In our Gospel reading for today (Luke 11:37-41), Jesus continues to highlight what is central to our relationship with God. He had been invited to dinner by a Pharisee. Jesus apparently went straight into the dining area and reclined at the table prepared to eat. The Pharisee was shocked because Jesus had not first washed his hands before eating, as required by Pharisaic law. We, too, are strongly recommended to wash our hands before sitting down to eat but here we are dealing with a question of hygiene, not a requirement for ritual washing. Jesus had omitted to perform a religious ritual that was laid down by the stricter Jews, although was not actually part of the Law. By giving a hygienic recommendation a religious sanction made it more likely that “common sense” would be carried out. Many other obligations, some of them contained in the Mosaic Law, seem to be of the same kind.
Most probably, Jesus, in the ordinary course of events, would have had no problem about performing this ritual, but it is likely that here he is deliberately making a point. It allows him to draw attention to what he sees as false religion. A person’s virtue is not to be judged by his performance, or non-performance, of an external rite.
As Jesus tells this man in a graphic image, the Pharisees concentrate on making sure that the outside of the cup is clean while the inside of the cup may be full of all kinds of depravity and corruption (like the judgmental thoughts in this man’s mind and the sinister plotting that the Pharisees in general were directing against Jesus). God is as much, if not much more, concerned about cleanliness of the inside of the cup (our soul) as the outside.
Instead, Jesus says: “So give as alms those things that are within and then everything will be clean for you. When the inside is clean, there is no need to worry about the outside. Giving alms is a positive act of kindness to another person, an act of love and compassion. It neutralizes the greed and rapacity of which he accuses them. It is not, like the washing of hands, a purely empty ritual which says little and is almost totally self-directed.
It is so easy for us to judge people, including our fellow-Catholics, by their observance or non-observance of certain Christian customs, which of themselves are of a non-moral nature. In the past, for instance, we might have criticized a woman for not wearing a scarf or hat in church, or a priest for appearing without his Roman collar. Today, some might be scandalized because a person goes to communion having had a huge meal well within the currently designated one hour of fasting; or for someone eating meat on Friday, even though the ‘law’ does not currently require abstaining from it. We need to recognize that most of the passages in the Gospel attacking the Pharisees are really directed against the ‘pharisees’ in our Christian communities, not to mention the pharisee in our own hearts.
Elsewhere, Jesus has told us not to judge because it is very difficult for us to know what is going on within another person’s mind. What Jesus is really emphasizing here is the inner spirit and motivation. Once that is right, everything else will be taken care of.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!