Word of the day

A reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans
Rom 1:16-25

Brothers and sisters:
I am not ashamed of the Gospel.
It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes:
for Jew first, and then Greek.
For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith;
as it is written, "The one who is righteous by faith will live."

The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven
against every impiety and wickedness
of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
For what can be known about God is evident to them,
because God made it evident to them.
Ever since the creation of the world,
his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity
have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.
As a result, they have no excuse;
for although they knew God
they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks.
Instead, they became vain in their reasoning,
and their senseless minds were darkened.
While claiming to be wise, they became fools
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for the likeness of an image of mortal man
or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.

Therefore, God handed them over to impurity
through the lusts of their hearts
for the mutual degradation of their bodies.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie
and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator,
who is blessed forever. Amen.

From the Gospel according to Luke
Lk 11:37-41

After Jesus had spoken,
a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home.
He entered and reclined at table to eat.
The Pharisee was amazed to see
that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.
The Lord said to him, "Oh you Pharisees!
Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish,
inside you are filled with plunder and evil.
You fools!
Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?
But as to what is within, give alms,
and behold, everything will be clean for you."

Hypocrisy is the language of the devil; it is the language of evil that enters our hearts and is sown by the devil. Hypocritical language—I won't say it's normal, but it's common; it's an everyday thing. To appear in one way and to be in another. In the struggle for power, for example, envy and jealousy make you appear in one way, and inside, there is the poison to kill because hypocrisy always kills, sooner or later.

We must learn to accuse ourselves: 'I did this, I think this way, maliciously... I am envious, I would like to destroy that...,' what is inside us, our own, and say it to ourselves, before God. This is a spiritual exercise that is not common, not habitual, but let's try to do it: accuse ourselves, see ourselves in sin, in hypocrisy, in the evil that is in our hearts. Because the devil sows evil and tell the Lord, 'Look, Lord, this is how I am!' and say it with humility. (Santa Marta, 15 October 2019)