unleavened - 6th week tuesday 2018

The disciples of Jesus find it difficult to understand what Jesus was saying.  Jesus was talking about the leaven of the Pharisees and the Herodians.  What is this leaven?  Jews at the time of Jesus believe that leaven or yeast though it makes the bread rise actually corrupts the bread.  Yeast is a fungus that feeds on the dough causing it to rise when they release carbon dioxide.  Pareho ini sia sa mga molds sa cheese nga in a sense nagapapan-os sa iya kag at the same time nagahatag sini sang sabor.

That is why Jews used unleavened bread, bread which does not have yeast.  And this is the tradition we follow in the bread we use for the mass – it has no yeast, it is simply flour and water mixed together.  Unleavened bread is incorrupt bread.  St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians wrote, “Get rid of all the old yeast, become new batch of bread, unleavened as you are meant to be.”  Unleavened, in other words, uncorrupted by evil.

Two extremes are being pointed out by Jesus as the source of corruption of which a disciple should beware of.  First the corruption of the Pharisees.  Amo ini ang mga tam-an ka strikto, narrow-minded, very legalistic.  You probably remember how the Pharisees condemned and even attempted to harm Jesus because he cured on the Sabbath, he allowed hungry people to pick grains to eat on the Sabbath, he associated himself with sinners, eating with them, talking to them.  The Pharisees represent  one extreme that corrupts the disciples of the Lord, when like them we become too legalistic and narrow-minded in living out the commandments of Jesus.

The Herodians represent the opposite extreme.  They are the carefree, hedonistic, pleasure seeking extreme.  Tanan puede, people becoming amoral, tanan paggusto kag tanan nadala na sa patuyang or self-indulgence.  This is the other extreme which, Jesus said, a disciple must avoid.

Not very strict at the same time not too loose and carefree.  Not severe but at the same time not also licentious.

Slowly this is beginning to take shape in society and even in our communities.  Some have grown so lax, everything becomes permissible, daw sa waay na lang, while another part of the community overly reacts, and they become very strict and even harsh and condemning.

These actions and reactions are called by Jesus yeast, lebadura.  It means they may be small in number, negligible in quantity, but they can affect the whole dough.  It also means that just like yeast they corrupt from within, they destroy the community from within.

This is a good reminder that virtue stands in the middle, not in the extremes but in the middle.  Indi tam-an ka strikto, indi man sobra ka pabaya,  a balance between deficiency and excess.