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2 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Pope Francis

Hypocrisy in the Church is ‘detestable’

Hypocrites are afraid of the truth, fearful of who they really are and incapable of truly loving, Pope Francis said during his weekly general audience.

What hypocrites do “is like putting makeup on your soul, like putting makeup on your behavior” and hiding the truth, the pope said Aug. 25 to those gathered in the Paul VI audience hall at the Vatican.

All this pretending, he said, “suffocates the courage to openly say what is true and thus the obligation to say the truth at all times, everywhere and in spite of anything can easily be evaded,” he said.

The pope continued his series of talks on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians and focused on the dangers of the law by looking at the apostle Peter’s “inconsistency” at Antioch.

Gentile Christians were free from the Jewish law, but there was pressure from people from Jerusalem that caused Sts. Peter and Barnabas to draw back from what the Gospel said.

That is why, in his letter, St. Paul condemns St. Peter “to his face because he clearly was wrong” by trying to appease critics who still observed Mosaic law and to justify his hypocritical behavior.

“Peter had been eating with the Christians of pagan origin without any difficulty; however, when some circumcised Christians from Jerusalem arrived in the city, he then no longer did so, because he did not want to incur their criticism,” Pope Francis said.

“Watch out. The mistake was paying more attention to the criticism, to make a good impression than the reality of the relationships,” the pope said.

This was serious in St. Paul’s eyes, because other disciples imitated St. Peter, and, even though he did not mean to, “Peter was, in fact, creating an unjust division within the community” by not being transparent or clear about what he was doing, Pope Francis said.

In his letter, St. Paul “wanted to remind the Christians of that community that they were absolutely not to listen to those who were preaching that it was necessary to be circumcised, and therefore be ‘under the law’ with all of its prescriptions,” Pope Francis said.

These “fundamentalist preachers,” he said, “created confusion and deprived that community of any peace.”

In his reproach to St. Peter, St. Paul uses the term “hypocrisy,” which “the apostle wanted to combat forcefully and convincingly,” the pope said.

Hypocrisy can be seen as a “fear of the truth. It is better to pretend rather than be yourself,” he said.

Wherever people are living “under the banner of formalism, the virus of hypocrisy easily spreads,” he said, mimicking the kind of strained, forced smile one might see – a smile “that doesn’t come from the heart,” but comes from a person “who tries to get along with everyone,” but, in the end, gets along with no one.

“Hypocrites are people who pretend, flatter and deceive because they live with a mask over their faces and do not have the courage to face the truth,” he said. “For this reason, they are not capable of truly loving” because they are limited by their ego and cannot “show their hearts transparently.”

Hypocrisy can be hidden at a workplace “where someone appears to be friends with their colleagues while, at the same time, they stab them behind the back due to competition,” he said.

It is not unusual to find hypocrites in the world of politics, when someone lives one way in public and another way in private, he added.

“Hypocrisy in the Church is particularly detestable. Unfortunately, hypocrisy does exist in the Church and there are many hypocritical Christians and ministers,” he said.

Jesus, too, condemned hypocrisy, Pope Francis said, asking people to read Chapter 23 of the Gospel according to St. Matthew to see how often Jesus condemned such behavior.

“Let’s not be afraid to be truthful, to speak the truth, to hear the truth, to conform ourselves to the truth, so that we can love. A hypocrite does not know how to love,” he said.

“To act other than truthfully means jeopardizing the unity of the Church, that unity for which the Lord Himself prayed,” the pope said. catholicnewsherald.com | August 27, 2021

St. Gregory the Great

Feast day: Sept. 3

St. Gregory the Great, a central figure of the medieval western Church and one of the most admired popes in history, is commemorated in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Catholic liturgy on Sept. 3.

Born near the middle of the 6th century into a noble Roman family, Gregory received a classical education in liberal arts and the law. He also had strong religious formation from his devout family, particularly from his mother Silvia, also a canonized saint. By around the age of 30, Gregory had advanced to high political office in Rome, during what was nevertheless a period of marked decline for the city.

Some time after becoming the prefect of the former imperial capital, Gregory chose to leave the civil administration to become a monk during the rise of the Benedictine order. In reality, however, the new monk’s great career in public life was yet to come.

After three years of strict monastic life, he was called personally by the pope to assume the office of a deacon in Rome. From Rome, he was dispatched to Constantinople to seek aid from the emperor for Rome’s civic troubles and to aid in resolving the Eastern Church’s theological controversies. He returned to Rome in 586 after six years of service as the papal representative to the eastern Church and empire.

Rome faced a series of disasters caused by flooding in 589, followed by the death of Pope Pelagius II the next year. Gregory, then serving as abbot in a monastery, reluctantly accepted his election to replace him as the Bishop of Rome.

Despite this initial reluctance, however, Pope Gregory began working tirelessly to reform and solidify the Roman liturgy, the disciplines of the Church, the military and economic security of Rome, and the Church’s spreading influence in western Europe. As pope, Gregory brought his political experience at Rome and Constantinople to bear in the task of preventing the Catholic Church from becoming subservient to any of the various groups struggling for control of the former imperial capital. As the former abbot of a monastery, he strongly supported the Benedictine movement as a bedrock of the western Church. He sent missionaries to England and is given much of the credit for the nation’s conversion. He is known above all for his magnificent contributions to the Liturgy of the Mass and Office. He is one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church. In undertaking these works, Pope Gregory saw himself as the “servant of the servants of God.” He was the first of the Bishops of Rome to popularize the now-traditional papal title, which referred to Christ’s command that those in the highest position of leadership should be “the last of all and the servant of all.”

Even as he undertook to consolidate papal power and shore up the West during the crumbling of the Roman empire, St. Gregory the Great maintained a humble sense of his mission as a servant and pastor of souls from the time of his election until his death on March 12, 604. He is the patron of teachers. — Catholic News Agency

Daily Scripture readings

AUG. 29-SEPT. 4

Sunday: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8, James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23; Monday: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Luke 4:1630; Tuesday: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 9-11, Luke 4:31-37; Wednesday: Colossians 1:1-8, Luke 4:38-44; Thursday: Colossians 1:9-14, Luke 5:1-11; Friday (St. Gregory the Great): Colossians 1:15-20, Luke 5:33-39; Saturday: Colossians 1:2123, Luke 6:1-5 SEPT. 5-11

Sunday: Isaiah 35:4-7a, James 2:1-5, Mark 7:31-37; Monday: Colossians 1:24-2:3, Luke 6:6-11; Tuesday: Colossians 2:6-15, Luke 6:12-19; Wednesday (The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary): Micah 5:1-4a, Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23; Thursday (St. Peter Claver): Colossians 3:12-17, Luke 6:27-38; Friday: 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14, Luke 6:39-42; Saturday: 1 Timothy 1:1517, Luke 6:43-49; SEPT. 12-18

Sunday: Isaiah 50:4c-9a, James 2:14-18, Mark 8:27-35; Monday (St. John Chrysostom): 1 Timothy 2:1-8, Luke 7:1-10; Tuesday (The Exaltation of the Holy Cross): Numbers 21:4b-9, Philippians 2:6-11, John 3:13-17; Wednesday (Our Lady of Sorrows): 1 Timothy 3:1416, John 19:25-27; Thursday (Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian): 1 Timothy 4:12-16, Luke 7:36-50; Friday (St. Robert Bellarmine): 1 Timothy 6:2c-12, Luke 8:1-3; Saturday: 1 Timothy 6:13-16, Luke 8:4-15