“But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men, for yourselves do not enter in; and those that are going in, you suffer not to enter. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you devour the houses of widows, praying long prayers. For this shall you receive the greater judgment. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you go round about the sea and the land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, you make him the child of hell twofold more than yourselves.
Jesus then moves into the New Testament equivalent of the curses of the Law: “Cursed be he that abideth not in the words of this law, and fulfilleth them not in work” (Deuteronomy 27:26). When someone sins, particularly in keeping others from the love of God, it brings about God’s discipline, not for the sake of punishment, but as an attempt to pull the one far from God into His loving arms: “Convert us, O God: and shew us thy face, and we shall be saved” (Psalm 79:4). A father may have harsh words to bring a son back from harmful behavior, but does not desire them to actually meet with any punishment, but rather live a joyful, happy, love-filled life: “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Therefore, the “woe to you” is a crying out of the Sacred Heart for the most obstinate to crack the ice around their hearts and let themselves be warmed. The kingdom of heaven is a love-filled life, inspired by assiduous meditation on Sacred Scripture, therefore, to shut the door of the Scriptures is to keep people out of letting God speak to them: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). Without right interpretation, which the religious leaders were supposed to hold, it is impossible to enter, and so the scribes and Pharisees, falling into a moral rigorism rather than understanding the Father’s love, closed the hearts of those that were supposed to be opening like flowers in divine sunlight: “It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise” (Isaias 35:2). Though Scripture is difficult, when you interpret it correctly it is open to you, that you might understand the love that undergirds each passage and drink deeply of this love: “He brought me into the cellar of wine” (Canticle 2:4); “Drink, and be inebriated, my dearly beloved” (Canticle 5:1). Or, the scribes and Pharisees, deterring people from cleaving to Jesus: “I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9), kept not only themselves but others from the Bridegroom’s hands, that they may be enveloped in love. When you are drunk on love, Theophila, your radiance draws others into this same love: “Draw me: we will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments” (Canticle 1:3), but to walk around sad and angry, or continuing in sin, or enjoying other things more than the Beloved, this makes the gift of God’s love seem to others to be a bad gift: “Be thou an example of the faithful in word, in conversation, in love, in faith, in chastity” (1 Timothy 4:12). They are then rebuked for being a burden on the poor, gluttonously taking from the resources of widows, whom they are called to help: “Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation: and to keep one’s self unspotted from this world” (James 1:27). Women have a natural tendency to give, but they preyed upon this, taking advantage of those who give out of piety without the advice of a husband: “My son, do thou nothing without counsel, and thou shalt not repent when thou hast done” (Ecclesiasticus 32:24). Now, this was all done under the pretense of religious observance, which brings the greater condemnation, because to do evil is grave, but to put on the cloak of sanctity and use this for one’s own benefit is much more so. There is a difference between piety and being drunk on love; to do what is good is an excellent thing, but it is the better part to simply be filled with the beauty, wonder, and joy of His love, with what then follows coming naturally: “Thou shalt fill me with joy with thy countenance: at thy right hand are delights even to the end” (Psalm 15:11), and the increasing love of God will animate your spirit, letting you be of greater aid to others: “For you remember, brethren, our labour and toil: working night and day, lest we should be chargeable to any of you” (1 Thessalonians 2:9). It is then seen the difficulty they have in bringing people into their observances, laboring ceaselessly to bring even one into their fold, whereas love is inherently attractive: “Return, return, O Sulamitess: return, return that we may behold thee” (Canticle 6:12). Furthermore, this was not done to bring the person to salvation, or the happiness of the good life: “The just shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow up like the cedar of Libanus” (Psalm 91:13), but to increase their standing in the community, for it was a point of pride to have brought someone into the fold, whereas the love of St. Teresa of Avila converted 10,000 in one of her ardent prayers, which is not a pin of glory, but a point of rejoicing: “Thy children as olive plants, round about thy table” (Psalm 127:3). Now, a proselyte was a Gentile observing Jewish practice: “And the children of the strangers that adhere to the Lord, to worship him, and to love his name, to be his servants: every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and that holdeth fast my covenant: I will bring them into my holy mount, and will make them joyful in my house of prayer” (Isaias 56:6-7), which were very few. It is highlighted that good instruction can bring someone into following one’s footsteps, for all desire wisdom, but it is one thing to read the commandments, another to live them: “For if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, I have begotten you. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 4:15-16), and the Pharisees and scribes taught but did not live, therefore those that were pulled by their doctrine then imitated them in their actions. In addition, the affection of a spiritual father they neglected, treating their pupils coldly, rather than with the warmth that comes with bringing others to the truth: “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glory? Are not you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For you are our glory and joy?” (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). These pupils, then, not being born into Jewish custom but choosing it of their own free will, then break the commandments they had promised to follow, or return to their error: “As a dog that returneth to his vomit, so is the fool that repeateth his folly” (Proverbs 26:11). Thus, if by your love you beget spiritual children, treat them as precious, because they may not know how loved they are by God or others, but they will look to your affection and good example when they are little ones in Christ: “Purifying your souls in the obedience of charity, with a brotherly love, from a sincere heart love one another earnestly” (1 Peter 1:22).