Religious Practices and Spiritual Desposition

Gal. 5:1-6, Lk. 11:37-41. In today's Gospel, Jesus distinguishes between religious practices and spiritual disposition. According to what Jesus says, religious practices are meaningless without a corresponding inner disposition. The Pharisees paraded themselves to be clean by practicing the age-old Jewish custom of washing before meals and observing many other similar customs and traditional practices. They divided their communities into clean and unclean, claiming to be clean and considered the Gentiles unclean. Through their man-made rules and regulations, they shut the Kingdom of God to the 'unclean'. They tried to appear clean while their hearts were full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

God reads the hearts of everyone and if the heart is ‘dark’, the whole being of the human person will be in darkness and as such, the person cannot be a man of God, nor is the person able to guide others to God. Jesus gives us a strong message, especially the religious leaders, to be people of godly values with good character and moral integrity. Only a good person can produce fruits of the Spirit: "Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness and self control” (Gal. 5:22-23). We are called to allow our religious practices to make us agents of peace and unity in the society in which we live.

May the Lord come to our aid so that our life here on earth may sing the praises of God! Amen!! Good morning, it is well with you!!!