Twenty-First Wednesday of Ordinary Time

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.

We are not called to appear to be righteous, but to be righteous. God knows our hearts and sees our every thought, word, and work in light of our true intentions. Even when we do good works, if we do them for the wrong reason they shall have no merit before God. He knows when we act out of virtue and when we act out of self-interest. He knows us better in that regard than we know ourselves. Sometimes we can fool ourselves into believing we are acting in accord with God's Will, but in truth we choose to blind ourselves to the reasons for our choices and do what we want regardless of what God might want from us. This is why we need to make a constant effort to understand ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses, so that we can make a good examination of conscience and overcome our temptations, imperfections, and sins. If we do that, then even though we might fall once in a while, we will have the tools to recognize what lead us to fall, try to avoid it in the future, and seek to amend our lives.

Are we hypocrites? Do we act out of righteousness or selfishness? What can we do to avoid hypocrisy and evildoing?

O Lord, grant us the graces we need to overcome our temptations to hypocrisy and evil so that we can truly be righteous people.

Amen.