As Christians we walk each day with the Lord but still we are bound to encounter internal and external controversy. In today's Gospel the host's unspoken amazement at Jesus' failure to wash before the meal provides an occasion for Jesus' speech. There is a subtle play on the meaning of inside/outside of vessels and human beings created by God. The invitation: "give for alms those things that are within and see everything will be clean for you."(v 41) is not just an exhortation to give alms but to give it from the heart. Almsgiving is an essential part of Christian living and even of believers of other religions. Almsgiving enables us to cross boundaries of race and creed so as to care for those in need. In doing this from the heart (our inside) we are cleansed rather than from fulfilling established ritual purification. God does not demand ritual purification but the Scribes and Pharisees who uphold religion insisted that such purification was necessary. Jesus asks that we pay more attention to inner purification.

What is most important to Jesus is what we are within our inner selves. Real purity can only be achieved through almsgiving. It might be argued that the more insidious enemy of God is not atheism but a religion that exalts the externals and forgets the essentials that are always hidden to the eye. The Church's preferential option for the poor needs to be re-asserted today, in our varied ministries.