Gospel Commentary: Birds of a Feather

By Fr. John Riley
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For thousands of years, man has watched them with admiration and envy, entranced by their soaring and singing. Bound to the dust from which he came, man longed from earliest history to follow them aloft; to ride the winds and "skip the sullied bonds of earth." Birds are a most fascinating family in the animal kingdom. Eagles seem the very personification of grace and nobility as they pierce the very heavens. Robins return yearly to proclaim the advent of spring. Our souls are lifted by the varied and mellifluous hymns of hundreds of other species which grace our days and seasons with their songs. But there is a dark side to this family. Lurking at the bottom of the food chain are the scavengers: crows, buzzards and vultures, who, like the serpent cursed in the shadow of Eden, "eat of the dust" all the days of their lives.

The human counterparts of these carrion eaters are the Pharisees who badgered Jesus Christ. In this week's Gospel, the Pharisees attack the disciples of Jesus when they attempt to gather a simple meal on the Sabbath. A man with a shriveled hand is cured before their eyes; the hypocrites overlook the healing and come even more to despise the One who worked the miracle. These men, as scholars and doctors of the Law, had the best intellectual preparation to recognize and receive the Messiah, but blinded by their pride and arrogance, they set themselves against the very God they claimed to worship.

The Pharisees stalked our Lord relentlessly throughout His public ministry — spying, but refusing to see Him … listening, but never hearing the meaning of His words. When Jesus of Nazareth failed to conform to their narrow, restrictive vision of the Kingdom of God, they joined forces with their avowed enemies (the Herodians) to form a united front of hatred as they sought the destruction of the Son of God. With other malevolent factions, they celebrated their victory on the Friday called "Good" … but their apparent triumph proved actually to be their undoing. The Resurrection of the Christ shattered their hopes, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit crushed their dark designs.

In our age little has changed. The spirit of the Pharisees lives on. At either extreme of the ecclesial spectrum, the modern day counterparts of the Herodians and the Pharisees rip and tear like their ancestors, attacking the very fabric of the Church they claim to love and serve. Screeching like mobs of crows, circling like buzzards, watching like vultures, these sad souls are hell-bent on having it "their way." They lead lambs astray with faulty catechesis, woo the secular media as allies, collect mistakes, log complaints, and attack the very persons our Savior has sent to serve them. Like their spiritual forebears, their efforts are doomed to fail.

Jesus promised that the "jaws of hell" would never prevail against His Church. He also made it quite clear that those who sought to follow Him faithfully would receive exactly the same treatment He endured. "Remember what I told you; no slave is better than His Master. They will harry you as they harried Me. They will respect your words as they respected Mine" (Jn 15:20). Why then would we be surprised when we encounter malice and adversity when we attempt to teach as Jesus did?

Birds of a Pharisaic feather may flock together, but we should be grateful, for the misbegotten efforts of their alliance can bear great fruit! When the modern day Herodians and Pharisees assail those who sincerely seek to be faithful sons and daughters of the Church, they are in fact strengthening the very Body they seek to destroy. Serving as unwitting enablers (like Caiaphas, Annas and Pilate) they fail to recognize that Holy Mother Church and Her faithful children have always been strengthened by suffering and have thrived on persecution.

What of the work which remains for those of us who would be faithful to the Catholic Church, our Mother and Teacher? We must be willing to forgive and pray for the confused agents of the various factions who attack us, and then rejoice and be glad — because we are in find company whenever we are "found worthy to suffer for the sake of the Name."

Fr. Riley is parochial vicar at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Warrenton and professor of Sacred Scripture at Christendom College in Front Royal.

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