"O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor haughty my eyes. I have not gone after things too great nor marvels beyond me. Truly I have set my soul in silence and peace. A weaned child on its mother’s breast, even so is my soul.” The prayer of the responsorial psalm, with its call to humble contemplation, is in sharp contrast to the prophet Malachi’s condemnation of the priests in the Old Testament reading, and Jesus’s condemnation of the Scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel. The contrast is surely deliberate. If we are to avoid the hypocrisy condemned in the priests, Scribes and Pharisees, we must surely begin with ourselves. If we truly rest in the Lord, surrendering ourselves to him in heart and mind, our lives will rarely betray his love. The prophet Malachi preached during the period following the restoration of Israel after the exile and destruction of Jerusalem. This had been a period of high expectation, but those hopes had been disappointed. The priests, charged with the sanctification of God’s people, had clearly failed in their calling. Their transgressions are not described in detail, but their lives had clearly failed to mirror God’s holiness and compassion for his people. “You have strayed from the way, you have caused many to stumble by your teaching. You have shown partiality in your administration.” The charges laid by Jesus at the feet of the Pharisees were likewise uncompromising. “They do not practise what they preach. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but will they lift a finger to move them? Everything is done to attract attention.” We are tempted to join in the condemnation, a tendency well illustrated in the modern preoccupation with disgraced celebrities. Before we rush to judgment, we would do well to consider anew the concluding remarks of both the prophet Malachi and Jesus. In their different ways both Malachi and Jesus remind us that we have but one God and Father, one Creator and teacher. We are all accountable to this one Father, who has called us in mercy and compassion. It is from the prayerful contemplation of this God and Father that all judgment should proceed. “O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor haughty my eyes.”