“Holy” Hypocrites

Wednesday, July 5th, 2017

We have some beautiful imagery in this weekend’s Gospel reading including Christ’s poetic and striking invitation to “all you who labor.” The psalm exults the Lord and Paul offers us a mysterious reflection on the Spirit of God in Christians.  He writes, “Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” We hear Paul write to the Romans. Don’t we have the Spirit of God just by being Christian? Apparently not, according to Paul, and I think he is speaking to our human frailty of not living up to our word as Christians. Claiming to be Christian in word but not deed.

On an obvious level, horrific crimes committed by the Church are obviously sinful.  The news from Australia this past week is discomforting to say the least, but I’m thinking of something a little less serious but equally damaging. I’m thinking of our own daily hypocrisies that can be deadening to Church life.

“Hypocrisy is so bad for the Church,” the Pope has said with a warning to all those Christians who fall into this sinful and destructive attitude. “The hypocrite is capable of destroying a community. While speaking gently, he ruinously judges a person. He is a killer,” he said. (America Magazine, June 6, 2017) That’s as clear as it gets and he is right. We’ve all heard versions of the lament, “I can’t be a Christian or a Catholic because they are all hypocrites!”

Christian hypocrisy is such a severely damaging thing because it hurts the soul. Our physical hurts can be treated by a doctor—emotional pain by a therapist—but hurting someone’s spiritual life can be a type of death.  We can be hurting their chances of ever having a healthy faith again.

It is unfair at times for sure. Can’t my bad actions just be my fault, I’ve often thought? Why can’t ‘Elliot the person’ just make a bad decision, why do I have to be judged as ‘Elliot the OLMC employee’ or ‘Elliot the teacher’? The short answer is that I should be judged as the OLMC employee. If I am to uphold the great privileges of being a Christian and get rewarded from this Church and this community (not to mention the fact that parishioners and Academy families pay my salary), I should be held to a higher standard. We can’t compartmentalize our lives either because that, too, can be a type of hypocrisy. As Fr. Emmett Gavin, O.Carm. instructed us in a recent homily:  We can’t say all are welcome in Church and then deny that same welcome through a political lens or professional lens.

I know it is hard. It is hard to love Christ and his Church in a fallen, very hurting world, but our Holy Father may have a great prayer for us who struggle: “Let us ask the Lord to guard us from this vice,” the Pope prays.  He continues, “To help us be truthful, and if this is not possible to keep silent – but never to be a hypocrite.” That sounds right! I’ll shut up now.

I’ll be seeing you,

Elliot

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