Today’s gospel starts the sort of anti-beatitudes. Instead of showing who will be blessed based on action and attitude, here we see who will receive woes instead of blessing. The scribes and Pharisees are called hypocrites. They try to appear holy, but they are the opposite. They are keeping themselves from heaven by their own actions, but even worse, they are taking others down with them.  They know their actions are wrong, but it’s not enough to keep themselves out of heaven, by pretending to be holy and to have authority they are keeping out others who want to enter the kingdom  of heaven. They are converting others to their misguidance, taking away those who could be faithful, keeping them from salvation and making them even worse than the hypocrites are. The hypocrites are instructing their converts to focus on the wrong things. They tell them that the gold is more important than the altar. Their logic is backwards – how can the gift be more important than the thing that makes it sacred? The point is God, not the stuff. God is what is sacred, God is what is important.

If we see the wrong way in the bad examples in the Gospel, we see the right way in the first reading and the Psalm. We ought to thank God always. We should tell of God’s good deeds, share true faith and encourage others toward the right path. We need to be worthy of the calling.

Woe to those who focus on the wrong things. Woe to those who take themselves away from God. More woe to those who try to take others away as well. But blessings will be on those who thank and praise God and who are faithful and lead others to the faith.