In the Old Testament, a great amount of importance was given to the many laws which needed to be followed in order to be faithful. Unfortunately, man people acted only to fulfill these laws and forgot about the importance of the intentions and their love for God. This resulted in many hypocrites who followed the rules minimally and acted against God’s law outside of their religious lives. What are some examples of hypocrisy in today’s society? How can this topic relate to Catholic politicians and their belief in the dignity of life? How can this relate to Catholics and their belief in the Holy Eucharist?
So you are sitting next to a woman at Mass, she reaches into her Burberry tote with a price tag of $1000 grabs her $500 Louis Vuitton wallet pulls out a few bucks to drop into the collection basket. People are much more concerned with how much they spend on what they look like rather than helping out the church. The fact that this (completely fictional) woman spent over $1500 on her accessories alone on just today’s outfit is just one example of hypocrisy today. Today’s celebrities are praised for giving only thousands of dollars away to charities while making millions on just one movie. The pretend to give so much away to the poor of the world but it only ends up as though a person of a modest income gave a dollar.
Today’s average politician will tell the voters of his ethics and outstanding moral convictions but are not so strong when it comes to take a stand on a touchy issue such as abortion. They might say that as apart of their Christian beliefs abortion is wrong, but they would not want to take away a woman’s right to choose for the life or death of their baby. They will say they are Christian and believe it is wrong but not truly live and practice their faith in their daily life. In some cases they will openly support issues that are against the Church’s teaching and still come to Mass to receive the Holy Eucharist. They seek only to fulfill the image of a dedicated Christian without truly loving God and His commandments. Their only interest is showing that they have some ties or connections to God but are not willing to sacrifice comfort or wide-spread acceptance because of their views.
Many Catholics today, struggle with the idea that the Holy Eucharist is actually the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Many just go through the motions of attending Sunday Mass, receiving the Eucharist and nonchalantly returning to their seats not understanding the awesome wonder of what they just took part in. Like the ancient Israelites who would just show up at the temple offer what meaningless little sacrifice, many Catholics live not really offering anything back to God.
We need to learn from the Israelites mistakes and learn to live our lives fully dedicated to what God wants us to do and how he wants us to live. By making meaningful sacrifices apart of our daily routine we can grow closer to Him. God really wants us to love Him completely and offer our trials and shortcomings of each day to Him. We must not be hypocrites and live purely for our own satisfaction but for love of God and do everything with Him in mind.
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