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 you do when you invite people to
dine in your home?
Many of us discreetly observe them
especially if our invited guests 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 the Lord is what is inside us not what
is outside of us. Those that are not seen such as: Clean 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