Gospel (Lk 11,42-46) - At that time, the Lord said: «Woe to you, Pharisees, who pay tithes on mint, on rue and on all herbs, and leave aside justice and the love of God. These instead were the things to do , without neglecting those. Woe to you, Pharisees, who love first places in the synagogues and greetings in the squares. Woe to you, because you are like those tombs that cannot be seen and people pass over them without knowing it." One of the doctors of the Law intervened and said to him: "Master, by saying this, you offend us too." He replied: «Woe also to you, doctors of the Law, who burden men with unbearable burdens, and you do not even touch those burdens with a finger!».

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

A doctor of the law, listening to Jesus' harsh words against ritualism, replies that in that way it also offends him and his group. It is the reaction of those who feel no need to change at all, to understand more deeply what Jesus' preaching asks for. They are satisfied with the letter and external practices without grasping the substance and spirit of the alliance that God and Israel had established. Later the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor 3:6). Jesus unmasks the sin of the Pharisees and scribes: while they are looked at with respect by the people, who look to them for guidance, orientation, in truth their behavior is false and deviant. Hence the severity of Jesus' judgment arises. People trust, seek guidance, ask for help from those who "appear" to be guides, and these, instead, neglect the essential, that is, justice and the love of God It's true, they pay their dues at the temple, they let themselves be enchanted by the honors in the synagogues, but in reality they are like "sepulchres", that is, empty and internally dead men. With their cold severity, they place heavy burdens on the shoulders of others but they neither want nor know how to bear them. This falsehood, this double and lying nature is severely stigmatized by Jesus. The three "woe to you" addressed to the Pharisees are a warning for everyone, even for us when we set ourselves up as judges without mercy, as masters without scruples and without doubts, taking advantage of the good faith of those who seek brothers and sisters to rely on to grow in spiritual life.