Removing the masks of hypocrisy

Good News Reflection
Wednesday of the 21st Week of Ordinary Time
August 25, 2010

Today's Readings:
2 Thes 3:6-10,16-18
Ps 128:1-2, 4-5
Matt 23:27-32
http://www.usccb.org/nab/082510.shtml
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/10_08_25.mp3

Removing the masks of hypocrisy

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus defines hypocrisy as being a "whitewashed tomb" – looking holy and clean in outward appearance but dead and dirty on the inside. This is the danger of being religiously and legalistically uncompassionate, as Jesus addressed in the previous verses.

We all fall into hypocrisy from time to time. For example, when an act of kindness has a legalistic motive (i.e., doing it out of duty rather than out of compassion), our goodness is only skin-deep, not heart-deep.

When someone says to us, "I don't like the way you treated me when –", we put on the mask of listening, but our hidden faces contort with rapid-fire thoughts of self-defensiveness, because we're more concerned about ourselves than about the other person's pain.

We wear the mask of hypocrisy because it helps us feel protected and safe. In reality, it's deadly to our interactions with others; it interferes with life-giving love. Only when we're vulnerable can we genuinely care about others and open ourselves to receive goodness from others. This is true even when we're right and the other person is wrong and even when a kindness is inconvenient.

And what if we get hurt? Jesus is always with us, kissing our wounds.

Hypocrisy slowly kills our true, God-given identity. If we wear this mask for a long time, we lose awareness of who we really are and what our value truly is. Those who encounter us do not see the person that God created us to be. Thus, the Pharisees became "full of filth and dead men's bones."

How dirty and dead are you inside? Answer this by asking: How much of God's live-giving love am I experiencing? Is it flowing from me as much as it's filling me?

In today's first reading, St. Paul differentiates between those who distance themselves from God's ways and those who follow the tradition passed down from the Apostles. As Paul describes it, the Christian tradition is one of loving service: no disorderliness, no impositions upon others, and working hard in the service of God's kingdom. Paul and his ministry team cared about the people they shepherded, so much so that they served them even in toil and drudgery, night and day.

As today's responsorial psalm reminds us, we are happiest when we walk in God's ways, because the hard work of loving and caring about others will produce fruit that we can enjoy. We will be blessed by it; we will be favored by God.

Why does Paul tell us to avoid socializing with those who walk in a disorderly way? Hypocrisy is highly contagious! O God, help us to dare to be truly who you created us to be – imitators of Christ your Son; amen!

© 2010 by Terry A. Modica
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