Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Scripture
Today’s readings provide us with an opportunity to review the development of our interior relationship with God and the motives behind our actions. We are reminded that merely acting the part of a disciple is not enough. Instead, our actions should be an outpouring of a well formed interior relationship with God. Without this well formed relationship, our actions can become formalistic and may take a direction that is contrary to God’s will. We are called to take the time to understand the meaning behind our actions to ensure that they are consistent with the compassion and mercy that finds its perfect form in God’s love for us.
In our Gospel reading, we find that the Pharisees are surprised that Jesus is not following a religious direction for preparing to eat a meal. Jesus informs them that their concern over pre-meal procedures has distracted them from the meaning behind those procedures. Jesus instructs them to give alms and the intent behind the pre-meal procedures will be satisfied. While the Pharisees were obeying the letter of the law, they lost sight of its meaning, and Jesus informs them that they have strayed from God’s direction.
In today’s reading from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, we find St. Paul reminding us of the hazards of neglecting our interior life. St. Paul, speaking of humankind, indicates: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.” (Rom 1:25) St. Paul identifies, in colorful terms, the displeasure that this brings to God. When we push God out of our interior life, we become the center, and our actions begin to flow from a source that is oriented towards what we want, instead of what God wants for us. Gradually, perhaps imperceptibly at first, our conscious, which directs our actions, moves God to the margins and we become the source of our actions. As the intent behind our actions becomes our own, our actions begin to become misguided and inappropriate results may follow. This is the warning that St. Paul provides us.
In our society, we continue to see the failure of people to allow action to flow from a true interior relationship with God. In its ultimate expression, we find people killing each other in the name of God. We see people using biblical quotes to justify hatred and prosecution of various groups. We find a hard edge to some of those who identify themselves as following God’s will. There are numerous examples of people who have unwittingly severed the connection between their actions and God. We know that when the Pharisees severed the connection between God and their actions, Jesus instructed them to give alms, which is derived from a Greek word meaning compassion and mercy. We should consider whether our actions are motivated by compassion and mercy in alignment with God’s plan.
- John Sperino