YOU IMPOSE ON PEOPLE BURDENS HARD TO CARRY

Gal 5,18-25; Ps 1; Lk 11,42-46
17 OCTOBER

Religion is always corrupt, when two substitutions are made: the tradition of men takes the place of the Law of God; the glory of men cancels and eliminates the glory of the Lord. This is what happened at the time of Jesus. Today we can say that true religion always corrupts itself when theology takes the place of the Gospel, of the Word and when the moral Law is replaced with the liturgy. In either case religion is corrupted because the means take the place of the end. Theology is service to the Word. The liturgy is a means to obtain every grace in view of full obedience to the Moral law. But there is a third corruption of true religion. It occurs when the thought of man enters into the Moral law and takes the place of the Holy Spirit, the only one that can illuminate the moral law according to the very pure truth set by Him in it. This third corruption is very frequent. It is the fruit of the first two corruptions: the corruption of theology and liturgy.

But understand this: there will be terrifying times in the last days. People will be self-centred and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as they make a pretence of religion but deny its power. Reject them. For some of these slip into homes and make captives of women weighed down by sins, led by various desires, always trying to learn but never able to reach a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so they also oppose the truth – people of depraved mind, unqualified in the faith. But they will not make further progress, for their foolishness will be plain to all, as it was with those two. You have followed my teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, persecutions that I endured. Yet from all these things the Lord delivered me. In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. But you, remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it, and that from infancy you have known (the) sacred scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work (2Tm 3,1-17).

Pharisees and scribes attest and reveal this third corruption of religion. They do not know the Moral law, the true one. They replaced themselves to the Holy Spirit. They are masters of double weight and double measure. A light measure and weight for them. An unbearable burden and measure for others. If they swallow a camel they do not commit any sin. If, by chance, others were to swallow a midge, they would be declared criminals before the Lord and men. When the corruption of the moral Law occurs, it is the sign that the rottenness governs the hearts.

Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honour in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces. Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.” Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.” And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.

Everyone is obliged to make every effort so that for his work and his words the true religion is always preserved in its purity. The salvation of man demands it. The glory of the Lord requires it. Charity for souls requires it.

Most Pure Mother, Angels and Saints ensure that no Christian corrupts true religion.