Tuesday in the 28th Week of Ordinary Time, October 17, 2023

Luke 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.”

According to St. Luke, the context for the text used for today’s Gospel Reading begins with the Lord speaking to a crowd as he is moving along towards Jerusalem.  He has taught the disciples to pray and has rebuked those who asked him for a sign from heaven, as though his miracles were not signs from heaven enough.  After all this, “a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home.”  This would be for the midday meal, the main meal of the day.  On occasion, a Pharisee would invite the Lord to dinner at his house but under false pretenses, intending to trap him in his speech.  This Pharisee seems sympathetic or at least curious.  The Lord, who did not spurn to eat with tax collectors and prostitutes, ate with Pharisees also.  And while most of the Pharisaic Party rejected him, such members of the sect such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea supported him. 

“The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.”  Still, this Pharisee stuck to the rules handed down from his predecessors regarding the cleansing of hands and vessels and so on, and he expected others to do so as well.  He did this throughout the day without questioning the source of the rules, which were derived from the laws regarding priestly cleanliness before offering a sacrifice and were not meant for the common people at all.  The Lord does not therefore wash.  Now, he might have washed in order to avoid scandalizing his host, but the Lord wanted to free this man from the man-made rules that were passed off as Mosaic tradition.  

“Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil.”  The Lord does not address this particular Pharisee but the sect to which he belongs.  The rest of the verse contrasts their cleaning the outside of the cup and the dish, as though neglecting to cleanse their interiors.  And so he criticizes the Pharisaic practice, for it is the interior of a vessel that most needs cleansing, and at the same time criticizes the practice of maintaining a polished exterior while neglecting the condition of the soul.  He will do this again with greater vehemence after he enters Jerusalem (cf. Matthew 23, 25-26).  We should note that the Lord does not forbid keeping a neat appearance, but insists that without cleansing the soul through repentance, confession, and penance, the neat appearance is just a shell. 

“You fools!”  The Greek text is less harsh.  The word could be rendered as “foolish” or “lacking in understanding”.  “Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?”  God makes both the outside and the inside and it is the responsibility of the one to whom he lends this vessel to care for it inside and out.  “But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.”  The Lord’s admonition to give alms implies that the Pharisees did not ordinarily practice this good work.  But the giving of alms cleanses the heart.  The alms is not to be given grudgingly but gladly with love.  

Alms may be given in a number of different ways, but first we must determine as best as we can that the alms will actually aid the person who asks for it and not simply allow the person to continue to live in a destructive manner.  Since we cannot usually determine this unless we know the person fairly well, we can give the alms to charitable organizations that can put the money or goods to their best use.  In my experience, the local St. Vincent de Paul Society does this very well.  The donor can also give to the parish poor box, and donations to religious orders such as the very frugal Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa, can be trusted to feed and otherwise assist the poor in our neighborhoods.