This (above) is my big Easter present so far. It arrived as I was immersed in the Gospel of Luke on my morning shift at the White House.
A search at the site Start Loving would show that I've been wrestling over the last year or so to better understand what Hypocrisy, that which most in the world horrified my hero Jesus, means. Recent strides for me have been understanding that Hypocrisy has to do with lying to yourself - first. But that does not capture it fully. And, it is much more insidious than that. And, the pejorative connotation of the word "Hypocrisy" does not ring fully true regarding what Jesus was getting at. Cancer may be evil, but to get mad it, or to cast aspersions at it, to have a pejorative connotation associated with it is a dangerously needless distraction.
Well the leap for me, my Easter gift, was to understand that lack of integrity / inconsistency / impurity / chronic dissonance between word and deed, sentiment and action is more central to what Jesus was horrified by than anything else I have yet understood in association with the concept Hypocrisy. And centrally it is that dreadful, murderous, malignant capacity we have to feel / think / intend / say one thing, but do another. THIS was Jesus greatest horror for us.
I'm sure this breakthru for me was encouraged by some recent quotes I've encountered, and maybe shared with you already:
Happy Easter!
A search at the site Start Loving would show that I've been wrestling over the last year or so to better understand what Hypocrisy, that which most in the world horrified my hero Jesus, means. Recent strides for me have been understanding that Hypocrisy has to do with lying to yourself - first. But that does not capture it fully. And, it is much more insidious than that. And, the pejorative connotation of the word "Hypocrisy" does not ring fully true regarding what Jesus was getting at. Cancer may be evil, but to get mad it, or to cast aspersions at it, to have a pejorative connotation associated with it is a dangerously needless distraction.
Well the leap for me, my Easter gift, was to understand that lack of integrity / inconsistency / impurity / chronic dissonance between word and deed, sentiment and action is more central to what Jesus was horrified by than anything else I have yet understood in association with the concept Hypocrisy. And centrally it is that dreadful, murderous, malignant capacity we have to feel / think / intend / say one thing, but do another. THIS was Jesus greatest horror for us.
I'm sure this breakthru for me was encouraged by some recent quotes I've encountered, and maybe shared with you already:
- "Sentiment without [commensurate] action is the ruin of the soul." Edward Abbey
- "We are doing what's right before God. That's what we are called to do, and what happens happens." Louis Vitale
- "You are what you DO, not what you say, think, feel, envision or intend." Start Loving
Happy Easter!
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