In the Opening Prayer for Mass this week, we ask God our Father to "help us to seek the values that will bring us enduring joy in this changing world".

Neither Paul in the first reading nor Jesus in the Gospel uses the word "value", yet they are speaking about value and enduring joy. Paul's life was guided by the supreme value of knowing Jesus as his Saviour and so he gave himself up to the work of preaching "God's good tidings". This was his enduring joy. He strove to live out this good news in uprightness, justice and in irreproachable conduct, showing how the true values of the Gospel had to become moral values, guiding all Christian conduct.

Jesus teaches us that there is no value in mere external behaviour, no matter how holy it may appear, unless there is a corresponding holiness of the heart and soul. There is no value either in dreaming of how things might have been "if we had lived in the time of our forefather". Because there is no value in such a false religiosity and useless nostalgia, there is no enduring joy to be derived from them.