"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
"When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you." (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18)
Today is Ash Wednesday, and we all know what that means and implies. We are Catholics reminding ourselves that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. Moreover, we are reminded through touch and words that we must repent and believe in the Gospel. This is said when ashes are applied to our foreheads.
Paying attention to the Gospel, we are challenged to ask ourselves if we are hypocrites. Jesus had a lot to say about hypocrites. Consider Matthew 23:1-36 that reads:
Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens [hard to carry] and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’…
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. [But] these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing."
Woe to us, all of us, we hypocrites. When ashes are applied, let’s ask ourselves these questions: Do we practice what we preach? Do we tie up heavy burdens [hard to carry] and lay them on people’s shoulders, but we will not lift a finger to move them? Do we neglect mercy and fidelity? Are we full of plunder and self-indulgence? Are we like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth? Are we filled with hypocrisy and evildoing. These are good questions for our examination of conscience.
Jesus speaks to us today. He reminds us to be humble and that we are dust, and to dust we shall return.
Deacon David Pierce
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