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 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 the 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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