asserted themselves to seize control of God’s creation.

The Lord also warns about this in our first reading from Malachi. Almost at the beginning of this book, the prophet issues this warning to the priests that have rejected the Lord’s law in favor of their own judgments:

And now, O priests, this commandment is for you: If you do not listen, if you do not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts, I will send a curse upon you and of your blessing I will make a curse. You have turned aside from the way, and have caused many to falter by your instruction; you have made void the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts. I, therefore, have made you contemptible and base before all the people, since you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your decisions. Have we not all the one father? Has not the one God created us? Why then do we break faith with one another, violating the covenant of our fathers?

Needless to say, this story repeats itself all throughout the salvation arc in the Bible. The Lord grants the Israelites and then the Judeans authority to act as nations of priests and prophets, only to have the nations and the people within them decide to assert their own judgments over His.

And what happens when they do? The people who assert the authority over “things … too sublime” for them have to find ways to convince others that they have the competence for such matters. That inevitably leads to self-exaltation, or perhaps self-exaltation comes of a piece with such arrogance. Ambitious leaders become more grand and quasi-regal, and often this works to convince many of their authority.

Jesus warns everyone of this in today’s Gospel passage, including the Pharisees, echoing both the Psalm and Malachi’s warning to the priestly class. He does not deny the actual authority granted to them as stewards of the Temple to proclaim the Law, but Jesus removes their other claims to authority, especially their pretensions to elite class. “You have but one teacher,” Jesus says, “and you are all brothers,” meaning without any claim to authority over each other. The priests of the temple have the stewardship of the Law, but only as its servants — and as servants to the Lord’s people.

Otherwise, they are exactly as we are — sinners on a journey to salvation. They are our brothers as children of God, with equal dignity to us, no more and no less.

This is why Jesus also warns about the performative nature of the Temple authorities of His time, as both an offense to that dignity and perhaps as a tell to their insecurity. It goes beyond the fact that “they preach but they do not practice,” as He warns. The scribes and Pharisees only do works that “are performed to be seen,” scoffing at them when outside of public view. That indicates that the scribes and Pharisees have sought power for power’s sake alone, not to serve the Lord or His community of the faithful. They are no longer humble stewards, but arrogant usurpers who use the performative works sheerly as manipulation.

This is not peace. This is distress and the arrogance that sin breeds. And even worse, it can mislead otherwise obedient people and lead them astray, which clearly concerns Jesus in this passage. That is why He advises them to cooperate with the Temple authorities to the extent necessary but to refrain from following them otherwise. Only the Lord deserves their loyalty and obedience, and no one who “exalts himself” should be trusted with any authority.

Peace and the performative are mutually exclusive. When one trusts in the Lord, there is no need for showy antics and pretensions to elite standing; those are antithetical to faith and trust. A true disciple of Christ relies on Him rather than the glamours of this world, natural and man-made. When we do that, we have stilled and quieted our souls, as the psalmist sings, and know that we can find Christ when we do.

The front-page image is “Christ Among the Pharisees” by Jacob Jordaens, c. 1660-70. Via Wikimedia Commons. 

“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature, looking at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.