In continuing His attack on Pharisaism, Jesus touches today on two issues not at all irrelevant to our Christian living.

First, He attacks the mentality of those who are sticklers for tiny details of ritual or doctrine while ignoring the fundamental issues of justice, compassion and good faith. There are certain Christians who speak and write at length about all the things that are not being done right in the Catholic Church. What is striking about these people is the almost total absence of a sense of love and compassion in their writings and actions. They are only interested in "truth" and "orthodoxy". But love and truth can never be separated.

The second point Jesus makes is to criticise those who concentrate on the tiniest details of external behaviour while totally ignoring the inner spirit. On the outside, the behaviour is impeccable but inside there is a total lack of a true Gospel spirit, the spirit of love and integrity, of compassion and a sense of justice for all. Instead, there can be a heart full of criticism, anger, resentment, contempt for those who do not think the same, all cloaked in this outer veneer of moral and ritual rectitude.

The two attitudes are closely related and I can ask how much of them are in me.