Reflection
Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.”
Mark 10: 2-16
Jesus had a no-nonsense policy of frankness and directness. He did not waste his energies or his time with protocols he felt were distracting the people from the real message of discipleship. It is so much easier to observe the rituals and rules than to live the message of the Gospel. It is so much easier to be self-satisfied because we have covered all prescribed obligations than to live the radical message of Jesus. It is so much easier to live a superficial piety than to risk a painful conversion that leads to real inner change. It is so much easier to be pleasant than to be prophetic.
Prayer
Help me, O Lord, to follow you with honesty and self-knowledge.
Action
How do I view my own spiritual practice? In what do I base my pattern of living? Where do I see a divide between Christ’s message and its practice in our political and religious arenas? What would it mean if I answered the real challenge of Jesus’ teaching?
Suggested Reading
The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,
“Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”
They were testing him.
Mark 10:2
Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said to them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Mark 7:1-13
Hypocrisy in the Church is particularly detestable, and unfortunately there is hypocrisy in the Church, and there are many hypocritical Christians and ministers. We should never forget the Lord’s words: ‘Let what you say be simply Yes or No; anything more than this comes from evil.
Pope Francis
People who are suffering right now are not into piety. They need to experience God through people.
Patricia Sullivan
Grown men can learn from very little children—for the hearts of little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show them many things that older people miss.
Black Elk
And beware of showing hypocritical piety — piety that you do not really feel, and beware of showing piety on your face when you do not feel it in your heart.
Sufyān al-Thawrī
It’s easy to believe in the Way, and difficult to keep it.
Chinese Proverb
Being kind to someone, only to look kind to others, defeats the purpose of being kind.
Shannon L. Alder
Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety. It shows itself in acts rather than in words, and has more influence than homilies or protestations.
Louisa May Alcott