A Reliable Tour Guide

Gospel: Matthew 23: 1-12

Anyone who has traveled abroad knows how important it is to have a reliable tour guide, someone who can help us navigate in a place unfamiliar to us.  This guide provides helpful suggestions for sightseeing, restaurants, and places to buy souvenirs or specialty items.  A good tour guide knows the needs of her tourists and provides for them with exceptional care.  

In today's Gospel Jesus is that tour guide for us pilgrims here on earth.  He points out to us what we should follow and what we should avoid, reminding us that God alone is our father and teacher, God alone is our reliable guide through life.  Jesus provides for us a sure and certain method of discernment in being able to hear God's voice and to follow it throughout our lives.  

For God's voice is a simple one: it is a call to love.  It is an invitation to accept the mercy God extends to us by repenting of our sins, and it is an exhortation to be an extension of God's mercy in the world by being merciful to others by forgiving others and providing for their needs.  It is imitating the example of God in the person of Jesus, for all other teachers and all other examples will fail us.