Calling Out Hypocrisy

Remember from last week, the key to loving your enemy is in action, not emotion: showing kindness: in thought, in word and in action. So, if someone curses us, we are to bless them.

“A blessing is not just to do good towards somebody, but to speak good to somebody. So you bless with your mouth, you act (obviously) with your actions through all kinds of different ways. If someone curses me, they speak evil against me. You’re verbalizing that they would wish harm upon you (that’s what a curse is).

“So to bless is to verbalize a desire for good upon the person. So if someone curses me, I bless them. That’s the second way to show them that I love them” (Dr. Brant Pitre).

Pope Francis gives us a very clear teaching on understanding hypocrisy:

“Hypocrisy is the language of the devil; it is the language of evil that enters our heart and is sown by the devil.

“Jesus likes to unmask hypocrisy; Jesus knows it will be precisely this behavior that leads to His Passion and Death because the hypocrite does not think about using legitimate means or not, he plows ahead: slander?”

Today, Jesus asks: “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?

“You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”

Preparing For Lent

Lent is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, beginning on Ash Wednesday and that ends at on Holy Thursday. Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon after the Spring equinox. We backdate Ash Wednesday, 46 days from this date.

It's the serious time of the spiritual year, a tough, penitential time of preparation to celebrate the Lord's Resurrection at Easter.

We are called not only to abstain from luxuries during Lent, but to a true inner conversion of heart as we seek to follow Christ's will more faithfully. We recall the waters of baptism in which we were also baptized into Christ's death and began a new life in Christ.

Many know of the tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent, but we are also called to practice self-discipline and fast in other ways throughout the season.

Contemplate the meaning and origins of the Lenten fasting tradition in this reflection.

In addition, charity, the giving of alms—we can use the CDA—as one way to share God's gifts, not only through sharing our wealth, but through the sharing of our time and talents.

Lent Calls Us To Holiness Of Life. Use Lent to take advantage of opportunities for the healing Sacrament of Confession.

May Lent be a time of great grace for you. As we begin this Holy Season of Lent, let us seek Jesus and surrender ourselves in love to Him Who is the One Who can heal us of the infirmities in our souls, Who broke our bonds to sin and death and restored us to life.

Fr. Kilian, Fr. Samuel, our Deacons and our Parish Staff and Volunteers.

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