After Jesus
had spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home. He entered and reclined
at table to eat. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the
prescribed washing before the meal. The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees!
Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled
with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make
the inside? But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be
clean for you.”
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Reflection:
What do we do
when we invite people to dine in our respective houses? Many of us discreetly
observe them especially if our invited guest are few the more that we observe
them. We sometimes pretend to be busy but we observe them quietly: How they
behave and so forth.
However, amidst
our being observant Jesus wants to tell us something: Let us not judge them
based on their external behavior. Because our judgment based on what we see do
not really represent who they really are. There’s a whole lot more that we
could discover from them if we would not be quick on judging them.
It feeds our
ego when we are noticed based on our external appearance: What we do, the
clothes that we wear, our physical appearance etc. The more that we are noticed
the more that we would reinforce our external actions. These are all
superficial, before God these egocentric actions count for nothing before the
eyes of God.
What counts
before God are those that are not seen by our eyes. What counts before Him is
what is inside us not what is outside of us. Those that are not seen such as: a
pure conscience, a caring, forgiving and loving heart and a mind that has no
place for ill thoughts.
Perhaps, the
Pharisee in our gospel invited Jesus to his house not out of his goodwill and
kindness. He invited Jesus because he wants to see if Jesus would subscribe to
the many rituals of their Jewish faith.
Are many of
us not like this Pharisee? When friends come to our house we also observe them
as to how they would behave. And based on what we saw we would now conjure our unfavorable
conclusion towards them.
But our
judgment is often wrong for we don’t know what’s inside the heart of the person.
And besides, it’s hard to judge based solely on the few times that we’ve
observed them. Let us not judge quickly and let us not judge based on what we
see.
Are you quick
to judge? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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