All sin is hypocrisy: Homily for Thursday, August 29, 2024

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All sin is hypocrisy

All sin is hypocrisy. All sin is hypocrisy. That’s because oftentimes when we sin, we look like we’re not sinning. We put on a good front for people. We have a certain image of how it is that we want people to view us. But deep down inside, we know that our sin is really an act of hypocrisy.

We say that we want to follow God, but we don’t. The antidote, of course, to hypocrisy is truth, the motto of the Dominican Order. When we seek after the truth, we’re seeking after the person of Jesus himself who tells us, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” In fact, all of Catholic morality can be reduced to our relationship with Jesus and the love of our neighbor.

Today, we celebrate the beheading of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was committed to the truth. And the truth was that Herod had married the wife of his brother unlawfully. Now, on some level, it might have been easy for John the Baptist to say, “Well, what’s the big deal? Herod’s not Jewish anyway. Why should I care about what Herod is doing?”

But John was a man of the truth. Moreover, the truth was attractive. We see that Herod really was attracted to the words of John. He liked to listen to him. But he didn’t want to act on what he heard.

To be sure, it would have caused quite an uproar if he dismissed his wife. To be sure, if Herod had become Jewish, even more of an uproar. But John the Baptist reminds us of the importance of being committed to Jesus, who is the truth. To living our lives in a particular way so that we see in this relationship with Jesus the pathway to not only our salvation, but the salvation of others.

Saint Dominic was known to weep over the question, “What will become of sinners?” The Constitutions of the Order of Friars Preachers says that the Order of Friars Preachers was known from the beginning for the preaching and the salvation of souls.

We cannot hear the preaching, and it does not lead to the salvation of souls, if we don’t speak the truth. Today, let us ask the Lord to send grace into our hearts so that we might come to follow the Lord Jesus more completely by loving God and loving our neighbor.

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