Integrity should be a commandment of love in our lives

Good morning, happy Tuesday, and many blessings.

The Gospel for today (Matthew 23:23-26) presents a warning to hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the contrivance of a false appearance of virtue or goodness, while concealing real character traits or inclinations, especially with respect to religious and moral beliefs; hence, in a general sense, hypocrisy may involve dissimulation, pretense, or a sham. Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another. In moral psychology, it is the failure to follow one's own expressed moral rules and principles

But also present two other times when this expression is used: “Alas for you...” Jesus speaks against the religious leaders of His time. The two uses today denounce the lack of coherence between word and attitude, between exterior and interior. Today we continue our reflection which we began yesterday.

On the outside, the behavior of the Pharisees and Scribes is impeccable but inside there is a lack of a true Gospel spirit. Inside they are “full of greed and self-indulgence”. The true gospel spirit is one of love, integrity, compassion, and a sense of justice for all.

The scribes and Pharisees stand for religious leaders who are obsessed with rules and regulations but miss out on justice, mercy, and faith, and on the great commandment of love. They use religion to control people, and worse still, to try to control God. They are religious leaders who have proclaimed themselves moral guardians and have dared to kidnap and privatize God. Jesus blasted them for their arrogance, the fallacy of thinking that they could coerce God and, in the process, make a good showing of themselves–by their very public actions. God was and continues to be more interested in the heart, which was their real problem.

Can I identify with any of this today in my own life and attitudes? What am I like on the outside and on the inside? Try to be as honest as you can during this prayer time remembering that Jesus always sees our hearts and loves us unconditionally.

Living in times when image is so important, we too are often tempted to give more importance to the outside of the cup than to the inside. In the presence of Jesus, I look at my relationships, in my family and in my work, in my Christian community, and ask for the grace of being ever more transparent, to God, to myself and to others.

Today I pray for the grace of integrity. Jesus accuses the scribes and Pharisees of straining out gnats and swallowing camels! If I am honest, I find this tendency in myself too, and I ask that the word of Jesus may challenge and enlighten me, even to the deepest and darkest recesses of my heart.

Blessings

Fr. Luis+