Homily for March 15, 2022, Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent, Mt 23:1-12
A few days ago, I saw an old video of the visit of the Russian president Vladimir Putin to Pope Francis in the Vatican city in Rome. It was reported to have taken place on July 4, 2019. At some point during the encounter, the Russian president presented a gift to Pope Francis; it was a beautiful Russian Orthodox icon of the Blessed Mother with the child Jesus in her arms.
The Russian president handed it to the Pope and said, “This is my present for you.” The Pope said, “Thank you.” Then, as the Pope was looking at the icon, Putin asked him, “Do you like it?” The Pope said, “Yes. It’s beautiful.” Then, Putin did something that I think surprised even the Pope. He stooped down to plant a kiss on the icon, right on the spot of the Child Jesus in the arms of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Before that, I had just watched an earlier video of him, already at war with Ukraine, and threatening the NATO and the western countries not to get involved in his conflict with Ukraine or they would suffer the consequence. I had just seen the horrifying scenes of Russian soldiers following his orders to bomb Ukrainian cities, causing so much destruction, death and displacement on millions of refugees. I hear that he continues to enjoy the blessing of the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, nevertheless.
While watching the video, I found myself focusing attention on the lips of this leader asserting his power over another country. They were the same lips that had just kissed the icon of the Madonna and Child.
Today’s readings are very strong words of denunciation uttered by the lips of two prophets against the secular and religious leaders of their own times, respectively. The first is an oracle of judgment uttered by Isaiah, who denounces the secular leaders of Judah in his time, but addresses them as the “princes of Sodom and people of Gomorrah.”
We often think of these cities as places that had been punished in earlier times for sexual immoralities. But the prophet Isaiah does not seem to share in that tradition. All the accusations that he hurls against them have to do with social injustice. “Stop doing evil; learn to do good,” he says, “Make justice your aim, redress the wronged, hear the orphans’ plea, defend the widows.”
In the Gospel, Jesus is denouncing the Pharisees and scribes for what he regards as a disconnect between their expressions of faith, religiosity and piety, and their conduct in society. Jesus says quite a mouthful against them, mentioning how they “tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders but would not lift a finger to move them.” These leaders are the same people who are so strict and meticulous about fulfilling religious obligations, and who think that it is their strict observance of religious acts of piety that makes them more holy and more righteous in the sight of God.
Jesus summarizes his series of denunciations with an exhortation that says, “The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Isaiah ends his own oracle in more threatening way. He says, “If you refuse and resist, the SWORD shall consume you! He announced his prophetic oracle of doom on the kind of leaders who kiss religious icons with their lips but utter with the same lips WORDS that cause so much violence and destruction, so much suffering and death on their fellow human beings, WORDS that, in effect, blaspheme God who made human beings in his image and likeness.
The prophet’s final WORDS of warning to these arrogant power-wielders is, “The SWORD shall consume you.” Words-Sword, don’t you find it interesting that if you move the last letter of WORDS to take the place of the first letter, it becomes SWORD? He who blasphemes God’s WORDS will fall by the SWORD.
