Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
In the Gospel today, Jesus recognizes that purity of the human person needs to be present not only on the outside, but also on the inside. For “you [Pharisees] cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil” (Luke 11:39). Based on this notion, it appears that Jesus is more concerned with the interior purity of the person, rather than the exterior! This is always a good reminder that in the end of our earthly lives, it is the actions that we do in the quiet and behind closed doors that will be rewarded or punished. Christ is not looking for superficially clean people, but people who strive to scrub clean the exterior and the interior. Today let us try to take a moment to note some of these interior “dirty” places and ask Christ for help to clean up these times.