RELIGIOUS HYPOCRISY::: Tuesday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time

 Year A

Galatians 5:1-6

Psalm 119:41.43.44.45.47.48 (R.41a)

Luke 11:37-41

RELIGIOUS HYPOCRISY 

We continue with the theme of the flesh today, and we look at how St. Paul and especially Jesus Christ teaches us that we must Give for alms those things which are within, we will be clean.

Is not that the flesh is evil or bad. When God created everything out of nothing, he said they are good, including man. In fact we serve a who created Matter and declared it good, but when it became corrupted, God became Matter to redeem Matter. That is why we can clearly say our flesh or body is good.

But Man is not only flesh and bone,

So when we are blocked by a stone,

We definitely find a way around it zone,

For we have two invisible parts united as one,

With our physical part or our Body,

Our spirit and soul add up to our Body. 

As the theme of the fats from this Sunday (28th Sunday in Ordinary Time), spreads through its Week, let me reiterate what I said about the burning of the fat as transformation to explain today's readings. 

I said as the fat is burnt as a pleasing Smoke to God, it does not mean the fat is destroyed but rather it has been transformed into smoke which can survive all time and space or any situation.  That is why Jesus after his resurrection, with his Glorified Body or transformed Body, he could appear and disappear (cf. John 20:19, Luke 24:31).

Although since Jesus Christ was God and Man fully and flesh was pure, another reason why he offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins is to teach us that when we surrender our selves to God, it is he who will transform us so that we can share in his nature. 

This means in the new covenant, for us to be worthy of God, we must become sharers of his Divinity, this is why we are called to become part of the Body of Christ.  For emphasis I repeat, Paul's theology stems from his encounter with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.  Because it was on that road that Jesus Christ asked him, "why are you persecuting me?" (cf. Acts 9:4). 

Thus Paul understanding that those he was persecuting were in that sense part of the body of Christ Jesus, then in the new testament or covenant, putting on Christ or becoming another Christ or been part of his body is what saves you. This is achieved first of all through Baptism and the other sacraments which brings us back to grace. But all these Sacraments ( Baptism, Holy Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders) find their meaning in the Cross.  So Paul says;

1 Corinthians 1:23

But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews an offence, and to nations foolishness

So today in the first reading today, he continues to tell the Galatians and us that, since we have been set free by Christ Jesus and are in his grace, which is the wedding garment, let us not remove this garments by subjecting ourselves to traditions that is limited to outward appearances. He says if you are in Christ Jesus, what matters most is faith working through love. 

What is this Love Paul is talking about? 

Jesus Christ also gives us a clearer understanding of what St. Paul say as in the gospel today he eats at the house of the Pharisee without following the tradition of hand washing just to point out their religious hypocrisy. They pay attention to outward appearances and have forgotten the essence of their religion, with is to be United with God.  They clean their body, but their minds and hearts conceive evil to the extent that they mostly try to trap Jesus. 

Come to think of it can humans trap God? This is what we think we can do, but God cannot be deceived.  He who created your outside which is your body, created your inside which you cannot see, your soul and spirit. Why then do we think just about our body and forget that which are needed for the whole transformation of our body.  

  

Our soul is basically who we are (cf. Genesis 2:7), our mind, our emotion, and our will. These three; our memory or mind, our understanding or emotion, and our will are know us the three powers of the Soul. Our spirit is as the Holy of Holies of God's temple which is Man is to contact and receive God Himself. Thus the function of the spirit is spiritual. 

So spiritual friend or fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, the power of the soul that regulate or interact mostly with the Body is the mind, and the power of the soul that interact mostly with the spirit is the will, and the understanding or emotions discern and respond to either the body or to God.

Therefore as Jesus said, for them to be clean in the inside also by giving for alms those things which are within, we see the Love Paul was talking about,

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. 

This is the sacrificial love found in the Cross.  Thus we are called to surrender every secret or dimension of our life to God for transformation.  We are called to truly shine as the light of the world.  We should not hide the light in us under the bowl. 

When we allow God's will from his Spirit through our spirit to overcome our will in our soul, our understanding will be influenced and our understanding will transform our mind, which will intend transform our body. With this our body will be set free from the bondage of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” 

As Jesus Christ comes to us as the word of God as he has come to us today, and especially in the Holy Eucharist, may our whole being, our spirit, our soul, and our body d be transformed into a pleasing Smoke pleasing to God.

To the Catholics or anyone who may enter a Catholic Church, please when you see the candle light remember that you are supposed to shine as the light of the world, but remember that as the candles burn they give out Smokes and that is why your transformation must be exactly like this so that you will be clean. 

By Sylvester Amakye-Quayson