Foreign the Gospel for the memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor of the church, is taken from Matthew 5th, chapter 2026. Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you, unless your righteousness surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, and you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, you shall not kill, and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. And whoever says to his brother Raqa will be answerable to the Sanhedrin.

And whoever says, you fool, will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there recall that your brother has anything against you. Leave your gift there at the altar. Go first and be reconciled with your brother and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, the judge will hand you over to the guard and and you will be thrown into prison.

Amen. I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny. The Pharisees were noted for following the letter of the law, but their hearts were not where God wanted them to be. What this passage is pointing out is that we are called to always look deeply into who we are in relationship to those around us. Do we judge them? Do we criticize them?

Do we call them stupid or foolish? It may not seem like such an important thing, but when you look at it, what it reveals is that we do what we’re told, but we aren’t becoming what we’re called to be. We are called together to come to an altar and to invite God to enter into us and to be a source of love and forgiveness. Please ponder this reflection and I will close with a prayer. Father, reveal to us how we treat each other. Make us more sensitive to our comments and our criticisms so we can be aware of how easy it is to fall into a trap of a kind of righteousness about people who aren’t what they’re supposed to be.

Make us loving, forgiving human beings. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.