Hypocrisy

HYPOCRISY. - From ὑποκρισία, it means etymologically fiction: in the real sense it indicates the simulation of goodness, humility, holiness in order to hide one's own feelings and win the favor of others.

The acts that the hypocrite performs are pure and simple ostentation, poisoned by egoism and ambition, greedy for honor and covetousness. Hypocrisy, in fact, is nothing but the direct consequence, together with boastfulness and ostentation, of vainglory, which is the disordered love of the esteem of others; vanity in turn, together with presumption and ambition, is the direct daughter of pride, which is the deviation of that legitimate sentiment that leads one to esteem the good that is in man and to seek the esteem of others within the limits necessary for the good relations that one must have with other men.

Holy Scripture considers hypocrisy particularly in the field of religion. In this case the extreme gravity of the sin is given by the fact that God and piety are exploited by the hypocrite for his vicious purposes, just as those Pharisees did, from whom comes the attribute of Pharisee for the hypocrite, who were severely judged by Jesus Christ.

Francesco Ercolani