Spiritual masters sometimes speak about "inner space" and "outer space." "Outer space" is narrowly or widely, the world in which we live. "Inner space" is essentially the disposition of our hearts. If our "outer space" is very noisy, troubled, ugly, our hearts too will easily become very troubled, filled with much noise and ugliness.

Spiritual formation best takes place in quiet, tranquil, beautiful, inspiring surroundings. Such formation expands our "inner space". We can then with tranquillity and peace go back to the troubled outer space in which we most frequently live and serve. From our "inner space" we can draw upon resources of tranquillity and strength to become better instruments of the Gospel and to integrate more firmly our work for faith, justice, peace and harmony in our very broken world.

Jesus does not speak in terms of "inner space" and "outer space": we borrow these terms from elsewhere. However, in his own terms of "judging" and "being judged", "measure", "speck and plank" Jesus is teaching us something similar. The outer circumstances and relationships of our world, whether immediate or more widespread, do exercise much influence on the dispositions of our hearts and minds.