Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
What motivates us? Are we trying to look good or to actually be good? We all have a little Pharisee in us, concerned with appearing religious in the eyes of others. The question is what is going on in our hearts. Do we celebrate the teachings of the Church while failing to practice it? Of course we do, to one degree or another.
Thus you bear witness against yourselves
that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets
It is just way too easy to become satisfied with the outward show. We probably start off with better motivation but then become accustomed to the reward of how we are seen by other people. This motive comes to dominate until eventually we aren't particularly interested in the good acts themselves as long as we appear good before the world. This is why Jesus suggests that we often do our works secretly. He suggests we give and pray in secret so that we can cut ourselves off from dependence on this motivation. God is sufficient. He by himself can be sufficient to motivate us when we are willing to rely on him alone.
The genuine work of the Kingdom isn't always glamorous. It is sometimes the "toil and drudgery" of which Paul speaks. It is working "night in day" in order to not be a burden. It is constant effort at devout, just, and blameless behavior in all our relationships. We need to receive the word of God, not as the word of men, but as the word of God that it really is. Then it has the power to make us overcome all this hypocrisy. Otherwise, if we treat it like any other word, we throw it out when it is inconvenient. We do not pursue it when the reward is not immediate. But if it is the word of God we surrender to it and thereby unleash its power in our lives. The LORD knows who we are. He knows about our mixed motives. This is exactly why he stands always ready to shine his light upon us and to cast the darkness from us.
If I say, "Surely the darkness shall hide me,
and night shall be my light"–
For you darkness itself is not dark,
and night shines as the day.
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