Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
“This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Mk. 7:6
I’m a hypocrite.
The meaning of that word comes from what ancient Greeks called a “stage actor.” A hypocrite, then, is a person who pretends to be what he or she is not.
In that sense, we’re all hypocrites at one time or another, in one way or another. We pretend to possess virtues and proclaim religious beliefs that in reality we sometimes do not live out. Instead, all too often, our actions are vastly different from what we publicly state to be our convictions.
Politicians – regardless of party affiliation – are well known for being accused of hypocrisy. But much of that may be due to the fact that they are so public, so easily viewed and examined.
Next in line for being accused of hypocrisy are church goers, those of us – like you and me – who claim to follow the teachings and moral example of Jesus Christ. Of course, we all frequently fail in our discipleship, in one way or another. In fact, one renowned preacher, William Sloane Coffin, used to say:
“Those who would not join a church full of hypocrites should take heart. There’s always room for one more.”
We’re all hypocrites – to one degree or another.
And it’s to us, then, not just the scribes and Pharisees of today’s gospel, that Jesus’ words are addressed:
“This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
What Jesus is saying in today’s gospel reading is that what is most valuable, most endearing, is not any public display of affection, or any pious posturing we can easily manufacture.
Instead, it’s what is genuinely, sincerely going on inside each of our hearts. That is what really matters.
It’s the inside, not the outside that ultimately counts.
What matters most is:
What is the true intention of my heart? What do I see when I look deep into the mirror of my soul?
Ultimately our goal is to get the interior and the exterior of our lives to match up.
To do that, we have to choose.
We must choose which values are most dear. We have to choose what direction we want to take, what path we want to follow, what goal we want to pursue, what virtues we most prize.
Or, to be blunt, we have to choose what we will fall in love with.
That’s the heart of the matter. That’s what determines what is alive and pulsating within us. That’s what animates us and drives us forward.
That’s why Jesus’ emphasis is on the interior , not the exterior, not the public display, not the masks we put on, not the make-up we wear as we perform our role as an actor in the world’s play.
This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Sadly, these words are most pertinent in the light of yet another serious scandal involving the leadership of our Church. While Pope Francis was visiting Ireland last week, perhaps the most Catholic country in the world, controversy followed him everywhere he went. The criticisms came not just from the people themselves, but from Bishops and Cardinals.
The Catholic Church universally is facing a terrible dilemma – one that today’s Gospel highlights:
The matching of the interior with the exterior. The decision to make certain that we do what we say.
Of course, no one expects perfection. We all have experienced sin, and committed sin, in our lives. What is expected, though, when it comes to the leadership of the church of Jesus Christ, is that there are no cover ups, no secrets, no hidden agendas, no public relations departments, no payoffs, no legal arrangements – all designed for the sole purpose of hiding the truth.
All such actions are in direct contradiction to the whole plan that Jesus gave us to create a new kind of world – a world free of special, hidden arrangements plotted by the powerful to hoodwink the powerless.
There’s a name for that. It’s called hypocrisy … precisely what Jesus condemned in today’s Gospel with words that should reverberate off all our church walls:
“This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
It’s what’s in our hearts that ultimately matters.
Not the fancy robes. Not the imperial titles. Not the power positions. Not the chauffeured limousines. Not the expectation of special treatment.
It’s the heart.
That’s the difference between the hypocrite and the real thing.
Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.
