Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Since the Gospels coming from their oral tradition were never intended to have a “camera in their face” style of reporting there is always room to use your imagination and your intuition. We believe that this is how the Holy Spirit actually touches both the writer and the reader of the Gospel and the Scriptures in general. If we are open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit taking us beyond first impressions we can allow our intuition and our imagination to fill in the blanks of the scene.
If we can trust this connection between the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and our imagination we can ask: What’s really going on behind the scene in which the Pharisee, the host, is “amazed” when Jesus his dinner guest does not follow the expected ritual washings? Expected by whom? The Pharisees, as a group, paraded an excessive concern for insisting on their personal interpretation of the rules for ritual purity. Can we imagine that Jesus could not let this example pass without pointing out the deadly hypocrisy of insisting on exterior purity when authentic purity must first reside in the intentions of the heart?
While this Gospel confrontation must have carried the force of a public humiliation for the Pharisee, perhaps there is a ripple effect for us. The true blessing flows from the words of Jesus calling us to cleanse our own heart through the purifying love of our neighbor.
Reflection by Fr. Daniel Petsche, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections