23 August 2025 - Saturday of the 20th week of Ordinary Time

Ruth 2:1-3, 8-11; 4:13-17; Matthew 23:1-12

HOMILY

Jesus' main and most absolute statement in this Gospel is: ‘You have only one Father, the one in heaven.’ It follows that anyone who exercises fatherhood or motherhood in the family, society or the Church, exercises that of God, of whom they are the representative or vicar. Once this is clearly recognized, everything falls into place. The Christian community, no more than any other human society, can be an amorphous group without structure. Because of the social nature of human beings, the community is made up of a set of relationships, and these relationships are linked to the various services that the members of the community render to one another.

What is problematic is not the names given to the various services and the titles given to those who perform them. These titles vary according to the sensibilities of each era and culture. What matters is the spirit in which these services are performed.

Throughout the Gospel, Jesus says clearly and repeatedly in many ways (see, for example, the entire discourse in Matthew 18) that at the heart of His community are the little ones and the needy. If Jesus is so harsh towards the Pharisees, and has such harsh words for them, it is because they had established a type of community where they themselves were at the center and from where they imposed their will on the people in the name of God.

A community united in the same search for God respects its leaders and all those within it who have services to render, whatever their order, knowing that in doing so it respects itself. The problems stigmatized by Jesus' words in today's Gospel arise when those in charge consider that honors are due to them personally.

Since God alone is our father and mother, let us always strive, in all our fraternal relationships and in all the services we have to render within our community, to be mothers and fathers to one another.

Armand VEILLEUX