October 14: God Knows / Dios Lo Sabe

In Luke 11, 37-41, Jesus reacts to the leaders of God’s people, those who thought themselves to be pious in every way. Their attitudes and behavior bring to light an eternal theme: “insides and outsides.” We can never escape from needing to have a strong inner life. The life of a disciple has to have its roots in the deepest place of the soul.

In Luke 11, criticizes the Pharisees for their obsession with external observances and their corresponding lack of depth. They invited Him to a meal, and it was clear that He didn’t expect it to be a friendly get-together. It was more like an interrogation. They immediately found fault with Him: He hadn’t observed the ritual washing of hands. (This, incidentally, had nothing to do with hygiene; its meaning was ritual and symbolic.) He responded, “You Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside yourselves you are full of greed and evil.”

We human beings have the unhappy ability to create a chasm between the insides and the outsides: to present an appearance that is different from the reality, to hide inside a world of fiction, to fool other people, and eventually to fool ourselves – in other words, to lie. But we can never fool God. God knows.

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En Lucas 11, 37-41, Jesús reacciona contra los lideres del pueblo, los judíos piadosos, que acentúan la observancia de lo externo (leyes, regulaciones, y costumbres) sin inspiración e implicación desde el interior. Lo más probable es que muchos fariseos fueron sinceros al practicar esas regulaciones exteriores, pero fácilmente daban la impresión a los que las practicaban de que se salvaban gracias a ellas.

En nuestro mundo de hoy, también lo externo cuenta fuertemente. La gente compra cosas como para su propio envoltorio, para su disfraz. Las apariencias son frecuentemente lo que más cuenta. Pero, según Jesús, no es la copa reluciente lo que importa, sino el contenido de la misma.

¿Qué hay dentro de nosotros? Dios lo sabe, y esperamos que cada uno de nosotros lo sepa también. Que ojalá el Señor aprecie y ame lo que ve en nosotros.