Daily Bible Reflections

June 20, 2011
HYPOCRITE

“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take that speck out of your eye,’ while all the time the plank remains in your own? You hypocrite!” – Matthew 7:4-5

During an interview, a presidentiable was saying we should stop speaking bad about others. He was later asked why he was running again when he had already lost in the past. His countenance changed as he recounted how he was cheated. He went on ranting about his political enemies. The interviewer reminded him of his earlier statement about not speaking ill of each other. The candidate was caught with his foot in his mouth and he was visibly embarrassed.
The word hypocrite comes from the ancient Greek plays where an actor would wear a smiling mask while delivering comic lines and change to a sad mask when saying tragic lines. The actor was called hypocritos.
All of us wear a mask at one time or another in order to be more acceptable to others. But time will come when all our pretenses will catch up with us. One of the lines in the movie Doctor Zhivago says, “Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel...” Sooner or later we shall be unmasked as we stand before God and we shall be held accountable for every word we have spoken in our life. Ronna Ledesma(ronnaledesma@email.com)
20
REFLECTION:
“Neither men nor angels can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible — except to God.” (John Milton, Paradise Lost)

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in me…