The Gospel for the memorial of St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church is taken from Matthew 23:27 32. Jesus said, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evil doing. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.

You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous. And you say, if we had lived in the day of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophet’s blood. Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets. Now fill up what your ancestors measured out. Underlying everything that Jesus has been saying about the Pharisees is a kind of hidden way of understanding the power that anyone in a role of ministry truly has and how important it is that they teach the truth and guide people, invite them into the truth in a way. You can read in these stories about the Pharisees what it is that God longs for and what he wills.

Ministers that minister truth. Please take the next few minutes to reflect upon the meaning of this scripture, and then I will close with a prayer. Foreign Father, give us an open mind, an open heart, so that when we listen to those who guide us that you give us the wisdom to discern what is true and what is not, so that we can always be guided by nothing other than the thing that’s most important to you, and that is that we embrace your truth. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.