Daily Reading
First Reading
Galatians 5:1-6
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.
Psalm
Psalm 119:41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48
Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord,
your salvation according to your promise.
Do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
for my hope is in your ordinances.
I will keep your law continually,
forever and ever.
I shall walk at liberty,
for I have sought your precepts.
I find my delight in your commandments,
because I love them.
I revere your commandments, which I love,
and I will meditate on your statutes.
Gospel Reading
Luke 11:37-41
While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.
Reflection
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus declares the value of almsgiving: “As to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.”
Almsgiving is valuable because we’re members of a mystical body—we’re implicated in each other. I can never say that your suffering is not mine or that your neediness is not mine. All of us are co-implicated. We’re responsible for each other, and giving alms is a very concrete way to acknowledge that. When we share gifts or charity with those in need, we’re acknowledging the fact that we’re not in this alone, that the things that we own are meant for others. Almsgiving is also tied to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, which every Catholic is obligated to practice every day.
Numerous spiritual masters have witnessed that belief in God is strengthened not so much from intellectual effort as from moral action. When a man asked the English Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins what he must do in order to believe, Hopkins replied, “Give alms.” As you love through tangible acts, you will come to believe more deeply and to enter more fully into friendship with God.