Luke 11:42–46

Verse 43. Salutations in the market-place, and so forth Such as wish to be saluted, and have the first places, that they may appear great, are likened to sepulchres, which are covered externally with ornaments, but are filled inwardly with rottenness. S. Cyril ex D. Thoma.

Verse 44. Sepulchres that appear not. This comparison is partly different from that of Matthew 23:27. For there Christ compares hypocrites to whitened sepulchres, which may be seen and avoided; here he compares them to sepulchres covered with grass, which appear not: yet the comparison, in the main, is the same; that whether they appear or not, still under them is corruption: as the interior of the Pharisees was always full of vice and corruption. Witham.—Men that walk, and so forth Because they bear with them a fair outside, but are made up of nothing but corruption. Saint Ambrose.

Verse 45. Then one of the lawyers, and so forth Correction, which turns to the advantage of the meek, appears always more intolerable to the wicked. Christ denounces woes against the Pharisees for deviating from the right path, and the doctors of the law found them equally applicable to themselves. S. Cyril ex D. Thoma.—How miserable is the conscience which, upon hearing the word of God, thinks itself insulted, and always hears the punishment of the reprobate rehearsed as the words of its own condemnation. Ven. Bede.