I lived with a priest who went to see his doctor for his annual checkup and was told his cholesterol levels were way too high. His overweight doctor suggested that his problem might be helped if he shed a few pounds. The priest told me he bit his tongue rather than saying something witty like, "I will if you will." He told me he bit his tongue because he knew his doctor's advice was good and right, what he needed to do, and it really didn't matter whether or not the doctor followed his own advice.

Thomas Aquinas wrote: "Every truth, no matter who speaks it, is from the Holy Spirit." Sometimes we just need to separate the message from the messenger. In our gospel passage for today Jesus is harsh with the scribes and Pharisees because they did not practise what they preached. They were really good teachers of the Law, they knew it all forwards and backwards, but either they did not really understand it or they didn't really care about it because they themselves did not follow it, did not live it in their lives. They had memorized the laws, but had not learned them by heart. They had not laid it to their hearts. They did not understand that the laws are instructions which must be filtered by compassion and especially by love.