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.
Jesus was intentional about his decision to not observe the prescribed washing. He knew about the practice. He could simply have gone along with it so that he would blend in. He knew that his Pharisee host would have a problem with it being omitted But Jesus was not interested in being bound by traditions of men (see Mark 7:7) for any of those reasons.
Jesus knew that his baptism, although he didn't need it for repentance, was nevertheless fitting for all righteousness. But this business of all of the additional ritual purifications of the Pharisees seemed to function only to establish their self-righteousness. They were visible badges of honor, apparent proof that they were conscientiously doing everything right down to the smallest detail. The trouble was that such external acts did not involve them in their interiority, and did not touch their hearts.
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!
To be fair, dealing with the plunder and evil within was a much more difficult matter than cleansing the outside of the cup and the dish. The prescribed washing was something the Pharisees felt they could control. But their inner world, to the degree that they acknowledged it at all, must have seemed wild and untamable. Certainly it was never going to be cleansed by correct ritual performance.
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.
Alms begin, not as empty outer gestures, but from the heart. They are, in a fashion, a giving away of oneself. They reach into what the selfish ego has perhaps stockpiled and let it go in order that another might receive it. Alms are not gestures that can be performed in isolation, but must recognize and reach out to genuine need. They bring those isolated by pride back into the conversation of humanity. When they are genuine expressions of love they can cleanse even the polluted inner world of the Pharisees and of us. This is one reason it is said that "love covers a multitude of sins" (see First Peter 4:8). Almsgiving allows us to be refashioned from those who live for ourselves alone into those who live lives directed to others for God's sake.
It is all too easy to become vain or our reasoning like the Gentiles whom Paul described in the first reading. It is too easy for our minds to be darkened, to believe our own propaganda. We need grace to start in faith and to remain in faith. Then we will be more interested in God's will and his understanding of our situation than our feeble pretenses. Then he himself will be able to guide us on the path toward genuine purity of heart, a path that leads, in the end, to the vision of his face.
For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith;
as it is written, "The one who is righteous by faith will live."
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