Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Lk 11:37-41
October 11, 2022 | Tuesday
As Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to have a meal with him. So he went and sat at table. The Pharisee then wondered why Jesus did not first wash his hands before dinner. But the Lord said to him, “So then, you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside yourselves you are full of greed and evil. Fools! He who made the outside, also made the inside. But according to you, by the mere giving of alms everything is made clean.
Today’s Reflection:
Internal purity manifested concretely through love for the poor is the centerpiece of the Gospel of Luke. Unlike the Pharisees who concern themselves with ritual cleanliness, Jesus teaches that true purity begins from the inside. The Pharisees, who were so meticulous with “cleaning the outside of their cup and plate,” had forgotten that they also have to clean their hearts of violence and all forms of evil (v. 39). The Lord reminded them that both the inside and the outside are created by God (v. 40). In this respect, what makes all our actions pleasant in God’s sight is when we begin to purify our heart of evil and selfish aspiration. We have to pay attention to the motivation behind our actions. It is not enough that we do good things. We have to do them for the right reason. /Vulnerasti, 2022
