The Gospel for The memorial of St. Monica is taken from Matthew 23:27 to the 32nd verse. 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 times of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in 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. When evil is involved, things don’t stay the same. They get worse, the lies get bigger, the hypocrisy grows.

And when that happens, there’s such a terrifying end to it all. When we look at these men who Jesus has complained about being not good ministers of the temple, now he actually says what their evil has led to. They the ministry of the temple is willing to kill the greatest prophet, the Son of God. Please reflect on the wisdom found in these readings and then I will close with a prayer. Satan Sam Foreign Closing prayer Father, help us to be aware of evil in our lives. Hypocrisy, little lies that we think are not that bad, but then they grow.

So help us always to pay attention to who we are and where we have weakness. Give us strength to change and to grow to enter the light. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.