HE ENTERED AND RECLINED AT TABLE TO EAT

Gal 5,1-6; Ps 118; Lk 11,37-41
16 OCTOBER

The Gospel often shows us the fruits of corrupt religion and religion is always corrupt when it replaces the Commandments of the Lord with human customs. It is also corrupt when the cult takes the place of the Law, the Word and Obedience. True religion is very pure listening to every Word that comes out of the mouth of God. In the days of the ancient prophets, the religious sacrifices had replaced the Law. The Lord intervenes firmly and cries that He does not want sacrifices, but mercy. He does not want the blood of bulls and calves. He wants love for man.

In their affliction, they shall look for me: “Come, let us return to the Lord, For it is he who has rent, but he will heal us; he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds. He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence. Let us know, let us strive to know the Lord; as certain as the dawn is his coming, and his judgment shines forth like the light of day! He will come to us like the rain, like spring rain that waters the earth.” What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your piety is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away. For this reason I smote them through the prophets, I slew them by the words of my mouth; For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than holocausts. But they, in their land, violated the covenant; there they were untrue to me. Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood. As brigands ambush a man, a band of priests slay on the way to Shechem, committing monstrous crime. In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing: there harlotry is found in Ephraim, Israel is defiled. For you also, O Judah, a harvest has been appointed (Hos 6,1-11).

Jesus is invited to lunch. He welcomes the invitation and sits at the table. The Pharisee who had invited him, saw that He had not done the ablutions and was surprised. How is it? Does not a Master in Israel observe the tradition of the ancients? But what religion is his? He certainly will not be a credible Master. He does not observe what the fathers have handed down to us. Jesus does not miss the opportunity to reiterate what the true religion of his Father is. This is the great, abysmal difference between Him and them. They observe the tradition of their fathers. He observes the tradition of his Father. They clean the outside of the glass and the outside of the body, leaving every impurity and rotting in them. Instead he came to teach every man how to clean the interior and how to prepare a worthy habitation for his Father. What is the tradition of his Father? The purest and most faithful obedience to his Law. The most devout homage to his manifested will and the preservation of his Word in the highest purity. Cleaning or not cleaning one’s hands does not make a man unclean, because this tradition does not belong to his Father.

After he 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.

Jesus reveals what is inside the glass, that is, in the heart, which must be purified. It is full of greed and malice. This is the sign that God does not live in it. If he does not live in the heart, he does not live in the mind either. If he does not live in the mind, there is not even place on their lips for the Lord, their God. How do you clean your heart? Donating in alms every fruit of greed. Undressing of what is not the result of their work. One is cleaned by removing wickedness and replacing it with goodness, mercy, great charity, a word always of benevolence and great understanding. Religion is always corrupt when the “cleansing” of the soul is replaced by the “cleansing” of the body. The soul is purified by freeing it even from the smallest venial sins. It is made beautiful by adorning it with every virtue. Greed is a vice. Malice is also a vice. They are vices that make the soul unrecognizable before God and men, today and for eternity.

Most Pure Virgin, Angels and Saints, help us to make our soul beautiful for our God.