Jesus is often depicted in contemporary times as a mild and meek philosopher-hippie, focused on loving his neighbor. This passage demonstrates the gaps in that picture.

In this Gospel, the love of Jesus is expressed in a condemnation of hypocrisy, and an insult of clothing choice. The scribes and Pharisees are widening their phylacteries and lengthening their tassels, the Gospel tells us. What does this mean? Jewish prescriptions at the time required that during prayer, small boxes containing parchments on which verses of scripture were written be worn on the left forearm and the forehead. Similarly, the law prescribed that tassels be worn on the corners of one’s garment as a reminder to keep the commandments. While we have no record of Jesus wearing the phylactery, we hear once of the tassel on his garments, when the woman with the hemorrhage in Matthew 9 touches them to gain healing. This clothing was personally familiar to him. However, if the Scribes and Pharisees were wearing large or wide phylacteries and lengthening their tassels, they were attempting to peacock their piety to others. “Look at how seriously I take my prayer!” they were saying. “Look at how faithful I am!”

While this critique from Jesus should obviously make us second-guess our public bemoaning of Lenten sacrifices or practices to friends, it might still lead us to further insight. The temptation to display Catholic holiness and piety is probably not a bridge we encounter frequently. However, in our daily actions, how often do we seek to prove our intelligence to others? How often do we seek to be the funniest or the most knowledgeable in the room? At an institution like Yale, how often do we seek to reassure ourselves that we are important enough or successful enough, compared to others? These impulses to prove our personal worth and value usually emerge from the fear that we are incompetent or unworthy, in some way. Today, let us seek to remember that our worth is wired into us; our successes and failures, no matter how drastic, will never take away this worth. Let us set down the practices and thoughts that build up our pride, turning us inward when we should be constantly turning outward to God and others.