Word to the Wise
Thursday, October 19, 2006 - STS. JOHN DE BREBEUF, ISAAC JOGUES AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
[Ephesians 1:1-10 and Luke 11:47-54]Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building.
Jesus really makes for scorching dinner conversation. He delivers the remarks we read yesterday and today at dinner at a Pharisee's house! He takes dead aim at their interior intentions and the relation of those intentions to their behavior. In the particular statement above, it concerns their pious commemoration of prophets that their ancestors in faith had martyred for disturbing the status quo (something that would happen to Jesus). As far as Jesus is concerned, this is rank hypocrisy since they would repeat the behavior, given the chance. It is possible that this was going on in Luke's time as well when the gospel was written. It is one thing to struggle with maintaining integrity of intention and conduct. We all have to work at examining our true motives for any conduct. It is entirely another to claim that one is acting honorably when one's intentions are anything but honorable. That is what hypocrisy is. It comes from a Greek term used in drama for an actor. It refers to the masks they wore. Real hypocrites wear masks. A sign of Christian maturity is to know when we are about to put on a mask and to be sure that it's only for a costume party or Halloween (or Mardi Gras) and not to conceal what is true about ourselves. AMEN