Readings
I - Gal. 5:1-6
II - Lk. 11: 37-41
PURITY OF MIND AND HEART MATTERS
Today’s Gospel passage is about Jesus reclining at the table without washing his hands, when he was an invited guest at the Pharisees house. The Pharisees were astonished at the behaviour of Jesus, the Rabbi. Jesus must have adopted this strategy to insist on the essentials and not merely on rituals. The essential is that of being pure in mind and heart. When our thoughts, words and deeds emerge from a pure heart, we are pure already as children of God.
We are concerned so much about the exterior cleanliness but fail to care for our mind and heart. Some do get psychologically affected by constantly worrying about the exterior cleanliness while they are full of greed, wickedness, anger, jealousy, hatred, rancor and rivalry. It is this that actually makes a person unclean making the lives of oneself and the other miserable. Let us be concerned about conducting our interior life with the fear of the lord, love for him and the humanity with purity of mind and heart, then can we claim ourselves to be people of God. May our mind and heart resonate with the prayer: “Lord Jesus, create in me a pure heart”.
