Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Hypocrisy Causes Spiritual Blindness

My dear brothers and sisters, in today's Gospel, Jesus tell us a story about a father who has two sons. Jesus speaks this parable towards the very end of his life. He is in Jerusalem the week before his crucifixion.

He spends his nights outside the city with his disciples and his days inside the Temple, debating with the Jewish scholars and leaders who are trying to discredit and humiliate him.

He tells this parable for them, in order to break through their blindness.

These leaders, the ones who are against Jesus and who will soon arrange his death, are Palestine's experts in religion. They are the ones who serve in the Temple, study the sacred Scriptures, preach to the crowds, and rule and govern God's Chosen people.

They claim to be God's close collaborators, the ones who are following God's commandments better than anyone else. And yet, these are the very ones who fail to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

Sinners and social outcasts on the other hand, like tax collectors and prostitutes, do recognize Jesus; they believe in him, and they repent from their sin.

Why are the chief priests and elders unable to see the truth?

Why do they, like the second son in the parable, say that they are God's followers, but then refuse to obey the Messiah of God?

This is an important question for us. We are among the small percentage of Catholics who come to Sunday Mass - we are the ones who appear to be following the Lord. And so, we too are in danger of falling into this same blindness, of thinking that we are doing God's will in our lives, but actually not doing it.

The cause of their spiritual blindness can also become the cause of our spiritual blindness. What is this cause? Hypocrisy. Keeping up the appearances of a good Catholic, but compromising the substance.

The surest way to banish hypocrisy from our lives is to adopt as our personal motto the phrase that Jesus taught us in the Our Father: "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done."

God's will is dependable and truthful, and when we make it our highest priority, we too become dependable and truthful.

And unlike followers of some other religions, as Christians we have an objective standard for God's will that protects us from doing evil and calling it "the will of God."