Tuesday of 28th Week, Year II: reflection
Readings: Gal 5:1–6; Lk 11:37–41
In the first reading of today, St. Paul reminded his fellow Christians in Galatia of what Christ has done in their lives through His death and resurrection. He told them that Christ had liberated humanity from sin and slavery to the evil one through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, and that all Christians benefit from the liberation won by Christ through baptism and faith in Christ. Therefore, he warned them never to drag themselves back to the very yoke of slavery from which Christ had liberated them.
Dear friends, through our baptism, we were buried with Christ, washed clean, and set free from the grip of the evil one; and through our participation in the sacrament of reconciliation, Christ continues to purify us from our daily imperfections. It is His will that our entire life should reflect the freedom he won for us and the purity he bestows on us through the sacraments.
Unlike the Pharisees, who rather paid attention to external purity and external observance of the religious laws and practices while leaving their internal lives rotten and dark, as was seen from the accusation Jesus made against them in today’s gospel, we are invited to pay attention to both our internal and external purity.
There is nothing wrong with being neat externally: bathing with good and expensive soaps, dressing well, using expensive perfumes, keeping our environment neat, etc. However, there is everything wrong with being neat externally and dirty internally. We should, therefore, pay as much attention to our internal life as to the external. By soiling our inner lives through sin, we return to the yoke of slavery from which Christ had liberated us. But when our internal and external selves are pure, we will exude the fragrance of Christ.
May your Tuesday be blessed, Amen
Fr Isaac Chima