Yesterday, we heard a stern warning to the scribes and Pharisees, about how they continue to ignore God’s message that Jesus brings, just as their ancestors ignored the message of the prophets. Today, he continues to warn the crowds about the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus tells his disciples that they should not be led astray by their hypocrisy, since they live by double standards. The Pharisees are concerned with the outward appearance of being holy, but they neglect their inner spiritual lives and they judge others harshly by these same outward standards. The Pharisees may look holy through their outward practices and their elegant robes, but the appearance of things can be deceiving according to Jesus. The disciples may have been confused by these comments; they had not seen the Pharisees for who they really were.
At a homily he gave at a morning mass back in June of this year, Pope Francis warned that hypocrisy is not the language of Jesus, nor is it the language of Christians. The Pope warned that “the hypocrite is capable of destroying a community.” Pope Francis explained that “Jesus often uses the adjective ‘hypocrite’ to describe the doctors of the law, because, as the etymology of the word illustrates, they claim to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case, they proffer their opinions and issue judgements but in reality (these opinions and judgments) are false.” Pope Francis' closing words of that homily give us good advice. He Pope Francis exhorted us to remember that the only way to respond to flattering words of hypocrisy is with truth and with reality. Pope Francis asserted: “Let us ask the Lord to guard us from this vice, to help us be truthful, and if this is not possible to keep silent – but never to be a hypocrite.”
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