Abstract

We continue where we left off from last Sunday with Jesus establishing the ethical foundations of the new Israel. Hypocrisy is really one of the most distasteful of human characteristics and in today's gospel passage Jesus confronts it head on. Hypocrisy is the real 'fake news', for it is nothing other than a sham and a pretence that we are something that we really are not, a contrivance that we are better than others when we are not, a sanctimonious false virtue that we have the right to point out the faults of others while leaving our own failings untouched. When we are the victim of someone else's hypocrisy we feel the injustice and unfairness, we feel the betrayal and deception, we feel the put-down and rejection.