You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin,
and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity.
It is easy to let ourselves become distracted with lesser things so that we don't have to deal with the larger problems looming on the horizon. We probably do this in many ordinary ways, simply busying ourselves with a million little things to put off difficult things we'd prefer to avoid. But it is even more seductive when we're looking at our walk of faith. We can so busy ourselves about the minutiae that we blind ourselves to parts of our lives where we need to take action or to change and repent. What good is one more round of Lectio if is just filling our minds with something other than what God is saying. If our hearts are closed to the poor, and we use our rosary as a distraction rather than as a wedge to open them, what good will that do? These are good things, but they must be properly ordered.
But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.
We can become disordered in our approach to the faith. We can focus on things which seem spiritual to us, which make us seem spiritual to others, and neglect the ongoing process of transformation that is meant to go on inside of us.
You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,
but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup,
so that the outside also may be clean.
It isn't so much that anything that we are doing is necessarily wrong. It is more a matter of our intention, the reason for the priority we give things. We need Jesus to help us to properly order our lives from the inside out. Otherwise it is all too easy to hide from ourselves.
But who can discern his errors? Clear thou me from hidden faults (see Psalm 19:12).
We need to be well grounded in the teaching of the Church, from Scripture and Tradition.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm
and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught,
either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.
When we are rooted in the truth we will be less susceptible to self-deception or deception by others.
We ask you, brothers and sisters,
with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our assembling with him,
not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly
We have seen others who become so fixated with figuring out the signs of the coming of Jesus, of predicting the day and the hour, as to perhaps neglect more important matters. But this is just one example of where our curiosity untethered from revelation can lead us into idle speculation. We should indeed avoid any distractions "which promote speculations rather than the stewardship" (see First Timothy 1:4).
In short, we need to focus on what is important. And the Bible and the Church themselves show us what this is. We need to focus on judgment and mercy and fidelity. We need the fidelity to open ourselves and others to mercy, so that we may escape the judgment of sin. We need love of God and neighbor, both the spiritual and corporeal works of mercy. We need, above all, to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and let him order and provide for the lesser things as he so chooses.
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
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