Galatians 5:1-6.
Psalm 119:41.43.44.45.47.48.
Luke 11 :37-41 Full Readings
Life in the Spirit
Brethren, which is more important to God - clean hands or a clean mind and heart? In today's Gospel Jesus breaks the law of eating without washing his hands, another way of challenging the Pharisees who observe the law externally while inside they are full of malice, resentment, envy and evil thoughts. He uses the analogy that they wash outside the cup but inside is dirty. Jesus teaches them as he does to us today that both outside and inside the cup should be clean, the interior should inform the exterior and the exterior also informs the interior. The Pharisees were strict observers of the law, but they finally ended up losing the point.
In the first reading Paul teaches us that external signs do not matter but faith in Jesus Christ. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love. Truly love is the hallmark of Christianity, and anything done outside love as a true guide becomes an obstacle to good Christian living. The seat of love is the human heart, and once this is guided properly, our actions become pure and good. Could this be the reason why the Pharisees never got it right? Probably the concern for external observances blinded their heart from loving. Are we not carried away sometimes by the desire to be on target with external observances, when in our hearts we truly do not love. Offering the kiss of peace could be a ritual at mass, yet our heart may be far from the one whom we offer a kiss of peace. Let love rule and our actions whether rituals or not be genuine.
We have to be careful not to miss the point like the Pharisees. But they were missing the point. The Mosaic Law was intended to free them for worship, delivering them from slavery to pagan gods and from slavery to sin. When the Law (and the added customs and regulations) became an end in itself, it was truncated and severed from the One to whom it was meant to lead. Today in the Catholic Church, there are enough laws, customs, and regulations to make even the most rigorous Pharisee proud. The danger is that we can fall into one of two traps. First, we can adhere to them with such vigor that we lose sight of the One they are freeing us to worship. We don’t allow our hearts and minds to be educated and formed by them; we just follow them blindly. We wind up cleaning the outside of the cup and stopping there, without going on to see God’s love and let it purify our hearts.
The second trap we can fall into is at the other extreme: to give ourselves an easy pass by presuming that “if my heart is in the right place, I don’t need to worry about all these rules and such.” With a lax attitude we permit ourselves to ease up on fulfilling these laws which in truth will free us. “I know today is Sunday and I should go to Mass, but it’s vacation! God knows I’m a good person.” Yet it is in the Sunday Mass that we receive the many graces necessary toward our being that “good person”. The commandment to keep the Sabbath holy, as with any of the Ten Commandments and customs of the Church, is there to lead us to God and we have to observe them. These free us from our often confused, subjective conclusions about how we should worship God and live our lives.
The Gospel ends with these words of Jesus “But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.” St. Peter rephrased these words of Christ as, “Charity covers a multitude of sin” (1 Peter 4:8). The Law of love is the most important of all the commandments of the Lord. In Chapter 12 of the Gospel of Mark, Christ responds to a scribe’s question about the first of all the commandments: “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Love of God and neighbor is both the source and the summit of the Law of the Old Covenant and of the New. Living these two greatest commandments purifies and cleanses our hearts—the inside of the cup. So, when Christ says to give alms, he is telling the Pharisees to love their neighbors. Then their hearts will be clean.
Therefore, God desires a clean mind and a clean heart. When these are clean, the outside is also clean. We clean our hearts and minds only by practicing love: love of God and love of the neighbour. Jesus urges us to give alms generously from our hearts because when we give freely and generously to those in need we express love, compassion, kindness, and mercy. And if the heart is full of love and compassion, then there is no room for envy, greed, bitterness, and the like. Do you allow God's love to transform your heart, mind, and actions toward your neighbor? Do practice the law of love and mercy not just following it blindly? Ask the Holy Spirit today to help practice what is inside your heart and avoid hypocrisy.
Let us pray
Lord Jesus, you are the best teacher and the best interpreter of the law, teach me how to integrate and practice the law of love and that my interior will always inform the exterior as the exterior also informs the interior. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment