Jesus points the finger at the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees. They concern themselves with trifles, instead of practising justice and mercy.
They are whitewashed sepulchres, displaying an appearance that only serves as a smokescreen to inner rot.
Francis detested the hypocrisy reproached by Jesus to the scribes and Pharisees, and he was careful not to cultivate it in any form.
Even when illness forced him to slacken his fasts to regain his strength, he would then denounce everything before the people, openly, to earn contempt.
In fact, in the Major Legend it is written:
"It was a demonstration of perfect humility, which teaches the follower of Christ the need to despise praise and passing praise, to repress the pomp and arrogance of ostentation and to expose the fraudulent lies of hypocrisy" (FF 1104).
One day to a friar who was showing his sad face he said:
«The servant of God must not show himself to others sad and gloomy, but always serene.
To your sins, reflect in your room and in the presence of God weep and wail.
But when you return among the brothers, leave sadness behind and conform to others» (FF 712).
«Woe to you, hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you resemble whitewashed tombs that look splendid on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every impurity» (Mt 23:27)
Wednesday 21st wk. in O.T. (Mt 23:27-32)
