TUESDAY OCTOBER 17, 2023
TUESDAY OF THE TWENTY EIGHT WEEK OF THE ORDINARY TIME YEAR A
ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH, Bishop and Martyr (MEMORIAL)
Romans 1:16-25
Luke 11:37-41
THE INTERIOR LIFE THAT MANIFEST IN THE EXTERNAL ATTITUDES AND LIFE
Our religious life and spirituality must flow from the interior. It is in the interior life of our hearts and minds that our lives must flow from and find expression in the external manifestations.
The gospel gives us this indication today as Jesus dines with the Pharisees who invited him to eat in his house. Even in the house of the Pharisee, the Pharisees wanted to trap him and hold him for not observing the ritual laws of the Jews which makes any Jew to first wash hands in specific manner before engaging in eating or dining. Jesus did not observe this law and he was accused of violating the laws of the Jews ritual purity and cleanliness. For by not eating with washed hands, they believe that Jesus had defiled himself.
But Jesus uses this occasion to correct this misgivings of the Pharisees who are the religious leaders of his time. They focus so much on external observances and never give a thought on the interior disposition. They tend to hold that by externally fulfilling the laws they are fine and in good relationship with God.
Jesus sees such understanding as hypocritical and untrue and likens it as washing the outside of a cup and leaving the inside with dirt and debris. Jesus tells them, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. You fools!” He cautions them to put their priority on cleaning the inside of the cup.
For Jesus, it means that our Spiritual life must flow from the inside to manifest in the outside. Our hearts, minds and souls are of great priority in terms of purity and beauty. And our faith commitment and faith development starts from the inside of us. For in the interior life do we nurture and grow knowledge, wisdom and understanding as Saint Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans in our first reading today. Our conviction of the things of God and acceptance of the message of Christ is interiorly settled.
Conversely, our rejection of the message of Christ and of God is equally interiorly done. So the interior life plays a major role in our relationship with God. There is no need to pretend to be Christians when our interior disposition is not in consonant with its external manifestations.
To build our interior disposition, St Paul urges us to accept the truth of our faith and never become pretenders, deceivers or even blasphemers. Paul clearly tells us that since the beginning of the world, there is nothing hidden about God and what can be known about God is plain to all minds. The real issue is our acceptance of these revealed truths. Many times we fail or blatantly refuse to accept the basic truths of our faith. We, rather reject or deny some, while we accept some.
So our minds, hearts and souls process all these before we manifest them openly to the outside world. So our external manifestation is secondary to our interior disposition and this we must check well.
In concrete termed, what we wear, that is, our medals, scapulars, rosaries and other and the prayers we say, the Bible we carry or the church we attend must them reflect in our lives or be seen to reflect in our lives even if faintly or in struggling measure.
But when it fails to show at all, and we still wear them or go to church and practice these spiritual exercises, then we become like the Pharisees who only care about their externals without a corresponding interior model. Let our
Heavenly Father, grant that the disposition of our hearts through the daily teachings and the sacraments we receive as well as the faith we profess may always find adequate and corresponding expression in our daily life struggles and equally show forth our conviction in the faith we profess and live out through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Fr Norbert Uchuno
