Word to the Wise
Tuesday, October 17, 2006 - ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH
[Galatians 5:1-6 and Luke 11:37-41]"Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?"
One difference that shows up clearly between Jesus and the Pharisees of his time has to do with the nature of moral decision making. For the Pharisees, behavior was the supreme criterion. Either you observed the Mosaic Law or you didn't. How you felt about it was not relevant. For Jesus, the matter of feelings was very important. The heart could be the location of evil or good. Good deeds could not be done with evil intentions! There had to be a consistency between the two. The maker of the inside is also the maker of the outside! He accused the Pharisees of doing "good deeds" for the purpose of gaining personal praise and prestige. This question should make us pause. Is it wrong to give a bunch of money to a university so that one's name may appear on a building? Or to a church so that a name may appear on a pew or other religious object? No, it's not wrong to do that but it points out the nature of human motivation - generally mixed! We have to consistently pay attention to our motives and to the consistency between those motives and our external behavior. This is a "wholistic" view of moral and religious behavior that aims at integrity. Keeping in mind Jesus' own image about the cup, we might remember that it is what is inside the cup that can make us sick or well! AMEN
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