“To avoid controversy, the deacon ignored the passage in his homily and preached his customary platitudes. After Mass, an irate parishioner – failing to distinguish between the sermon and the Gospel text – lambasted him for suggesting certain behavior was adulterous. The Gospel not only provokes consciences but can even implicate hesitant and timid messenger boys.”
It’s the “I’m a better priest than you others” attitude that is nothing like the example of the Christ of Scripture.
