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The inner word

30 Aug 2015 - Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

In the gospel Jesus found himself in the kind of conflict that would eventually accelerate into his Passion: Going against the deeply held beliefs of influential people. He and his disciples not only violated the traditional religious practices regarding eating and other matters of purity, but Jesus turned the whole episode into a stinging rebuke of the hypocrisy of his critics. No matter how hard you tried, he said, following the rules did not make you pure and righteous if your heart were otherwise. The practices of religion are not unimportant, but have you ever let observing them substitute for true faith? Do your outer actions reflect what’s really going on inside?

Hypocrisy

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In other words

28 Sep 2014 - Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Tell me what you think of this story: A man had two sons. He went up to the first and said, ‘Son, go out for the day and work in the vineyard.’ The son answered, ‘I don’t want to.’ Later on he thought better of it and went. The father gave the same command to the second son. He answered, ‘Sure, glad to.’ But he never went. Which of the two sons did what the father asked?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said, “Yes, and I tell you that crooks and prostitutes are going to precede you into God’s kingdom. John came to you showing you the right road. You turned up your noses at him, but the crooks and prostitutes believed him. Even when you saw their changed lives, you didn’t care enough to change and believe him” (from Matthew 21). From New Message 4 Next Week (actapublications.com/newmessage4nextweek) based on The Message: Catholic/Ecumenical Edition by Eugene Peterson (ACTA Publications, 2014).

Hypocrisy

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Sign & sacrament

28 Sep 2014 - Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

“Do as I say, not as I do” is probably the single worst line a parent or other adult can use when trying to give moral guidance to a child. Children see right through hypocrisy. So does God, which is the point Jesus makes in the parable about two sons who were asked by their father to work in a vineyard. The first son shows up to work after having initially resisted the idea. The second promises to work but does not deliver. Actions do indeed speak louder than words, and when the two are in synch we call that integrity. Examine your own behavior—actions as well as words—and look for ways to develop greater integrity.

Hypocrisy integrity

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Homily stories

30 Aug 2009 - Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

When I was a young teenager my friends and I formed the Eddie Haskell Fan Club. Eddie was the smarmy kid on the Leave It to Beaver television show who acted sweet and nice in front of parents and other adults but was selfish with his peers and mean toward kids younger than him. For some reason we got a kick out of watching this two-faced jerk of a character try to put one over on the parents. I suspect his appeal was partly due to the fact that we recognized the Eddie Haskell in ourselves. Growing up spiritually means understanding what our real motives are in any action. Perhaps the reason teenagers are so quick to label and ridicule hypocrites is that adolescence is the time we become aware of our own duplicity. We get attuned to how our outside actions try to camouflage our true motivations, all in a usually futile attempt to look good to others. In the end, the truth will always out. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that if our inner motivations are sound, they flower into wonderful outer actions. Every human being is susceptible to the lure of hypocrisy. The remedy is not to polish the outside, but to come to know one’s inner self with no illusions. Are you helping your kids get to know their real selves?

Authors Tom McGrath

teenagers adolescence inner motivations Hypocrisy

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Exploring the word

21 Mar 2010 - Fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle C

Lord, I am not worthy.” We all say that at every Mass—but we don’t always believe it. Because sometimes it just feels as if we are pretty worthy. At least compared to some people, whom we might be happy to name under the right circumstances. That is what’s known as a negative confession: when we go in prepared to protest our innocence while fully willing to expose who’s really at fault and who needs to change their ways or else! A negative confession was precisely what the scribes and Pharisees were happy to make before Jesus. They dragged an adulterous woman before him fearlessly. Condemn her, exhort us to stone her, or defy the law with your fiddle-faddle revisionism! It was a fail-safe test of Jesus’ Jewishness, or so they imagined. The mighty Decalogue itself decried adultery. Jesus could not buck the Commandment without revealing his lawlessness. Yet Jesus has nothing to say about the Commandment—at least to the righteous men around him (he does speak to the woman later, but that’s because she’s the one endangered by it). Jesus refuses to discuss sin with anyone but the sinner, which is the sort of privacy he insists on in the delicate matter of personal failing. What Jesus does ask of the men in the circle is whether or not they are guilty of any sin. Ah, the simplicity and frankness in this exchange! The righteous have not come prepared to examine their guilt, much less to admit to it in public. The elders leave first, because they are the wisest and know themselves quite well. The others take more time but they, too, realize the jig is up. In the end the only ones left are Jesus, who has never yielded to temptation, and the woman, who clearly has. Unlike the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, this woman has made no attempt to present herself as guiltless nor has she denied the charges against her. She stands convicted by her choices and awaits a verdict. At the hands of these men she would have died. She knows that. But in the hands of this teacher, the matter is taking a widely different turn. He does not condemn her. Nor does he dismiss her adultery as irrelevant. It is not. She is not. Unlike the religious leaders who saw her as a means to their venomous end, to Jesus she is a lost lamb in need of saving. So he offers it. We’d like to believe she finds a better way and goes on to lead an exemplary life, but her fate is not the point. We are given two specific lessons in this story: the fate of those who judge others, and the mercy extended to those who judge themselves honestly. Related scripture links The last, the lilies, the poor: Matt. 18:4, 19:30; Luke 9:48, 13:30; Matt. 6:25-34, 5:3-12; Luke 6:20-23 Jesus knows the human heart: John 2:24-25 God’s way is now: 2 Cor. 6:1-2 If Christ is not raised, your faith is in vain: 1 Cor. 15:12-20 Catechism links Authority: CCC 574-591; 1897-1904; 2234-2237

Authors Alice Camille

unworthiness condemnation Forgiveness Hypocrisy

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The inner word

19 Oct 2008 - Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Jesus snares the Pharisees in their own trap in today’s gospel with his brilliant teaching to “render unto Caesar . . . . ” Their hypocrisy is revealed for all to see. How do you handle hypocrisy when you confront it in others? Are you able to help them see the error in their ways? Think of a time when you found yourself saying something you really didn’t believe, perhaps even for less than honorable reasons. How did you handle being confronted with your own hypocrisy? How were you able to learn and grow from the experience?

Hypocrisy hypocrites

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The inner word

18 Sep 2016 - Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

This week we hear of two examples of dishonesty, one about some businessmen who not only cheat their customers but are also hypocrites about it: They impatiently but piously wait for after the “new moon,” when commerce was prohibited, so they can get back to shafting people with their crooked scales. The steward in the gospel, though working behind his employer’s back, was actually trying to correct an injustice by subtracting some of the huge interest his master was charging, an act of clever refinancing Jesus commends. Do you talk as if you believe one thing but do the opposite? How can you bring what you say into line with what you do? Do you bring to your faith the same attention and effort you do to your job, finances, and all the other details of life?

Hypocrisy hypocrites

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The inner word

22 Oct 2017 - Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Jesus snares the Pharisees in their own trap in today’s gospel with his brilliant teaching to “render unto Caesar . . . . ” Their hypocrisy is revealed for all to see. How do you handle hypocrisy when you confront it in others? Are you able to help them see the error in their ways? Think of a time when you found yourself saying something you really didn’t believe, perhaps even for less than honorable reasons. How did you handle being confronted with your own hypocrisy? How were you able to learn and grow from the experience?

render unto caesar Hypocrisy pharisees

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Homily stories

02 Sep 2018 - Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

When I was a young teenager my friends and I formed the Eddie Haskell Fan Club. Eddie was the smarmy kid on the Leave It to Beaver television show who acted sweet and nice in front of parents and other adults but was selfish with his peers and mean toward kids younger than him. For some reason we got a kick out of watching this two-faced jerk of a character try to put one over on the parents. I suspect his appeal was partly due to the fact that we recognized the Eddie Haskell in ourselves. Growing up spiritually means understanding what our real motives are in any action. Perhaps the reason teenagers are so quick to label and ridicule hypocrites is that adolescence is the time we become aware of our own duplicity. We get attuned to how our outside actions try to camouflage our true motivations, all in a usually futile attempt to look good to others. In the end, the truth will always out. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that if our inner motivations are sound, they flower into wonderful outer actions. Every human being is susceptible to the lure of hypocrisy. The remedy is not to polish the outside, but to come to know one’s inner self with no illusions. Are you helping your kids get to know their real selves?

Authors Tom McGrath

hypocrites Hypocrisy Truth self-knowledge

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Quotes

02 Sep 2018 - Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What goes into a person can defile a person. Ask a drug addict or an alcoholic. But Jesus’ diagnosis is that there’s a deeper problem that comes from within. Spiritual impurity or moral defilement starts on the inside. It arises from the heart. —Heidi Husted, The Christian Century From a controversy on the clean and unclean, on good and evil, on tradition and newness, Jesus leads us into an altogether different perspective: that of an examination of one’s life and of conversion of the heart. . . . In the name of this reality, we must attempt to track down our hidden hypocrisies, this ever-renewed need to cheaply justify ourselves. —P. Y. Emery Knowledge is of no avail without the love of God, nor is understanding of mysteries, faith, or prophecy. Without love all are vain and profitless. Love, on the other hand, perfects a person, and one who loves God is perfect both in this world and the next, for we shall never stop loving God. —Saint Irenaeus (c. 140-200)

spiritual impurity Hypocrisy

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