Gospel of 26 August 2026
Wednesday of the Twenty- First Week in Ordinary Time
Matthew 23:27-32
You are the sons of those who murdered the prophets
Jesus said: ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who are like whitewashed tombs that look handsome on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of corruption. In the same way you appear to people from the outside like good honest men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who build the sepulchres of the prophets and decorate the tombs of holy men, saying, “We would never have joined in shedding the blood of the prophets, had we lived in our fathers’ day.” So! Your own evidence tells against you! You are the sons of those who murdered the prophets! Very well then, finish off the work that your fathers began.’
Reflexion
In yesterday’s gospel, we are treated to the first part of our Lord’s indictment of the Pharisees, accusing them of their hypocrisy. One would think that Jesus is done reprimanding them. Today, our Lord continues His rant and launches his second round of diatribes against this group.
Our Lord accuses them of being like whitewashed tombs, pretty on the outside, but putrid decaying corpses on the inside. Our Lord really knows how to give an insult. Everyone knows what whitewashing means: applying a coat of white paint over a surface, most likely to cover up any unwanted defect or stain. But here when the term is used metaphorically, our Lord is trying to highlight some of the instances of the Pharisees’ hypocrisy, making a lie look like the truth, making something bad look good, hiding the stench of their sordid intention by masking it with perfume of pretentious pleasantries.
Our Lord also condemns the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who appear to honour the memory of the prophets by erecting monuments to them, but in reality lack any respect in heeding the teachings of the prophets, in a way, this is as bad as killing them, which is what their ancestors did to the prophets whenever they refused to listen to the latter.
Quite interestingly in modern times, so many virtue signal by singing praises and offering soaring eulogies to the dead. Perhaps, this may actually be a cover up because they had badly treated the person while he or she was alive. Remember, we should honour our elders and our teachers by listening to them while they are alive and not wait till they’re dead to tell them how we actually felt. Your praises will do the dead no good. They can’t hear you. Only God can hear you and see through your hypocrisy.
In His final confrontation with the Pharisees, the Lord revealed the depth of their sin and its consequences. It had resulted in a spiritual blindness so profound they could not see hell gaping open wide her jaws to receive them, nor even the closer destruction of their nation and temple. But what they should have seen, and did, was the truth revealed by their Messiah.
Sadly in seeing and not responding, in loving the praise of men more than the honour of God, they became fully blind and refused to let the Saviour heal them of their affliction. That blindness will only be lifted by the blaze of glory at the Last Judgment, but it would be a realisation that would come too late.
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