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Gospel: Luke 11: 37-41
After Jesus had spoken,
a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home.
He entered and reclined at table to eat.
The Pharisee was amazed to see
that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.
The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees!
Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish,
inside you are filled with plunder and evil.
You fools!
Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?
But as to what is within, give alms,
and behold, everything will be clean for you.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Saint Teresa of Avila, whose feast day we celebrate today, is one of the great female theologians in the Church.
In fact, she holds the distinct honor of being a Doctor of the Church, meaning her teachings and writings are of particular importance or theological depth.
One of her most popular works is The Interior Castle, where she likens the soul to a castle made of a single diamond. Within that castle, there are seven different rooms, each one leading a soul closer to God.
Outside of this castle, there are venomous creatures that spend their existence trying to prevent us from ever entering within, reducing us to a shallow existence.
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In today’s Gospel, Jesus accuses a Pharisee of never entering his “interior castle,” because his understanding of religion is built entirely upon the externals of the Law.
For example, according to the Law, a person’s hands had to be washed in between each course of a meal.
First, water had to run down one’s hands from the wrists to the finger tips. Then the palms were to be cleansed by rubbing them together with more water. Then water had to run down the hands third time.
For a Pharisee, to omit even the slightest detail of handwashing was considered a sin.
At this particular dinner, Jesus leaves his hands unwashed to prove a point. If this Pharisee were half as committed to purifying his heart as he was to washing his hands, then he’d be a saint!
In modern lingo, we might accuse him of being religious, but not spiritual; he’s law-abiding, but not compassionate. As Jesus says to him, “You cleanse the outside, but inside you are filled with plunder and evil.”
This poor man’s interior castle is dusty and dark.
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What is my own inner life like? Do I find myself inching my way closer to God? Or is my devotion weakened by temptation, fear, or worldly attachments?
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The ultimate meaning of life, Teresa says, is to experience union with our Creator who loved us into existence.
With Teresa’s intercession, how might we move even deeper into our interior castle today?
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Image credits: (1) Saint Teresa of Avila, Catholic Online (2) Bodiam Castle, East Sussex, England, iStock (3) Rooted Thinking