We come today to the last two of the seven 'Woes' which Jesus throws against Pharisaism. Again it is an attack on hypocrisy and He gives two examples. Many of the Pharisees were in fact deeply religious people and Jesus is not against them but against a certain kind of self-righteousness where everyone else is seen as inferior and out of step with correct thinking and behaviour. It is a mentality which can easily be seen in our own Christian communities. The more committed we are to our Christian faith and to the behaviour that it expects, the greater the danger that we, too, can fall into the same trap and see ourselves on a higher level than others whose behaviour we deplore and perhaps even attack. Whole groups of such people have been appearing in recent years, people who claim to know the Church better than the Pope, who deplore the "heresies" of the Second Vatican Council, who close themselves off into elitist groups afraid of being contaminated not only by the "world" but even by other Catholics!

Perhaps we, too, have found ourselves criticising other Catholics for being 'lax' with the rules or with doctrine, spoken critically of other Christians or the people of other religions and wondering why they are not like us¡K like me.