It has often seemed to me that a big part of the public outrage with the Church over the sex abuse scandal has to do with hypocracy. The Church has for so long, and with such strident energy, taken very strong stands on sexual morality-- no sex outside marriage, no birth control, no divorce and remarriage-- that for members of the clergy to engage in sexual abuse, and for the organization to cover it up, seems like the ultimate in hypocracy. It is pretending to be moral and righteous on the surface, when in fact just the opposite is going on. And it is really easy not to like people who are hypocrites. Jesus uses that word, hypocrite, three times in today's Gospel reading (Mt 6: 1-6, 16-18) when talking about people who give alms just so folks can praise them for their generousity, or who look pained when they are fasting so that people can praise their religious practices, or who pray in such a way that others can see that they are praying and, presumably, think well of them. But before we break our arms patting ourselves on the back for not doing those things, we might step back and examine our own behaviors for hypocracy. I think most of us won't be happy with what we see when we do so. I was out at the Minnesota Zoo a few weeks ago, and there was a wall which prominently listed all the people and companies that had given money to the building of the zoo. How is that giving in such a way that our right hand doesn't know what the left is doing? I can't tell you how many churches I have been in where there is a wall, or names on the back of chairs, listing donors. Same question. Or how about the politicians who claim to be Catholic, but publically disagree with some of the Church's central teachings on marriage and the value of human life? The list could go on, because it is real easy to accuse others of hypocracy. But before we do that, we might check our own consistency. We claim to be Christians. We've just finished reading chapter 5 of Matthew's Gospel, in which Jesus issues some daunting challenges to us, demanding behaviors which we often can't deliver. Are we hypocrites? Maybe, or at least people who have trouble walking the walk. I think most of us, maybe almost-all of us, have places where we can't deliver what we say we are delivering. We might look at those places before we start calling others (including those in the Church) hypocrites. After all, even the act of calling someone a hypocrite (or thinking that they are) makes one a hypocrite, at least if you claim to be a Christian. Didn't Jesus say judge not lest we be judged?