October 14, 2014: Tuesday, 28th week, Ordinary Time
- 'Love' suspenders: true faith works through love (1st reading, gospel)
- 'Holy Spirit' necklace: "Through the Spirit we await the hope of righteousness." (1st reading)
- 'Hands' tie: "I will lift up my hands to your commands and meditate on your statutes." (psalm)
- 'Silverware' tie bar: "Pharisee invited Jesus to dine" (gospel)
- For freedom/ Armfield (1st reading)
- Ubi caritas (fits 1st reading and gospel)
- For the psalm
Jesus condemns "cosmetic spirituality," trying to look good when the truth inside is different. He condemns people of good manners but bad habits practiced in secret. Note the related words: greed and wickedness. He invites them to almsgiving, touchstone and paragon of justice. Works of charity are essential; law on its own doesn't save. Faith works by love, by giving alms in the broad sense of detaching from the dictatorship and idolatry of money. Don't sound the trumpet, and don't give merely of your excess.
- Gal 5:1-6 Christ set us free; stand firm. Through the Spirit, by faith, we await the hope of righteousness. In Christ, only faith working through love counts.
- Ps 119:41, 43-45, 47-48 "Let your mercy come to me, O Lord." I'll keep your law, walk at liberty; I love/hope in/delight in your commands, lift up my hands to and meditate on them.
- Lk 11:37-41 Jesus to Pharisee who saw he didn't wash: “You cleanse the outside of the cup and dish but are filled with plunder and evil inside. Fools! Give alms, and everything will be clean for you.”
- Fr. Chris Bazyouros homily podcast: "From the heart, out"
- Creighton: Freedom and mercy are in the context of a relationship with God that calls us to love. True freedom is from oppressive pressures that pull us from love. Paul focuses the Galatians on faith doing love. Jesus tries to shift the Pharisees' emphasis from ritual to love via almsgiving. The Psalm models expression of love as grateful reflection on God's command. Mercy frees us from oppression and paralysis. What keeps me from focusing on love for God and others? What distracts me from those in need?
- One Bread One Body: "The point of most resistance" Many Pharisees observed the law's letter, not spirit; Jesus challenged them to heartfelt almsgiving. How am I holding back, doing only the letter, not the spirit?
- Passionist: Imagine being invited to dinner then criticized by your host for how you eat! (After Jesus told the host he was part of an evil generation, did he have an ulterior motive for inviting him?) Paul said only faith working through love matters. We can invite the Lord into our home, but freedom will only be ours if we welcome him in faith and love, unlike the Pharisee-host.
- DailyScripture.net: Clean mind and heart is more important than clean hands. When we give, we express compassion and drive out greed.
- Universalis: St. Callistus I, weak money-losing ex-slave turned pope readmitted repentant sinners to communion; see Catholic Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
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