Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Reflection for August 25, Tuesday Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time: Matthew 23:23-26

Gospel: Matthew 23:23-26
Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.
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Reflection:
Which is more important to you? The outside of a person (what is seen) 0r the inside of a person (what is not seen)? For Jesus it is always the inside, the content of a person’s heart and thought.

What is seen doesn’t matter for what good it is to wear nice clothes, to have nice houses and to have wealth. If the content of our hearts and minds are filthy and toxic? What good it is to have all the material wealth and power in this world if you have no God in your heart. If you have no compassion and love?

Power and material things are temporal. But if you have God in your heart, if you have compassion and love you are forever peaceful until the end.  

The Pharisees in the gospel which was the ruling power during Jesus’ time were the recipient of Jesus woes. For they were always looking good and pious on the outside but morally and spiritually lacking in the inside. Thus, Jesus wanted them to change and to have an interior cleansing and renewal.

Let us reflect on these pronouncements of Jesus for He is speaking to all of us also: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean (Matthew 23:25-26). – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

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