Wednesday, October 9, 2024

 Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

(Galatians 2: 1-2.12-17; Luke 11:1-4)

The word hypocrisy comes from a Greek word meaning to play a part or to pretend.  Hypocrites evidently were originally actors.  In modern parlance hypocrites pretend to be virtuous when they actually are the opposite.  They attempt to deceive.  So when Paul accuses Peter of hypocrisy in today’s reading from Galatians, he is leveling a serious charge.

Peter is caught in the bind between following Jewish custom and living in Christ.  Being a Jew, Peter grew up eating kosher.  But faith in Jesus means that following his ways of sacrificial love, and not a particular diet, brings salvation.  Peter had shown reliance on Christ by taking food freely with non-Jews.  But now in the presence of Jewish Christians he pretends that he would never do such a thing.  This behavior sends a mixed message which, Paul knows, will confuse non-Jews. In Paul’s view the mixed message has brought some Galatians to submit to circumcision rather than to concentrate on following Jesus.

Diametrically different from Peter’s hypocrisy, we likely exhibit the vice by covering up our religiosity.  Catholics who miss Mass on Sundays in order to attend a football game betray their commitment to the Church.  They want to be known as both lovers of God and of the world.  There may be some overlap, but we cannot square a circle.  We must not conform to the world but encourage the world to convert to God.

 

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