THE WORD AND THE SAINT
October 15, 2025: Remember St. Teresa of Avila
Romans 2: 1-11, Luke 11: 42-46
Let us begins with an interesting episode narrated about the saint of the day - St. Teresa of Avila, who was fond of identifying herself as Sr. Teresa of Jesus. One day when she was about to climb the stairs within her convent, she found a small little boy playing on the steps. The boy asked her: "who are you?" She answered, "I am Sr. Teresa of Jesus. And who are you?" The boy retorted, "I am Jesus of Sr. Teresa" and disappeared! Yes, the Lord loves each of us in a unique and specific manner. But the Word today, has a different message to give:
God has no favourites, says the first reading and Jesus demonstrates that in the Gospel. Neither in being close and accompanying, nor in providing a sense of righteousness (corrections and directions), does God differentiate between persons. The differences arise only in the way we receive or not, what the Lord wishes to communicate to us. In none of these are we judged by God - we are judged by our own judgements! Judge not and you shall not be judged said Jesus. And we hear today, Paul saying its corollary: judge and you shall be judged too, with the same measure and rigour!
Jesus spared no one - whether it was the pharisees or the lawyers or the chief priests or Herod or Pilate - everyone got their share! As much as Jesus was compassionate with the sinners, the publicans and the samaritans, he was stern with the Pharisees and the Saducees - was it a bias? Certainly no! They were in no way judgements passed on those people, but they were an appeal to their conscience to change their ways towards righteousness. It was done with concern for their salvation.
Understanding the discourse between the religious bigwigs of his time and Jesus, we see there were two things involved: Righteousness that Jesus insisted so much upon; and the Self-righteousness that Jesus detested in them! The thin line between Righteousness and Self righteousness has to be trodden with diligent care.
Judgements arise from self righteousness, where I consider myself one-up and sit on the tribunal looking down on others. While righteousness makes one just and loving, non-judgemental and compassionate, humble and impartial, and above all, lovable! It is God's righteousness that makes God the most lovable of all persons we can think of. And the love that we have for God, challenges us to grow towards that same Righteousness, from our tendency to self-righteousness.
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