Am I a hypocrite?

Matthew records Jesus using the word hypocrite several times.  Those who practice righteousness in order to be seen and judged by man, those who fast and show their misery at fasting, those who pray to be seen rather than to have their prayers heard by God, those who announce their generosity to the poor, those who judge the speck in the eye of another but miss the log in their own eye, those who honor Him with their lips but not with faith, and those who tithe meticulously but whose hearts are not generous -- among others -- are called hypocrites.  Quite literally it means those who hide behind a mask but Jesus condemns them because the mask they hide behind is faith and faith is not a mask at all.  Or, it should not be.  St. Paul also uses the word as a means of identifying a bad conscience, a false conscience.  This is the failure of “good faith,” preferring to deceive and using a mask to cover up what is real in order to be who you are not.

What is common here is that the intent is to deceive.  The hypocrite intends to deceive by the mask he or she wears.  It is the whole point of it all.  The whole point of it all is to appear to be someone different than you are -- to wear a mask not simply to hide what is underneath but to deceive others so that they do not believe it is there at all.  So Jesus and St. Paul both condemn the intentional deception or lie.  It is not hard to see or to minimize the harshness of the rebuke for those who act to deceive by applying a thin veneer of piety and righteousness to cover a heart empty of faith or love.  We all get that.  But that is not the only way the charge hypocrite is cast about against the Christian.

Christians have only the holiness of Christ as their sure possession.  Our own holiness and righteousness is a weak and fragile thing -- in process toward a completion God knows but we struggle to see.  The world would label those who have not attained perfection hypocrites also.  They are certainly free to use this word as they might but they are not free to enlist the support of Jesus to do so.  Jesus does not call the Christian who struggles to be holy but fails a hypocrite.  Jesus calls them a sinner of His own redeeming and a lamb of His own flock.  It is not by accident that when our Lord gathered with the disciples on Easter evening, His ordination of apostles into bishops was marked by the bestowal of the office of the keys and His gift of holy absolution.  Our Lord knew His Church would need the grace to restore the fallen and absolve the penitent and so He directly and profoundly addressed this need with Holy Absolution.  That He did this is testament to the difference our Lord notes between those who strive but fail in their pursuit of righteousness lips, thoughts, and lives to honor Him who redeemed them and those whose pride in their goodness diminishes their need for a Savior.

Christians, people in the world may call you a hypocrite for striving for the mark and missing it but our Lord does not.  He calls you His own, seeks you out with the voice of His Word, restores you through the grace of forgiveness, and works by the Spirit so you may strive again to be holy as He is holy.  Christians know who they are.  Sinners redeemed by the blood of Jesus.  This is not our shame but our glory -- that Jesus loves us sinners and forgives us our sins and restores us when we fall.  This is also why we should not dismiss such failures as human nature but lament them with the holy sorrow of repentance.  It is because we lament our sins and failures so greatly that we esteem Christ's forgiveness and restoration so highly.  The world may delight in the distance between who God says you are and your own personal righteousness but God refuses to call the Christian who strives and fails a hypocrite.  That ought to encourage us to strive even more!