Clean the Inside

Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that the outside may become clean as well.

Mt.23:26

Jesus is exposing the hypocrisy the Scribes and Pharisees. They are accused of straining out gnats while swallowing camels, of scrupulous nit picking over details of law while ignoring the overarching call to love and generosity, of shining the outside of the cup while ignoring the putrescence inside. 

All this hypocrisy can be found in me. What's the antidote? Clean the inside of my cup. Clean up my own thoughts and impure actions. Set my own house in order. Strive for the higher virtues of mercy, love, forgiveness. Then the outside of my being will better reflect Christ and shine like the sun. 

Jesus, forgive me for my hypocrisy. Clean my interior that my exterior better reflects you.
Saint Philip Neri, please pray for me.