Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Matthew (23: 27-32) in which Jesus draws attention to the double standards of the scribes and Pharisees, saying ‘Alas for you, you hypocrites!’ Fr Paul says in this Gospel we hear the last two of the seven ‘Woes!’ or ‘alas’ and they take on a darker hue, twice Jesus mentions dusty and unclean tombs. Jesus also condemns the Pharisees for thinking they were different from their ancestors and would never have shed the blood of the prophets if they had been alive in those days. So, Jesus calls them hypocrites, not once, but three times in this Gospel. The Gospel today is challenging us to look at our own lives. We, too, can be easily blind to our own hypocrisies that exist in our lives just like the Pharisees were. In closing, for our reflection Fr Paul invites us to consider, ‘What are those hypocrisies in my life at the moment?