Full of Dead Men’s Bones

Gospel Reflection for August 27, 2025

Taken from The Three Ages of the Interior Life by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange. Page 366.

Today’s Gospel is a section of St. Matthew’s Gospel wherein Our Blessed Lord is chastising the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. This is a larger dialogue which includes seven woes which are pronounced on the Pharisees for their hypocrisy in front of the people. Today’s Gospel deals with two woes. For this reflection, I want to focus on the first:

“Jesus said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.” Matthew 23:27-28

Last year, I addressed the Whitewashed Tombs here. I want to return to this idea in light of the spiritual reality that is communicated through this analogy.

To begin, though, Our Lord pronounces a total of seven woes against the Pharisees. By no means is this a random occurrence. This pronouncement is very Old Testament, so to speak. If we return to the prophets, we can find oracles of judgment pronounced against the unfaithful people of Israel.¹ The use of the term occurs around 50 times in the Old Testament and relates to the mourning of someone’s death. This can either be the pronouncement of a woe after the bodily death of someone, or, more commonly, the future death of a person on account of their sin and the judgment of God falling upon them.

With this in mind, Our Lord takes up this Old Testament reference and pronounces His seven woes against the Pharisees, emphasizing their spiritual sins, which cause the death of the soul. Many scholars point to Leviticus 26 as the foundation of these seven woes:

“And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will chastise you again sevenfold for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like brass, and your strength shall be spent in vain, for you land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.” Leviticus 26:18-20

The text follows with many chastisements, which follow upon this sevenfold promise of chastisement for the sin of pride. It is here that we can see the connection to the chastisements pronounced by Christ against the Pharisees.

Outwardly, the Pharisees are whitewashed tombs, that is, tombs that look healthy and new on the outside, i.e., according to their great works and appearance of holiness. The Pharisees made it appear that they were holy, taking up high places at tables, and wearing their vestments in an emphatic way.² All of these external glories are there to hide the spiritual rot inside. Just like the tomb, they are dead inside. St. Thomas makes comment:

“Inside a sepulcher there is a dead body; there is sometimes an image outside of such a size, which seems in appearance to live; you have the name of being alive: and you are dead (Rev 3:1). And so he says, which outwardly appear beautiful to men owing to the outward decoration put on it, but within are full of dead men’s bones, and of all filthiness, i.e., every rottenness and every uncleanness.”³

What we find here is the true danger of spiritual sins. The Pharisees guard themselves and their image against the sins of the flesh so that they appear righteous. But they are guilty of the far graver sins of the spirit, chief among them being pride. According to St. Thomas, generally speaking, these spiritual sins are worse than the corporal sins:

“I answer that, spiritual sins are of greater guilt than carnal sins: yet this does not mean that each spiritual sin is of greater guilt than each carnal sin; but that, considering the sole difference between spiritual and carnal, spiritual sins are more grievous than carnal sins, other things being equal.”⁴

For St. Thomas and the other great moralists, Pride stands as the queen of all vices since it is the root of all the other capital sins. And so this turning away from God is far more serious than other sins. For St. Thomas, the spiritual sins are more grievous for three reasons:

1. In spiritual sin, there is a turning away from God in the spirit, while in the sins of the flesh, there is a turning toward something according to the appetites. A turning away from God is graver than a turning toward something else.

2. It is graver because of the person against whom the sin is committed. With the sins of the flesh, it is the person’s own body that is sinned against. With the spiritual sins, it is God Himself who is sinned against primarily.

3. The motive of the sin. The sins of the flesh come with a stronger impulse to sin on account of the concupiscence of the flesh. The stronger the impulse to sin, the less grievous the sin, as he writes in Article 6. Thus, the spiritual sins are graver.

The Pharisees, and likewise, any person who falls into the spiritual sins, especially pride, are the whitewashed tombs which are full of dead men’s bones. We allow the death of our soul when we fall into these spiritual sins. It is precisely the outward appearance of holiness that is the result of that inward pride. We whitewash ourselves on the outside so that we do not reflect the rot inside.

The antidote to all of this is humility. I have written about it many times. The most complete treatment is here. We cannot ascend the mountain of the spiritual life if we are not holy. St. Thomas tells us why in the above article. It is through pride, which is the destruction of humility, that we turn away from God. This is why Our Lord continuously emphasizes the need for humility. He desires us to remove the dead man’s bones from our interior cellar and allow His Grace to perfect us in humility and charity.

Humility is the foundation of the interior life. Without it, we cannot get to heaven. Without it, we remain whitewashed tombs, full of dead men’s bones.

For more from Dr. McGovern, visit his Substack at A Thomist, Dedicated to the Theological tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas. Exploring Thomas' Spiritual Theology and topics in Christology and Mariology.

1. Cf. Isaiah 5:8-23; Ezekial 24:6, 9; and Habakkuk 2:6-20.

2. Cf. Matthew 23:5-6.

3. St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, C. 23, L. 2, 1879.

4. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 73 a. 5. This does not mean that we should allow ourselves to fall into the sins of the flesh, counting ourselves righteous for not falling into pride. That would be pride itself. It should be remembered that Our Lady of Fatima revealed that more souls go to Hell because of the sins of the flesh than any other sins. Not because they are the most grievous, but because they are the most common.