'You Pharisees! You clean the outside of cup and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with extortion and wickedness.'
I know someone who likes posting mostly about Jesus on her FB wall. Almost everyday, she posts about Jesus the crucified, Jesus the scorched, Jesus the blooded, dying Saviour. You name it. She posts about quotes from preachers here and there, about philosophies and statements that seem to tell something about how righteous and Godly she is. But that is only for those who do not really, actually know her. I know her. I know more than what she thinks she is. Her FB wall is a sorry attempt to convince her more than 100 friends how such a clean and shiny kind of cup she is. But inside her, she is filled with worms. All that she can think about is herself and what she believes is real. She lives in her own world where everyone else must bow down before her, even kneel down. She despises people who cannot at all giver her praises. She has killed her own son, yes, in the most murderous, cold-bloodied way she did. This and a lot more, I know about her and I am appalled just looking at her FB wall filled with praises for the Lord. Certainly I do not want to be like her. I do not want to do anything that could resemble what she's done and keeps doing. I'm glad I met her.
It's helped me know what I do not want to become. In spite of my own iniquities, I am striving not to use the name of the Lord in vain. Because I can see how this can make people look like. One shiny cup with worms in it.
Reading 1, Galatians 5:1-6
1 Christ set us free, so that we should remain free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be fastened again to the yoke of slavery.
2 I, Paul, give you my word that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all.
3 I give my assurance once again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law;
4 once you seek to be reckoned as upright through the Law, then you have separated yourself from Christ, you have fallen away from grace.
6 since in Christ Jesus it is not being circumcised or being uncircumcised that can effect anything -- onlyfaith working through love.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 119:41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48
41 Let your faithful love come to me, Yahweh, true to your promise, save me!
43 Do not deprive me of that faithful word, since my hope lies in your judgements.
44 I shall keep your Law without fail for ever and ever.
45 I shall live in all freedom because I have sought your precepts.
47 Your commandments fill me with delight, I love them dearly.
48 I stretch out my hands to your commandments that I love, and I ponder your judgements.
Gospel, Luke 11:37-41
37 He had just finished speaking when a Pharisee invited him to dine at his house. He went in and sat down at table.
38 The Pharisee saw this and was surprised that he had not first washed before the meal.
39 But the Lord said to him, 'You Pharisees! You clean the outside of cup and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with extortion and wickedness.
40 Fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside too?
41 Instead, give alms from what you have and, look, everything will be clean for you.
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