Word to the Wise
Tuesday, October 11, 2022 - Tuesday in the 28th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gal 5:1-6 and Luke 11:37-41]"Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?" [Luke]
As I write these words I am at a retreat facility outside Tucson, AZ, in a beautiful desert setting, to give a retreat to the clergy of the diocese of Tucson. The "theme" of the retreat is taken from the second scripture of next Sunday's Mass in the Second Letter to Timothy: "...So that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work!" But that admonition could be addressed to all of us, especially in the light of the words of Jesus to the Pharisees, quoted above! Our "outside" and our "inside" are two sides of one coin. It is a matter of integrity!
Most of us like to "make a good impression!" But we may also harbor the thought, "If only they knew, they wouldn't think as highly of me!" When Pope Fancis gave his first interview after his election, the interviewer asked him how he saw himself. He answered, "I am a sinner!" It is this realization of our human limitations that can make us a true disciple. Jesus challenges us, in the words of St. Catherine of Siena, "to dwell in the cell of self-knowledge!" This is not a kind of navel-gazing self-consciousness, but a simple recognition of our gifts and our deficits. I will be challenging the priests on the retreat to ask themselves: "How am I praying? How am I learning? How am I loving? How am I serving?" Then each can ask himself: "What do I need to start doing? What do I need to stop doing? What do I need to continue doing?" These questions can help bring the "outside" and the "inside" closer together and help equip the Man of God (or any disciple) for every good work! AMEN