Isaiah 1:10, 16-20 / Matthew 23:1-12
When we look at how the Church has developed, we can roughly see these various stages.
It began with a vision, and then it grew into a movement, and then it began an organization and then it became an institution.
This can also be said of how businesses and other organizations developed and grew.
From the vision to the movement stage, there are challenges and struggles, but there is a great amount of zest and fervour and the members of the movement are energetic and dynamic.
But when it became an organization and an institution, then it slowly becomes bloated and heavy.
Rules and regulations begin to set in and they become priority over what is essential. The lean and hungry years in the beginning became bloated and puffy and heavy.
Jesus noticed that during His time with religious practices and hence He told His disciples and the people: You must therefore do what they (the scribes and Pharisees) tell you and listen to what they say, but do not be guided by what they do, since they do not practice what they preach.
When what is preached is not put into practice, then religion will start to slide and decline.
So the essentials must be emphasized and repeated over and over again. The 1st reading gives a glimpse of the essentials of religion and as well as of our faith.
"Cease to do evil, learn to do good, search for justice, help the oppressed, be just to the orphan, plead for the widow"
If we are not doing this, then we may have forgotten what our faith is all about.