Dear Fathers, Friends in Christ,
James 1:12-18
Psalm 94:12-13a, 14-15, 18-19
Mark 8:14-21
Guard against the leaven of the Pharisees. (Mark 8:15)
When Jesus said this, the disciples could think of nothing but bread. That exactly is one of the forms of the leaven--the inability to hear anything other than the literal sense of what is being said.
Another part of that leaven is the imposition of rules that have no basis in God's law: arbitrary and human-made constructions that do not further love but only the aims of the Pharisees themselves.
The leaven of the Pharisees is rampant in Christianity today and is even common in individual parishes and churches. The sovereign remedy for this leaven is, like all evils of the world, the simple rule of love.
So when faced with this leaven, turn toward the source, smile and let love guide all your actions.
Father Ed Bakker
Anglican Catholic Church/ Original Province
Mission of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne
Bendigo
Australia
