October 16th, 2018

Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
468

FIRST READING
GAL 5:1-6

Brothers and sisters:
For freedom Christ set us free;
so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

It is I, Paul, who am telling you
that if you have yourselves circumcised,
Christ will be of no benefit to you.
Once again I declare to every man who has himself circumcised
that he is bound to observe the entire law.
You are separated from Christ,
you who are trying to be justified by law;
you have fallen from grace.
For through the Spirit, by faith, we await the hope of righteousness.
For in Christ Jesus,
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything,
but only faith working through love.

PSALM
PS 119:41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48

Response: Let your mercy come to me, O Lord.

Let your mercy come to me, O LORD,
your salvation according to your promise.

Take not the word of truth from my mouth,
for in your ordinances is my hope.

And I will keep your law continually,
forever and ever.

And I will walk at liberty,
because I seek your precepts.

And I will delight in your commands,
which I love.

And I will lift up my hands to your commands
and meditate on your statutes.

GOSPEL
LK 11:37-41

After Jesus 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.”

Daily Reflection

16th October 2018

Paul, in rejecting circumcision, denounces the power of the Law to save. In fact he emphasises that the Law enslaves rather than frees us. In a scathing attack on the Judaisers –those who insist that Christian converts have to first become Jews and observe Jewish customs – Paul charges them as having “fallen from grace”. He insists that circumcision – an external sign - “counts for nothing”. What matters is God’s free grace which produces “faith working in love”.

Jesus, in the Gospel, reiterates the same theme of an internal transformation. Calling out the Pharisees as purely ritualistic people who “wash the outside of the cup and dish but are internally full of plunder and evil”, Jesus points out to a simple remedy - almsgiving – a giving of “what is within” the cup and dish. This is an antidote to selfishness and constitutes love in action.

Have I imprisoned myself in empty rituals, or do I give meaning to the rituals by allowing God to transform me from within?