In his homily at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis warned about the dangers of 'spiritual schyzophreniaâ? or, in other words, saying one thing, and doing the other.
POPE FRANCIS
'Hypocrisy is an internal division. We say one thing and we do another. It is a kind of spiritual schyzophrenia. In addition, hypocrisy is a dissembler: they seem good and polite but they carry a dagger behind their backs, right? Look at Herod: terrified inside but how politely he received the Magi! And then, when he was bidding them farewell, he told them: â??Go on your way and then come back and tell me where this child can be found so that I can go and worship him!â?? To kill him! He was a two-faced hypocrite, a pretender.â?
He also said that the hypocrite is he who believes that words, and not actions, are enough. The pope explained that things should not be just said, they should be done. He concluded that a hypocrite is also incapable of acknowledging his own mistakes.
EXCERPTS FROM THE POPE'S HOMILY
(Source: Vatican Radio)
'I remember that for Carnival, when we were children, our grandmother made biscuits and it was a very thin, thin, thin pastry that she made. Afterwards she placed it in the oil and that pastry swelled and swelled and when we began to eat it, it was empty. And our grandmother told us that in her dialect they were called lies â?? â??these are like lies: they seem big but thereâ??s nothing inside them, thereâ??s nothing true there, thereâ??s nothing of substance.â?? And Jesus tells us: â??Beware of bad leaven, that of the Pharisees.â?? And what is that? Itâ??s hypocrisy. Be on your guard against the Pharisees' leaven which is hypocrisy.â?
'Hypocrisy is an internal division. We say one thing and we do another. Itâ??s a kind of spiritual schyzophrenia. In addition, the hypocrite is a dissembler: he seems good and polite but he carries a dagger behind his back, right? Look at Herod: terrified inside but how politely he received the Magi! And then when he was bidding them farewell, he told them: â??Go on your way and then come back and tell me where this child can be found so that I can go and worship him!â?? To kill him! He was a two-faced hypocrite, a pretender. Jesus, when speaking about the doctors of the law, said: 'They are all words and no actions:' this is another type of hypocrisy. It is an existential nominalism: those who believe that by words, and not actions are enough. No. Things must be done not just said. And a hypocrite is a nominalist who believes that by saying it, everything is done. In addition, the hypocrite is unable to accuse him or herself: they never find a stain on themselves, they accuse others.Think about the splinter and the log right? That is how we can describe the leaven that is hypocrisy.â?
'How truthful children are when they confess their sins! Children never ever tell a lie during confession; they never talk about abstract things. â??Iâ??ve done this, Iâ??ve done that, Iâ??ve doneâ?¦â?¦â?? Concrete things. Children talk about concrete things when they are in front of God and in front of other people. Why is that? Itâ??s because they have good leaven, leaven that makes them grow like the Kingdom of God grows. May the Lord give all of us the Holy Spirit and the grace of that lucidity to discern which leaven I am growing with, which leaven I am behaving with. Am I a loyal and transparent person or am I a hypocrite?â?
