Daily Gospel Reflection

Woe to The Hypocrites

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we're looking for a word or phrase or an idea from the reading, the gospel of the day, to anchor our day in the genius of Jesus' life and teachings. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 23, verses 13 through 22. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you traverse sea and land to make a single convert. And when he becomes a convert, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, "If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath." You blind fools. For which is greater the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, "If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath." You blind fools. For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So he who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

What jumps out at you today? What jumps out at me is, woe. I would not want Jesus saying some of these things to me. You hypocrites, you blind guides. And what about this one? You make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. Imagine Jesus calling you a child of hell. And this, "woe to you" phrase that Jesus uses, "woe to you." Imagine Jesus saying that to you. And probably there's times in our lives when we need to hear that and probably deserve to hear that. But the hypocrisy is one thing that Jesus, over and over, was not able to handle. And there's a lot of hypocrisy in our world, a lot of hypocrisy in our culture, and a lot of hypocrisy often in our lives. And that's why there are many, many reasons not to judge other people. But one of them is just the safety of not being a hypocrite in the eyes of God. But we do find ourselves falling into judging other people so easily, so many reasons, so many ways, so many things. So as we go about our day-to-day, let's be mindful of who we're judging and what we're judging and why we're judging, and the effect it might be having on those other people. Have an amazing day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.