Benedict XVI: Gospel a guide against false religiosity

The danger of false religiosity and hypocrisy was a focus of Pope Benedict XVI’s reflection before the Angelus Sunday morning in the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo. Recalling the words of Jesus against the scribes and Pharisees in this Sunday’s Gospel, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me”, the Pope said that even today we are tempted to put our safety and our joy in something that is not the Word of God. The Law of God remains,” he said, though not as the rule of life. “It rather becomes a revetment, a cover, and life follows other, often selfish interests.” The Holy Father went on to say that religion lived thusly is reduced to “a practice of secondary customs …