NO HYPOCRISY! – claretonline

TWENTY-FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

August 25, Wednesday

Happy are we if we can say with St Paul that we have done nothing to please people but that our only aim is to please God and to care tenderly for people.

We probably agree with Jesus’ strong condemnation of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. But hypocrisy is still with us today. The whitewashing of tombs goes on, and from an individual corruption it has pervaded society itself. The wrongs of the state, and the Church too, are covered up. Injustices and exploitation are passed over in silence or are condemned in such general terms that even oppressors agree. We close our eyes and our consciences are undisturbed because we think we have no share in the evil that goes on. Our deeds do not match our words.

First Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

You remember us in those days, friends, working our fingers to the bone, up half the night, moonlighting so you wouldn’t have the burden of supporting us while we proclaimed God’s Message to you. You saw with your own eyes how discreet and courteous we were among you, with keen sensitivity to you as fellow believers. And God knows we weren’t freeloaders! You experienced it all firsthand. With each of you we were like a father with his child, holding your hand, whispering encouragement, showing you step-by-step how to live well before God, who called us into his own kingdom, into this delightful life.

And now we look back on all this and thank God, an artesian well of thanks! When you got the Message of God we preached, you didn’t pass it off as just one more human opinion, but you took it to heart as God’s true word to you, which it is, God himself at work in you believers!

Gospel: Matthew 23:27-32

Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them, “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You build granite tombs for your prophets and marble monuments for your saints. And you say that if you had lived in the days of your ancestors, no blood would have been on your hands. You protest too much! You’re cut from the same cloth as those murderers, and daily add to the death count.

Prayer

Just and merciful God,
you know what is in us.
Forgive us that often we are so busy
that we have no time to stop and look back
to those who are too tired to follow.
Forgive us that we condemn
without having tried to understand.
Let justice and mercy and service
not be the business of others
but our concern and our life
on account of him who told us
to look for him in others,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection:

If we love our parents we shall take care of them when they are alive

If we love our parents and the elderly, we shall take care of them, show them affection and care when they are alive. If you love your parents, take care of them when they are alive We come today to the last two of the seven ‘Woes’ which Jesus accuses against the Scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus denounces their hypocrisy with two examples. You are like whitewashed tombs… (vv.27-28). The tombs were whitewashed and kept clean both to show respect to the ancestors and to avoid people unknowingly stepping over the grave and become ritually unclean. Whitewashing made them more visible, especially in the dark. Matthew, while presenting the list of woes to the Jewish Christians, explains how Jesus denounced the external show of religious perfection, a message so relevant for our communities in the present time. Various groups in the Church fight for the tiniest details of the Canon Laws and liturgical rubrics, while our hearts and minds are full of pride and hatred and contempt for people who do not accept our views. So much of divisions and hatred are perpetrated in the Church over issues of liturgical rites and their rubrics and ironically, we celebrate the mystery of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice of love using these severely-fought rituals and rubrics. After a beautiful homily on forgiveness, mercy and love, if the priest goes about shouting at everyone around, Jesus would confer the title of “Whitewashed tombs” to us priests, for our pharisaic attitude and behaviour. Our Liturgical celebration is also an occasion to examine ourselves to identify our hypocrisy and make amendments to our lives. Mention of tombs leads Jesus to comment on the Pharisees’ pride over the tombs they have built in memory of the prophets and other holy people. Building monuments for the dead after killing them is a trend that exist even in our times. Have you come across children of the family who gather together at the death of their father or mother whom they refused to take care of when he or she was alive, and now organise a lavish funeral? A son or daughter who refuses to take care of the elderly parent is in effect killing them – leaving them to die. If we love our parents and the elderly, we shall take care of them, show them affection and care when they are alive and not after their death? If not, we will be like the Pharisees who were bragging about building tombs for the Prophets, after killing them!

Video available on Youtube: If we love our parents we shall take care of them when they are alive

If we love our parents we shall take care of them when they are alive

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