<\/p>\n
Things are not always what they appear.\u00a0 And so, we should be very careful before we make judgments based on appearance.\u00a0 Both of our readings make this point.<\/p>\n
In the first reading, Timothy, who is a young disciple of St. Paul, writes this letter because some of the folks he evangelized have been influenced by older and self-proclaimed \u201cwiser\u201d teachers.\u00a0 But these older teachers were Judaizers, meaning they were trying to convince the Gentiles that Christians must also follow all of the Mosaic dietary laws.\u00a0 The problem with that, as St. Paul taught and passed on to the younger Timothy, was that it diluted the meaning of Christianity, a movement of the heart towards God.\u00a0 The Judaizers preached mandatory compliance with the burdensome requirements of the traditional Mosaic Law above everything, thereby placing the emphasis on the completely wrong place, simply behaving so that you did not cross the line rather than moving your heart towards God.\u00a0 These Judaizers tried to undermine Timothy by harping on his youth.\u00a0 But things were not at all what they seemed.\u00a0 Timothy, not the Judaizers, had it right.<\/p>\n
There is a similar message in the Gospel.\u00a0 The Pharisees, Simon in today\u2019s Gospel story included, held themselves above the rest of mankind because they were experts in keeping the letter of the Mosaic Law.\u00a0 But they didn\u2019t understand what real conversion was.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t recognize that real conversion was not the ever increasing ability to conform in external behavior; but rather converting in internal attitude, a conversion of the heart.\u00a0 And that conversion of the heart resulted in conformance with the spirit of the teachings of Jesus.\u00a0 The sinful woman repented of her sinfulness by faith in what she heard Jesus preach.\u00a0 She was so uplifted by that feeling in her heart that she was brimming full of love.\u00a0 And as a consequence of her conversion of the heart, her belief in Jesus, and her resolve to sin no more, she was moved to show that love in the public display we hear about today.\u00a0 This means she had already been forgiven by God before she performed this act of love and Faith!\u00a0 When we look at it this way, it is easier to see how her Faith saved her.\u00a0 So again, things were not what they seemed- the sinful woman had it right and the experts, the Pharisees, had it wrong.<\/p>\n
This lesson is something all of us need to learn in today\u2019s world because all of us are prone to be deceived by appearances.\u00a0 Just what is it that we admire, what is it that we copy, and what is it we emulate?\u00a0 Is it football, basketball and baseball athletes, \u201cDancing with the Stars\u201d and \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent\u201d entrants, celebrities and movie stars, and the Donald Trumps and Bill Gateses of the world?\u00a0 Or is it the Mother Theresas, Padre Pios, and John Paul IIs?<\/p>\n
We can ask a similar question a little closer to home.\u00a0 Where is it that appearances may be deceiving us about the role models we should be following in our lives?\u00a0 Chances are person may not display all of the glitter and charism of the popular people in our lives, but they may have it right, where the people we idolize don\u2019t.\u00a0 It may be an Aunt or a Grandparent or a Parent or a friend\u2019s relative.<\/p>\n
And so, I challenge all of you this morning to think about it.\u00a0 Who is it that you know that you want to be like?\u00a0 Don\u2019t let appearances deceive you, but rather, look for someone who follows Jesus in their heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time 1 Tim 4: 12-16; Luke 7: 36-50 Dc. Larry Brockman Things are not always what they appear.\u00a0 And so, we should be very careful before we make judgments based on appearance.\u00a0 Both of our readings make this point. In the first reading, Timothy, who is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[68,244],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":423,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions\/423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}