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Theo Tigno•
8/22/2011 3:23 pm
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Tuesday, August 23rd 2011 |
Matthew 23: 23-26
Jesus said: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean."
Dawg's Thought:
Today's prayer intention - for those who are unemployed.
In my relatively short life, I have lived a life that has not had a shortage of serving and doing good works. I grew up in a home where my parents sacrificed themselves to care for high-level metally retarded patients. I went to a high school named after St. Damien, known for his good works with the leper colony at Molokai. For a long time, I went to a church that placed a lot of focus on social service.
It is good to do good works. It's what I knew about the faith, especially growing up in a home where we did not go to church on Sundays.
A lot of times, though, it becomes a distraction to what is really important: living a holy life interiorly as well as externally. When you're living a life of service, compliments come easily. When compliments come easy, there is a real temptation to mistake those compliments as a gauge to living a holy life.
I don't think that God would want us to ignore or downplay the compliment. Rather, each compliment is an opportunity to praise Our Lord for the gifts that we have been given and an opportunity to love God and to encounter God's love.
Have you ever cleaned a cup and then realized that it wasn't fully clean after it dried? It often happens after I have let something sit in the bottom of the cup for a while. It takes a while to get it clean and requires either a special scrubber or extra time soaking.
If I was more diligent, I would have cleaned the dish after I was done using it. It would have made things easier to clean.
If we lack an interior prayer life, how can we know that sin is settling and adhering to us? If we lack spiritual accountability, how can we trust that our dish is in the shape that we hope it to be in? If we lack humility, how can we admit that it is only through Christ that we can cleansed and healed?
Knowing that the Creator of the universe ... the Alpha and the Omega ... the King of Kings and Lord of Lords ... knowing that He heals us and that He is the mirror through which we will know and see ourselves is the greatest affirmation I can think of.
Take care and God Bless.
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