INSIDE OUT

 

INSIDE OUT

We invite each other to share meals because we are close to one another. This culture of fellowship and fraternity over shared food is apparently universal. We Filipinos eat together when we are happy. We share whatever spread we can manage to put up for friends and dear ones. We do not organize a party in order to quarrel, spread negativities, or discuss contentious issues.

Curiously, the setting of today’s Gospel passage, a continuation of the same pericope read for the past three days, is a meal. “A Pharisee asked him to dine with him.” On the surface, it was an act of graciousness. It turned out to be a meal of contention and an occasion for conflict. Surely, the one invited, who made no plans to put up that spread, did not intend it to be one.

But it sure became one just as soon as they saw that “he did not wash himself.” It became, like I said the other day, “a teaching moment” for the Lord.

Many times we can, and do, act like the Pharisees and lawyers mentioned in the Gospel. We focus on form rather than substance. We worry about the rules but ignore the reason for those rules. We impose the minutiae of the right that needs to be done and forget about the issue of how to do them rightly. Like the Pharisees, who insisted on tithing but forgot the purpose of the tithing, we put a premium on external observance and play down the greater need for internal holiness.

The contentions remain till now, even if they are no longer taking place in the context of meals. But I believe that the Lord has given us more than just a meal to share in order for us to forge not just fellowship but also deep intimacy with Him and with one another. I refer to the Mass. It is both a sacrifice and a banquet. It is designed not to be a meal of contention but a meal of sacrifice and a sacrament of unity.

We who share in this Mass cannot afford to become like the Pharisees and lawyers. We need to be holy inside out. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

---------- REFLECTION QUESTIONS ----------

With whom do you engage in meal fellowship? Is it helpful in forging your relationship?

May I learn to open myself more to the grace of the Eucharist—to Your grace, O Lord. Amen.

Today, I pray for: __________________________