Joke: A man was driving down the street in a lather because he had an important meeting and couldn’t find a parking space. Looking up to heaven, he said, “Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking space, I promise to go to Church every Sunday for the rest of my life and give up swearing.” Miraculously, a spot opened right in front of the building. The man looked up and said, “Never mind, I found one.”

Last weekend, Jesus rebuked Peter saying, “Get behind me Satan,” because his thinking was not God’s thinking. Today, he taught his disciples and every one of us a new way of life. What is his new way of life? Have we ever put on ourselves a new life of Christ every time we profess ourselves that we are Christians, the followers of Christ? What is a new way of life in Christ? The Church puts together all of today’s readings to help us to reflect on these questions.

In today’s first reading, the author of the book of Wisdom describes the just one, the righteousness, as the one who “sets himself against [people’s] doings, reproaches [them] for transgressions of the law and charges [them] with violations of [their] training.” They said one thing, but they did others. No doubt that Jesus said to the people, do not do what the scribes and the Pharisees doing, but follow what they teach. They taught people God’s laws and commandments on one hand, but they oppressed the widows and the infants on the other. They taught people God’s laws and commandments, but they neglected the poor and the sick. They placed themselves on the honor seats of the synagogue, but they placed burdens on others. Make no mistake when Matthew reported in his writing the teaching of the Lord Jesus towards the Scribes and the Pharisees saying, “Do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice” (Mt 23:3). Is it a story of more than two thousand years? Or is it a story of our time as well? Have you and I ever said one thing, then do something else opposite to what we said?

When the communists took over the country of Vietnam in 1975, they oppressed people. Vietnam officially named the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Independence-Freedom-Happiness. Was there freedom when the government took away what belonged to the people, and they empty promised with their words to return? Were there happiness when the government took away people’s properties with their force, and when they returned, they returned not what they took, but very little value of what they took? Was there such independence that many people died during their escape because of the oppression from the government? The government said one thing and did the others so badly that there was a saying, “Do not believe in what communists say but believe in what they do.” They said good things and promised many good deeds, but they delivered with an empty show. Perhaps, they followed what the scribes and the Pharisees did to the people of Israel that the Lord time after time continuously condemned their rotten hearts filled with evil desires.

We are living in this blessed land. Has the way of life of the scribe and the Pharisees still occurred in our modern day? People mistreat others with unkind words and unkind deeds. Some doctors use the name of mercy and compassion to help a patient end his or her suffering from illness and sickness by injection to allow the person to die quietly. On the dollar bill inscribed In God We Trust, but we allow abortion which God never allows. We use the name of the individual right of a person to take away a life that has no chance to defend his or her right when he or she is still in the womb of the mother. The question is: What caused them, the Pharisees and the Scribes and all those who said one thing but did something else?

It is the jealousy and the selfish ambition that Saint James puts it so well in today’s second reading saying, “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there [are] disorder and every foul practice.” The scribes and the Pharisees didn’t want to lose their seats in the synagogue and the seats of honor that they willed to teach people one way and to do another. Their selfishness earned their seats of honor in the synagogue but cost them the words of condemnation from the Lord Jesus saying, “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees” repeated several times from the mouth of the Lord Jesus towards the Pharisees and the Scribes to condemn them of their false practices. Their jealousy and selfishness blocked their mind, their heart, and their soul from listening to Jesus to change their way of life. Is it a story of more than two thousand years ago? Or is it a story of all times when we allow jealousy and selfish dominate and direct our lives? How would we overcome the jealousy and the selfish ambition? Practicing what are constancy and sincerity of what Saint James said, “Peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits,” might then help us overcome what is jealousy and selfishness. Saint James also powerfully reminded us that we can only sow peace when we cultivate peace. We cannot sow peace when we do not cultivate peace, nor do we say one thing and do the other. So, how would we live a truthful life both in our words and in our deeds?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus taught his disciples and to every one of us a new way of life to overcome what is called jealousy and selfishness by a single act of humility. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” How did Jesus demonstrate what he taught his disciples? He called his disciples friends. He sat at the same table with his disciples, and he even washed his disciples’ feet as a servant. He gave up himself to the soldiers for the safety of his disciples. He allowed his disciples to sleep, while he was alone praying. He took sorrow and pain alone on himself to be nailed on the cross, while he allowed his disciples to plea from being captured. He prayed to God the Father to protect his disciples, while Jesus himself was completely obedient to God the Father even at the point of death on the cross.

Have you and I ever been jealous and selfish with anyone? What caused us to be jealous and selfish towards others? How would you and I understand the word humility? Placing a child amid his disciples, Jesus said, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.” Humility to acknowledge the need for one another regardless of rich or poor, good or bad, holy or not, authority or not, clergy or layperson. When we do something for a rich person or someone with high respect in society, we might do it out of selfishness. However, if we do something good for a poor or a neglected person in society, we might do it not because of selfishness but because of humility. How would you overcome jealousy and selfishness? Have you tried humility? The decision is yours.