Jesus upbraided the crowd for not interpreting the present time as being the Messianic Age. They didn’t realize that the Christ was among them, so Jesus says to them, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky; but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”
It may seem harsh at first that Jesus is calling the people hypocrites for not realizing that he is the Christ. But we have to think of the tone that Jesus probably spoke these words in. I doubt he had a harsh tone of voice. His tone of voice probably had frustration in it, but also affection. Harshness is born of fear, and Jesus wasn’t afraid of the people. He loved them.
But why is a person hypocritical for not interpreting the present time? To answer this, let’s turn to the present time. We are currently in the Messianic Age, so Christ is approaching us directly at each moment, and forming His Church according to His will. He is constantly forming the Church to address the needs and concerns of the contemporary age, because Christ reaches out to people where they are.
When a person does not interpret the way Christ is reaching out to him and the rest of the world, but rather has his own plan for his salvation and apostolate, he quickly becomes hypocritical. This is because he claims he is on the path to sanctity, and that he is leading others toward God, but really he is ostracizing himself from the Body of Christ by choosing his own plan over God’s plan.
The people whom Jesus addresses in the quoted Gospel passage were hypocrites in part because they could interpret physical signs but not spiritual signs, but also because they had their own plan for what the Messiah should look like, and Jesus was not falling into line with their ideals. They claimed to be God’s people, yet they were denying God and his plan. This is hypocrisy.
It’s up to us to do our best to keep up with the Church so that we don’t end up being hypocrites. There are several ways to do this. First, we need to listen to our Pope, the Vicar of Christ, who sets out a plan of action for the Church. Our current Pope seems to emphasize the importance of joy, tenderness and mercy when relating to others. According to Evangelii Gaudium all members of the Church are called to spread the faith with joy. Not a bad plan.
Another way to remain in Christ is by listening to priests who, in their homilies and meditations, continually bring the Word of God to life in our contemporary circumstances. The Word of God is living and effective, and priests interpret it for the present age. We can also interpret Scripture ourselves, and do our best to apply it to our lives.
It’s the struggle of every person who calls himself Christian to let go of everything that goes against the will of God. God wants us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, which means doing our best to live without hypocrisy, in the joy of Christ who is constantly coming out to us and inviting us into the feast. All we have to do is say “yes.”
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