Recently, I have been wondering about why hypocrites exist. Now, a hypocrite is a person who states he believes in a set of moral or religious beliefs, but acts contrary to those beliefs.
It seems to me that hypocrisy comes from a blindness to one's predominant fault or faults.
For example, a woman who suffers from the predominant fault of vainglory and cares too much about how she looks or how other people see her, will spend too much time on clothes, make-up, hair, even wasting money on excessive care for her body. She may even fall into lying to cover up this fault.
But, she may at the same time go to Church on Sunday, read Catholic sources, and maybe go to Confession every few months.
She had blinded herself to her predominant fault and will probably make excuses for vainglory.
The predominant faults are hard to too out. These are the faults which lead one to one's most common sins.
For example, if one is defensive and lies a lot, one may have the predominant fault of deceit.
If one is highly critical of others, she may experience pride as a predominant fault.
Hypocrisy grows from not facing one's predominant faults.
