We are all hypocrites

OK, let’s take it easy. What I mean is that in spite of our best

efforts, we continue to be haunted by our tendency to say one thing

yet do another. It’s a predicament we all are subject to. Hypocrisy

and deception can become very attractive to us because they offer us

some instant if false relief or convenience or advantage.

Sometimes there are good reasons for playing a game similar to

hypocrisy. That’s when we need to be discreet, tactful and prudent.

This would not be hypocrisy. In other cases, it is simply malice and

pure deception that we are playing. The latter is what we should try

to avoid.

Christ’s injunction to his disciples to do and observe all things the

scribes and Pharisees were saying, but not to follow their example,

because they preach but they do not practice what they preach (cfr Mt

23,1-2), continues to be effective up to now.

We need to exert continuing effort to avoid falling into this

predicament. But, of course, given our weakened and wounded human

condition, we cannot deny that sometimes, and even many times, we can

fall into the ways of the scribes and Pharisees.

    Just the same, we can still get God’s good graces by doing the first

part of the injunction, that is, to continue teaching and preaching

the good news even if our behavior is not yet at par to what we are

preaching.

    As long as we striving to close the gap between our words and our

deeds, I suppose things would just be all right. After all, no matter

how much we try, things can always be better. There’s no such state of

perfection in this life, in our thoughts, words and deeds that cannot

be improved further. So, let’s just be game.

    Otherwise, we would all be saints here in this life, since there

would be no more sin if we say things cannot be improved anymore. But

the immediate, very obvious reality tells us otherwise. What is

important is that we just try our best to conform our actions to our

words and intentions, and our intentions conformed to God’s will.

    This is what is called consistency or integrity or unity of life, a

goal that we have pursue everyday, making the relevant plans that

consider our usual problems and difficulties in this regard and the

means we need to precisely reach that goal.

    We need to remember that for us to be able to do this, we need to be

with God, to have a certain intimacy with him where we can truly have

a heart-to-heart conversation with him. That’s when we can manage to

be sincere and authentic.

    Let’s remember that truthfulness is always a matter of having a

relation with God, because God in the first place is the Truth

himself, the creator of the universe and therefore of reality itself.

We can never be truthful just by ourselves, that is, without God, no

matter how much we profess to be honest.

    Especially in some difficult situations, when we are strongly tempted

to twists facts and tell lies, it is important to be firmly convinced

that it is better to abandon ourselves in the hands of God and tell

the truth, no matter what it costs.

Obviously, this abandoning ourselves in the hands of God to tell the

truth should also go hand in hand with the requirements of tact and

discretion, integral parts of charity. But we also have to make sure

that our sense of tact and discretion is not actually a cover for

cowardice and infidelity.

It always pays to trust in God even as we do everything we can to be

truthful. One anecdote that highlights this doctrine is about a father

whose child was born with a heart condition.

The doctors told him his son would not survive within the year if the

baby would not be operated on. And even the operation could only give

a 50-50 chance of survival.

The father was in crisis. Poor and the bill would run to almost half a

million pesos, he tried his best to look for the amount, but in the

end, could not raise it. He just told the doctor he was abandoning the

baby in the hands of God. He instead prayed and prayed.

I asked him what happened to the baby. The man said, “Father, my son

is now 21 years old. He is not quite healthy, but he manages to study

and do some work. He has never been a burden to us.”