Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11,37-41.
After Jesus had spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home. He entered and reclined at table to eat.
The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.
The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil.
You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?
But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.”
Clean up well
1) “Jesus entered”: Jesus dwells in everyone. When you give Jesus a place in your life it involves questioning, questioning your life, your way of thinking and acting; and it also involves accepting that we all often fall into a pendulum between the totally rigid and totally relaxed. No extreme is good, remember what St Augustine taught, we must seek the right balance where virtue dwells, the key to virtue is not going to extremes. Today Jesus invites you to get to know Him and to reach out to your brothers and sisters from the experience of your encounter with Him. Get to know Jesus to relieve and soothe one another, not to judge others.
2)Cleansing on the outside: Be careful not to turn into a “ritualistic catholic”: the one who appears in all the celebrations, goes to mass every day, but it’s all a facade. Because “ritualistic catholics” don’t act or celebrate out of love, they do it to look good, to have a certain status or position in the parish or in a group. Don’t fall into being a “Puritan Christian” either, those who seem to have been simply ‘brushed’ by original sin, not really touched by it. They are experts in judging others. They look at the sins of others but never at their own. To look good they might call themselves sinners, though they don’t really consider themselves so at heart.
3)Clean from within. This refers to those who look at themselves through God’s eyes, knowing that God is with them. They are the ones who can remember their sins and see God’s mercy in their life. They don’t take credit for their good actions, they entrust everything to God. Cleansing from within is remembering one’s sins, thanking God for His mercy and doing continuous acts of compassion. It involves being sincere even with small details and being prudent when speaking. It is learning to be silent and above all ‘praying’. One can recognize clensing from within, when a person is prudent when speaking, constant in prayer and has no interest in positions, nor does he want to meddle in other people’s affairs. The person thst has achieved this type of clensing will approach others without judging them, will seek to be with them and not above them. A beautiful aspiration you can pray today is: “Lord I am nothing, but with you, I am everything”.
God bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Remember to pray the Rosary.
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