You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first

1 Tm 1,1-2.1 2-14; Ps 15; Lk 6,39-42
13 SEPTEMBER

Hypocrite is the immoral who preaches morality. The selfish who shouts to people how to love. The idolater who invites to attend his temple, his church and his religion. The fool who teaches wisdom. He who transgresses every commandment and then throws himself against those who do not observe them. The impure person who tears his clothes on seeing others do things that are not perfectly holy. Hypocrite is the Christian who prides himself on the Gospel and his religion, but disobeying every Word of Jesus Christ. Hypocrisy is the instrument by which Satan deceives men so that thus he can lead them more easily and confidently into his jaws of fire and eternal perdition. Nothing is more detrimental to religion when it is led, conducted and taught by the hypocrites.

When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward (Mt 6, 2). When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward (Mt 6, 5). When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward (Mt 6, 16). You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye (Mt 7, 5). Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you when he said (Mt 15, 7). Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? (Mt 22, 18). Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter (Mt 23, 13). Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves (Mt 23, 15).

Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing (Mt 23, 28). Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at” (Mk 12, 15). Meanwhile, so many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot. He began to speak, first to his disciples, “Beware of the leaven – that is, the hypocrisy – of the Pharisees (Lk 12, 1). And the rest of the Jews (also) acted hypocritically along with him, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy (Gal 2, 13). What difference does it make, as long as in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed? And in that I rejoice. Indeed I shall continue to rejoice (Phil 1, 18) through the hypocrisy of liars with branded consciences (1Tm 4, 2). But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity (Jm 3, 17). Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, insincerity, envy, and all slander (1Pt 2, 1).

Jesus wants that those who are his disciples guide others towards the purity of faith, charity and hope, with their life entirely placed in the Gospel. While they live the whole Gospel, if in the Holy Spirit they believe that it is fruitful to say a word of correction, however, made with so much love, let it be done, otherwise they go on with perfect exemplarity. An example teaches more than a thousand words.

And he told them a parable, “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? 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.

No one can be a teacher for others, if he is not the first teacher for himself; he is a teacher for himself if he is guided and moved, like Jesus, always by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit acts as a Master to the disciple, the disciple instructed by the divine Master acts as the teacher of his brothers, but always by the Holy Spirit. The hypocrite is a teacher of others, but not of himself. But can an immoral person teach morality?

Mother of God, Angels and Saints arrange that that no disciple of Jesus lives on hypocrisy.