Facing Pharisaic hypocrisy, the Divine Master demonstrates that man is not defined by external appearances but by the heart’s intentions.
Newsroom (August 30, 2021, 6:40 PM, Gaudium Press) God gave us an eternal Law that He engraved in our souls. On Mount Sinai, He gave us this Law written on tablets of stone, and, finally, He revealed it to us as still visible and alive in Our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Word of God who became flesh and lived among us “to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37) so that we should all get to know it perfectly.
But since Adam and Eve disregarded this Law in Paradise and in the hour of trial, did not choose virtue, letting themselves be drawn by the attractions of the devil to the point of sinning, man tends to forget the Word and the Law.
Now, God wants us to fully accept the unchanging and everlasting Law, being “doers of the Word and not merely listeners” (James 1:22); He desires that our inner self is in complete agreement with our lips.
The lips must speak what overflows from the heart, as Our Lord said: “The mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Lk 6:45).
It is indeed true that we have to translate into words, attitudes, gestures, in the decoration of surroundings, in ceremonial and in ourselves, the doctrine that we have inherited.
Progress in the spiritual life
But in order not to fall into the Pharisaic error, we must first progress in the spiritual life, transform our soul and reach the maximum union of ways and thoughts with Our Lord Jesus Christ; the rest will come as a consequence!
It is He who, by His grace, will make our interior pure so that kindness may come out of it and works of justice may blossom.
If we do not have the means to give God a worthy offering according to our desires, let us offer Him the little we have, but with an excellent intention and with our whole soul.
It will be like the widow’s offering praised by Jesus in the Gospel (cf. Mk 12:41-44): she gave only two coins, whereas deep down, she wanted to give her heart!
What is my interior like?
Do my lips praise God, but my interior is outside the Law? How often do I prefer to be in accordance with the world and opposition to Our Lord? Do I put God at the center of my life, or do I put myself?
All our actions are linked with our eternal destiny and our supernatural vocation. That is why we are invited to be righteous before God, loving Him, respecting His Laws with an elevated spirit, zealous in the practice of sanctity.
Let us ask Blessed Mary to obtain extraordinary graces so that our hearts may be flaming and our lips overflowing with what the heart sings and proclaims!
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP
Compiled by Ena Alfaro
