This is Scott Han and I want to welcome you to the Road to Amaeus, a podcast from the St Paul Center. How can we overcome our current crisis of faith? The same way we overcome our

crisis of loneliness through friendship. At least that's what the early

Christians would say. Learn more in Mike Aquiliness, friendship and the fathers.

Visit our shownotes at St Paul Center.com forward slash Road to a Mass, I want to begin a discussion on hypocrisy,

a term that Jesus uses to address the Pharisees. This topic was sparked by the daily

readings from last Monday's Letters from Home Podcast. So I want to begin there but I

want to start off by pointing out the obvious that when Jesus refers to the

Pharisees and the scribes as hypocrites this term is one of the most important

words that Jesus ever uses, but it is also the single most misunderstood word in Jesus sermons.

So I want to invite you to consider the fact that hypocrisy means almost exactly the opposite of what people suppose.

Stay with me.

Today we're going to be looking at the Monday of the 21st week in ordinary time that would be August 23rd

We have three readings as is the custom the first the custom

the the thessalonians first thessalonians one thessalonians one the second

reading the responseorial Psalm is taken from the second the last

Psalm in the Psalter, Psalm 149, and I hope to spend more time

today looking at the third reading and that is The Gospel, according to Matthew, taken from chapter 23.

So let's back up and look briefly at what Paul tells the Thessalonians.

It's the opening of the epistle, and First Thessalonians is most likely the very first of

Paul's letters written around 48 or 49 a.d. And so we read Paul, Sylvanus and

Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians. Well who is

Sylvanus that's Paul and Silas and so Silas was the one who

...