Saturday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 490

You cannot serve God and mammon.”
The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all these things and sneered at him. And he said to them, “You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.”

Sneering has proven to be an incredibly effective way to win arguments and support in today's political atmosphere. Politicians, newscasters, and influencers who attempt to speak reasonably to reasonable people are immediately assailed by derision and insult. Rendered powerless, they leave political offices and abandon public positions to the trolls. 

There is nothing new about the tactic. Shakespeare's Marc Antony sneers at the honorable Brutus and effectively cancels the support the conspirators had won for their assassination of Caesar, 

The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men--
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.

One could point to the power of sneering and make an effective argument against democracy. If the gullible public is so easily won over by cynical demagogues, they should not be allowed to vote. 

When Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson was running for president in the 1950s, a supporter purportedly said to him: "Every thinking person in America will be voting for you." Stevenson replied, "I'm afraid that won't do — I need a majority."

Many Christians, straying from the truth of the Church's Magisterium, believe that faith and knowledge are opposites, that they should ignore their reasonable heads and act from their impulsive hearts, i.e. by their feelings. They are given to falling in love with attractive people, crazes, fashions, and charming demagogues. Tragedies are written to depict these romantic fantasies. 

During the current controversy millions of people ignore the unanimous voices of science, preferring the opinions of paid influencers about Covid 19, guns, tobacco, and climate change. 

At one time, some moralists suggested lynching African-Americans might not be a "Mortal Sin" since individual members of the mob had been swayed by "peer pressure" to commit the unspeakable crime. I hope they've changed their minds since then. We are responsible for our decisions, regardless of so-called peer pressure, and the consequences will reecho for generations to come.

In today's gospel Jesus invokes faith, reason, and tradition against the Pharisees who loved money. Any thoughtful person could see that his greedy opponents loved "Mammon." His appeal to Wisdom cost his life. We pray that wiser heads prevail today against the sneering assailants.