The Inside Of The Cup
Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop & Martyr
My dear encountered couples:
We are being reminded that it is our character that counts. We might want to look like this person or that one, we might spend a lot of our money on clothes to make us fashionable, on jewelry to make us sparkle, on cosmetics to add the finishing touches. And then appear to the public in all our glory. Have you ever looked in the mirror the morning after?
Let us listen to what Jesus says today: “Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil.”
Though we all know external appearances are fleeting, and to make ourselves look delicious takes longer and longer as the years go by, we still value what we look like and we work hard at it. Unfortunately, in the end, we lose the battle. And they close us up in a box so they won’t have to look at us any longer and bury us six feet under. Isn’t that a lovely thought to start your day?
But when we do give up the ghost, the ghost which in more accurate terminology is our soul, our character will be there within it and live on for all eternity. The new body we will receive in the next world: Isn’t it to be expected that it will mirror the character of our soul that is placed within it? If not just for today but for all eternity we want to look marvelous, darling, then we had better spend more time max—factoring our characters than we do our faces.
