You’re in the kitchen ready to serve yourself some coffee. You open the cupboard and find a nice mug that is the right size, the right shape, the right color even, only to see that it’s got dried coffee stains on the inside. A bit disappointed, you find the next best mug and leave behind the one that looks nice only from the outside.
If this scenario doesn’t seem familiar, congratulations! You’re a meticulous cleaner and/or you haven’t visited a Jesuit community. As someone who lives in community, I can confirm that this happens a lot. “Cleanse first the inside of the cup,” Jesus’ words in today’s gospel, could also easily be put on a poster in any community kitchen. Sadly, the unclean mugs can remain so for a long time. It’s not that they’re extremely difficult to clean, but you do have to be intentional about going in there with a sponge.
The same can be said about our spiritual lives. There may be aspects that remain unexplored due to shame, fear, laziness even, and we remain like a mug stained from the inside. It requires some intentionality of taking a look inside, of seeing what might need to be cleansed, or healed. We do our part. The potter who created us, who molded us with his love, will do the rest.