Pope Francis warns against hypocrisy, it jeopardizes the unity of the Church.
Francis says: “Hypocrisy can be called the fear of the truth, that it is better to pretend than to be yourself. It can suffocate the courage to openly say what is true.”
He warned: “hypocrisy flourishes in the environment where interpersonal relations are lived under the banner of formalism.”
Pope Francis warned both those who exercise authority in civil life and those who exercise authority in the life of the Church. He warns: “Brother and sisters, a frequent defect in those who have authority, both civil and ecclesiastical authority, is that of requiring from others things, even correct things, that they, however, do not practice themselves. They live a double life.”
All sin is a lie. The sinner is a hypocrite, and hypocrite is a liar. Sin is the refusal to be who I am. Sin is a masquerade. I pretend that I am in charge rather than accepting the truth that I am made in the image of God and dependent on God for all; that all I am and have – physically, emotionally, spiritually is the gift of God.
Francis spoke especially to those in authority in the Church. “People who pretend, flatter and deceive because they live with a mask over their faces and do not have the courage to face the truth.”
He asked that leaders be accepting of their weaknesses and acknowledge, that like their followers, they too are on the road to becoming true disciples of Christ.
Father Steve Adrian
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