Turn your life flip upside down.

In today's Gospel we see Jesus continuing to call out the Scribes and Pharisees.  He doesn't condemn them for what they are doing.   There is nothing wrong with building a memorial to a loved one or a statue to remind you of an important event or person.   The problem is truly one on the inside.  These men have been taught everything they need to know.  They know the law inside and out.  If they were alive today they would be the guy who when you ask where it says something in the bible, he would instantly respond with the book, chapter, and verse.   That's a laudable thing.

What they did not have though was conversion.   Though they knew the right thing to do, Jesus could see into their hearts.   He saw that even now they would kill the prophets again, just as they were destined to do shortly with Jesus himself, the ultimate of prophets, the son of God.   They put on a good show.   They knew the right things to do, the right things to say, the things to do to show people how great and pious they were... but they were 'white washed tombs'.   The inside was still full of evil thoughts, petty desires, and attachment to all the things of this world.  Even as Jesus spoke to them they began to plot how to catch him in some way to get people to turn against Him.

How do we apply that to to day?  In a world where we have statues of Saints, relics, photos of family members, football jersies and the like hanging on our walls?   Nothing wrong with those things, if they are used properly.   The problem becomes with what is in our heart.  Have we changed?   Have we begun changing?  Are we even willing to do so?  Or is our comfort zone our own tomb?   When God looks into the dark, mortal recesses of your heart who does He see staring back at Him?  The child who he created in His image?  Or the image we ourselves have tried to form ourselves into?  Jesus himself is the very key of knowledge that unlocks the scriptures.   Are you helping others to find and know Him?  or are "you yourselves not entering and stopping others from entering also."

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

A reflection on the readings for Thursday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time. Lectionary 470