Tuesday of 21st Week, uneven numbered year
“Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay your tithe of mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law-justice, mercy and good faith! These you should have practiced, not neglected!”
John says to us : ’My little children, we ought to love not with words and speeches but by acts and truthfully. By doing this, we recognize that we belong to the truth and shall have our hearts at peace before God.“We are indeed always”before Him!“In that place where God’s eyes see everything in the Eternity of His Love of Creator and Saviour. So our Joy is to always find ourselves before the gaze of the Loved One before God. This is where our heart is in truth before God. In this place we can take a look at what we have done, and what we desired in doing it :’Salvation or vain human glory? Jesus in this way draws the attention to the scribes and Pharisees about what is serious : ’justice, mercy and fidelity.’ In fact, our life in common is not first about paying the dime on aliments but to put on justice amongst human beings! God’s mercy therefore become the rule of life for human relationships. This is what will manifest God’s fidelity from which fidelity amongst men will flow.”You blind guides, straining out gnats and swallowing camels! Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance!“To see within, inside, in God, for God alone has access to this place and we know that he came to save us, he did not come to judge : ’For if our heart condemns us that is if he accuses us inwardly because we did not act with the intention we ought to have had, ’God is greater than our heart and he knows all things.” If we hide from men what is deepest in our heart, we are unable to hide it from men!
"Where can we go far from your spirit? where can we flee far from your face?’ In fact God Love is there with us. ’If I fly to the heavens you are there ; if I go down
to hell you are with me.’ If we pacify our heart, let us pacify it before God. This awareness : ’You strain out gnats and you swallow camels!“is vital for our very existence! Yet it is not easy to detect! It is always other people who help us to see realities in a new way, but we need to listen to them. We know, by Jesus’ Passion how these strong words will have Jesus pay a high price!”Blind Pharoses! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that it and to outside are both clean.“”You are my refuge, Lord Jesus, nourish within me the only love that leads to life. You are the place I want to go to, for , seen from the outside we can give ourselves a look of holiness, purity and virtue. Jesus wants to deliver us from this pitfall. It’s not about giving us the appearance of being virtuous so as to maintain a moral authority keeping people in the hollow of our hands. Jesus asks us to purify our inner being through grace. It is always about this fundamental distinction : ’You purify the outside of the cup and plate but the inside is filled with cupidity and intemperance.’ One is unable to see the inside of the cup with the bare eye! and the outside can bring about confusion. Before an orderly ’outer appearance’ we can deduce a happy inside! But Jesus manifests how such an attitude is a deceitful one: ’First of all purify the inside of the cup so that the outside becomes pure." Jesus warns us ’How unhappy you are!’ Our wish is to follow a path of happiness. May Mary, so beautiful and so fair, come to our aid.