21st Week in Ordinary Time

1st Reading: 1 Thes 2:9–13
Gospel: Mt 23:27–32
Jesus said, “Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs beautiful in appearance, but inside there are only dead bones and uncleanness. In the same way you appear as religious to others, but you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness within.
“Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous. You say: Had we lived in the time of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in the blood of prophets. So, you yourselves confess to be kins of those who murdered the prophets. And now, finish off what your ancestors began!”

Commentary
Hypocrisy is the deliberate affectation of more virtue than one actually has. In our minds, the word hypocrisy suggests the outward display of piety, goodness, or sincerity when one is, in reality, irreligious, corrupt, and insincere. Therefore, it connotes more than pretense or affectation, but the assumption of goodness and piety when one is neither good nor pious and does not want to be. Thus hypocrisy, in the modern sense, should be understood as a kind of purposeful, self-serving, and deceitful play acting.
When Jesus called the scribes and certain of the Pharisees hypocrites, he put a different emphasis on the word than we usually do. Their sin was not primarily dissembling, of feigning piety and righteousness, though that certainly revealed a deeper illness. Rather, he was chiding them for an obstinate, self-righteous conviction of their own goodness. To emphasize, Jesus attacked them because of their insistence that their standard of righteousness was correct when, in reality, it was nothing short of apostasy. Their perversion destroyed the works of God and actually led people into unrighteousness. Because of their self-perceived correctness, they could not repent; and because they could not repent, they could not receive the Spirit of God.

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