Hypocrisy is not the language of Jesus, and it must not be the language of Christians either, because a hypocrite is capable of killing a community. Christianity and hypocrisy are incompatible. Hypocrites, Jesus uses so many times in referring to the scribes. They are hypocrites, because outwardly they show one thing, but they think something else, as the very etymology of the word shows” (Gr. Hypocrisies). These scribes speak, judge, but think otherwise. And this is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is not the language of Jesus. Hypocrisy is not the language of Christians. A Christian cannot be a hypocrite, and a hypocrite is not a Christian. This is very clear. It’s the word Jesus uses the most of these people: hypocrite. Let us see how they proceed: a hypocrite is always a sycophant, more or less, but he is a flatterer.
Hypocrites always begin their speech with flattery. The scribes tried to flatter Jesus. Condescension also means not telling the truth, it means exaggerating, allowing vanity to grow. Jesus’ answer to the hypocrites always points to reality. Flattery begins with bad intentions. And that is exactly the case with the scribes, as today’s Gospel from St. Mark (Mk 12,13-17). Scripture tells how the scribes tempted Jesus, beginning with flattery, and then asking an insidious question, waiting for him to fall into their trap: «Is it free to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?» (v. 14)
The hypocrite has this double face. But Jesus knew their hypocrisy and said clearly: “Why are you tempting me?!” Bring me a denarius, let me look at it!’ Jesus always answers hypocrites and ideologues as it really is. The reality is, everything else is either hypocrisy or ideology. But this is the fact: bring me a denarius. And he shows what the reality is, he answers with this wisdom of the Lord: ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s – the fact was that the diners had the image of Caesar – and what is God’s to God’.
Hypocrisy is killing Christian communities. The third aspect is that the language of hypocrisy is the language of deceit, it is the same language that the serpent used on Eve, the same. It begins with flattery in order to destroy people, even to tear the personality and soul out of a person; it’s killing the community’. If there are hypocrites in the community, there is great danger, there is a terrible danger. The Lord Jesus told us: “Let your yes be yes, [and your] no, no.” All excess comes from evil”. How much harm does hypocrisy cause the Church.
Hypocrisy is capable of killing a community.He speaks sweetly, but he judges people harshly. A hypocrite is a murderer. Let’s say it again: [when someone] starts flattering, the answer is just to point out the fact: ‘Don’t come here with these words, the reality is this’. And the same with the ideology: ‘This is the reality’. And finally, it is the same tongue of the devil that sows, this double-edged tongue in communities to destroy them. Let us ask the Lord to protect us from falling into this bad habit of hypocrisy, pretending in an attitude, behind which, however, evil intentions are hidden. May the Lord give us this grace: ‘Lord, may I never be a hypocrite, may I be able to speak the truth, and if I cannot speak it, may I be silent, but never, never, never a hypocrite’.
