Wednesday – 21st Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel - Matthew 23:27-32

Whitewashed Tombs

Mount of Olives Cemetery, Jerusalem

There’s a story about a preacher who was accused of not practicing what he preached.  He responded; “Well, at least I don’t preach what I practice.” 

Hypocrite!  It comes from a Greek word for “actor”, someone who put on a show for others.  Someone who acts a part and pretends to be good just for admiration and applause!  If you thought Jesus was blunt in yesterday’s Gospel, today goes way beyond!  The Pharisees and Scribes are like whitewashed tombs with only dead men’s bones and filth inside.  The Jews believed that contact with the dead automatically made you unclean; so the tombs were painted white to warn the people away, to prevent them from touching the stones.  So the Pharisees only appear righteous but they are ultimately only concerned with themselves! 

But why such harsh words?  Why does Jesus condemn the Pharisees so bluntly?  Maybe it’s because their supposedly ‘sincere’ words were leading others astray.  They care only about one thing – themselves – and about garnering applause from others.  Maybe Jesus was concerned with the effect of their words on others!  It’s bad enough that a person says one thing and does something completely different.  What’s worse is if they can convince others to follow their example.

At some point in our lives, we have all been swayed by the ‘honeyed’ words of another.  They said the right things, the things we wanted to hear, what we needed to hear at the time.  We were fooled and we learned a bitter lesson not only about whom to trust but how much our own words have an effect on others.  The lesson here is twofold: to value others not only for their words but for their actions AND not to fall into the same trap of being a hypocrite ourselves – saying things just for the admiration or applause of others!

Great Spirit, help me to live for others today and learn that love is the key and that my words must reflect what is in my heart.

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