Reflection
It is so much easier to be pleasant than to be prophetic. 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.
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
Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? He answered and said to them, Well hath Elaias 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
False piety is a way of disguising an empty heart, a mere outward show of virtue that lacks genuine inner substance.
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