Readings
I - Gen. 6: 5-8; 7: 1-5, 10
II - Mk. 8:14-21
FOLLOW THE LAW OF THE LORD: LOVE
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus cautions his disciples to be careful about the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. The leaven of the Pharisees and Herod made human living cumbersome and tiring. The leaven of the Pharisees was, the manipulated Law and the leaven of Herod was, the manipulated living. The Pharisees multiplied the law and weighed it upon simple people, leaving out its essence: Love. Herod was so cunning that Jesus himself called him a “Fox” (Lk. 13: 32). If the people were not shrewd they would fall a prey to the deceiving promulgations of Herod. Both made the simple living a complex and a complicated one.
The function of leaven is fermentation. If we are not careful it will spoil the entire dish. Today’s Gospel passage is a caution and an invitation to each one of us as well. A caution to be away from all that divides, confuses, corrupts and destroys and an invitation to keep aglow and alight the Law of the Lord: Love. Today the Church celebrates the feast of two brothers, St. Cyril and St. Methodius. They were Byzantine theologians and missionaries. They took the Gospel to the Slavs in their own slav vernaculars developing the alphabets and translating the Bible and the liturgical books. Ardent and convinced evangelizsers who proclaimed Christ against all odds. May these saints intercede us as our mind and heart resonate with the prayer: “Lord Jesus, give me the grace to be the witness of your love”
