During his daily homily in Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis spoke of hypocrisy. He said Christians must be “cured” of it and “the medicine is pointing the finger at oneself.”
POPE FRANCIS
To appear one way and be another. In the struggle for power, for example, envy and jealousy make you appear a certain way. Yet inside, there is poison to kill. Because hypocrisy always kills. It always, sooner or later, kills.
The pope recommended a spiritual exercise to fight this evil. It is for each Christian to learn how to accuse themselves and recognize the evil, envious or destructive thoughts they carry inside before God.
EXCERPTS OF PAPAL HOMILY
Source: Vatican news
Jesus often calls hypocritical Pharisees “whitened sepulchers”. This is not an insult, says the Pope, “it is the truth”. He goes on to explain that “a hypocritical attitude stems from the great liar, the devil”. The Pope says the devil is the “great hypocrite”, adding that all other hypocrites are his “heirs”.
Pope Francis goes on to say that anyone who may think “this form of hypocrisy does not exist” is mistaken. Though it is not “normal”, he says, it is “common” to “appear in one way but be another”. An example of this, says the Pope, is in the fight for power. Jealousy makes you act in a certain way, with poison within, poison to kill, he says, because hypocrisy “always kills”.
The cure for this hypocrisy, continues the Pope, is in learning to “point the finger at ourselves. We must open up before God and release what we have inside us. This spiritual exercise, he says, is not common, “but we must try to do it”. We must see the hypocrisy and evil that we have in our heart, because the devil does sow evil. But whoever is unable to point the finger at themselves, is “not a good Christian”, he says.
Concluding his homily, Pope Francis recalls Peter’s prayer in which he tells the Lord “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord”, reminding the faithful of the importance of acknowledging our wrongs.
