John 18:19-22. After Jesus' arrest, the high priest asks him about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answers "I have spoken openly to the world ... I have said nothing secretly. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me ... they know what I said."

Yesterday's reading from Tobit included Raphael's advice to praise God openly, in front of others. Today Jesus is saying that he has always spoken openly, he did nothing in secret. In order to evangelize well (which we are all called to do) we must be honest and open. We must testify to God's grace openly just as Raphael suggests, but we also must live in that goodness - we must in fact live like people God has called into the light. This means that we don't say one thing in public and another in private. We try our hardest to live the Word that we are trying to proclaim.

We have all seen and heard the people who preach so loudly in public and then they go and act completely differently in their own lives. They might be preaching the secular value of "tolerance" in public, but they cannot even listen to a contrary opinion without lashing out; or they might be priests who say Mass in the morning and are abusing or covering up abuse of children in the afternoon. These are the worst form of hypocrites, and they do more damage to their cause than anyone else.

Normal people, all of whom are sinners, see the lecturing, the preaching tone from these people and they see the harm and hate that they are trying to hide and this drives them away from the cause, whatever it may be. The Church is losing people left and right due to this hypocrisy. It has an obligation to teach the Truth, God's Truth, not man's, but many of its priests are preaching secular values with a belittling, dismissive attitude towards those who disagree, or they are saying one thing and doing another in private.

To successfully evangelize, we must strive to be like Jesus - openly preach truth, and try our best to live it - do nothing contradictory in secret. We are not Jesus, so we will fail, but when we do fail we must admit it, be honest and ask for forgiveness. People understand that, and are willing to forgive an honest person, but they are rightly turned completely off by rampant hypocrisy.