“Let’s Be Honest About Our Hypocrisy” by Colleen O’Sullivan

“Let’s Be Honest About Our Hypocrisy” by Colleen O’Sullivan

Wednesday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us. (2 Thessalonians 3:6)

Blessed are you who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways!  (Psalm 128:1)

Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.  You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.  Even so, on the outside, you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.  (Matthew 23:27-28)

Piety

Lord, may the face I present to the world be a true reflection of faith in my heart.

Study   

Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians is rather short and to the point.  In today’s verses, Paul addresses one particular problem – people who want to be members of the Church but don’t want to follow the Apostle’s example and pull their weight by working.  The more significant point Paul makes here, though, is that we should be wary of people who call themselves Christians without serving the Lord from the inside out. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites.  What’s inside them in no way matches the face they show to the world.  The Lord says they’re like whitewashed tombs – gleaming on the outside and full of the rot and decay of death on the inside.   He says they’ve built all kinds of memorials to the prophets and sanctimoniously proclaim that they would never have criticized or threatened the prophets had they lived during the days of the prophets.  Jesus seems to say, “That’s ridiculous.”  They have a prophet right in their midst, and they spend all their time and energy seeking ways to seize and kill him.

Action

These two Scripture readings give us a great deal to consider about ourselves.  We spend an excessive amount of time polishing our exteriors – hairstyles, clothes, right schools for our kids, the friends we hang out with, etc. – to make a good impression on others.  What about our inner selves, though?  Jesus doesn’t care what color hair we have or where we get our clothes or if we hang out with the “right” people nearly as much as he cares about whether we love Him and all He loves.   What’s inside us reveals how strong our faith is.   Maybe we go to Church, but how grounded are our lives in prayer?  When we’re in trouble of any sort, where do we turn first?  To God?  Are we reaching out to the hungry people all around us during this time of pandemic?  Do we live as though we truly believe we are all God’s children or do we secretly favor some groups of people more than others?  Are we truly willing to begin to tackle the racism in our country and our hearts?

It’s a lot to consider, and I invite you to spend some of your next prayer time doing that.