At certain times liturgical readings can be especially. For example (in recent weeks and days, with the Church in a bit of upheaval):
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.” (Matthew 23:15).
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August 28:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean” [Matthew 23: 23-26].
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Here is the root of the clergy crisis: pride.
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Blind emulation of Pharisees.
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“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).
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No reading is as sobering as that one. How anyone could act as some have acted after hearing such Mass readings seems unfathomable — unless the person simply does not believe.
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But this promise: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).