Multiply Your Love!

Seeking attention, a religious snob, who liked to appear full of virtue, once said to Mark Twain, “Before I die, to honor my religious traditions, I’m going to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I shall climb to the top of Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments aloud!” To which Twain replied, “I have a better idea! Why don’t you stay right at home and keep them?”

In today’s Gospel Lesson our attention is invited to a debate between Jesus and the Pharisees on some of the religious traditions of the time. Now, there is nothing wrong with being a traditionalist. Jesus was a traditionalist in His religious practices. He read the Scriptures. He worshipped and even preached in the synagogue. As a child, He had been circumcised and presented in the Temple, according to the Jewish Tradition. And yet, His fidelity to tradition was constantly being challenged by the Pharisees. In today’s Gospel Lesson, they are at it again.

As you know,…