Tuesday,
October 11, 2016
28TH Week in
Ordinary Time
First Reading: Gal 5: 1-6
GOSPEL: Luke 11:37-41
As Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his house. He entered and reclined at table. Seeing this, the Pharisee was surprised that he had not first performed the ablution prescribed before eating. The Lord said to him: “You Pharisees! You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but within you are filled with rapaciousness. Fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside too? But if you give what you have as alms, all will be wiped clean for you.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
A group of friends cruising down south happened to pass by a place celebrating the town fiesta. Feeling hungry they crafted a naughty strategy to get free meal. Because in many remote areas in the Philippines, “When fiesta time is running every house is one’s dining”, they simply ushered themselves into the house and pressed everyone’s forehand against there foreheads like they were relatives of the host family. Trouble came when the oldest in the family started asking how they were related to the clan’s patriarch. One by one they slipped out of the house by the kitchen door. Hilarious yet embarrassing!
Jesus’ experience in the house of a Pharisee was even more embarrassing. He was a legitimate guest but his host subjected him to a more cruel scrutiny. If his intentions in inviting Jesus to his house were noble, he could have easily closed an eye on Jesus’ oversight of the customary washing of hands. The Pharisee got a dose of his own medicine when Jesus exposed his hypocrisy.
The elderly host in our featured anecdote did not intend to embarrass the group. Not so with the Pharisee. There was malice in the way he watched Jesus closely from the moment he entered his house. How unfortunate that an occasion of love and hospitality such as a meal was used to trap innocent guests like Jesus. If one is uncharitable during occasions so associated with charity like a meal, how can we expect him to be charitable in other occasions? “At fiesta time all jokes are fine”, say the Italians. Surely Italians do not go so far as to crack offensive jokes to embarrass guests. More so in the Philippines where every house is supposed to be one’s dining when fiesta time is running.
This nature of a meal as perfect occasion to show love is fully realized in our Eucharistic banquets. Come to the banquet of the Lord and you will never be embarrassed, for the host is Jesus himself who considers everyone not just relatives but children of his heavenly Father. – – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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