Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according 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!
1. Jesus entered. Jesus lives in everyone. Giving Jesus a place in your life involves questioning your life and your way of thinking and acting. It also involves accepting that we may all fall into the area between the totally rigid and the absolutely relaxed. No extreme is good. Remember what St Augustine taught: we must seek the right balance where virtue dwells, and 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 your own experience of being with Him. Get to know Jesus to relieve and console one another, not to judge others.
2. Clean on the outside. Be careful not to turn into a ritualistic Catholic, one who appears at all the celebrations, goes to mass every day, but is not sincere; it is all a facade. Because ritualistic Catholics do not 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. Do not fall into being a puritan Christian either. Puritan Christians are those who seem to have been simply ‘brushed’ by original sin, not really touched by it. They are experts at 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. Cleansing 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 do not take credit for their good actions, and they entrust everything to God. Cleansing from within is being aware of one’s sins, thanking God for His mercy, and doing continuous acts of compassion. It involves being sincere even in small details and being prudent when speaking. It is learning to be silent and above all, praying. One can recognize people who are clean from within because they are prudent when speaking, constant in prayer and have no interest in positions, nor do they want to meddle in other people’s affairs. People that have achieved this type of cleansing will approach others without judging them, seeking 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.”
Remember the month of October is the month of the Rosary. I invite you to pray the Rosary every day. Something good is on the way!
God bless you, be with you and protect you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
