Wednesday of week 21 in Ordinary Time
Our Lady of Częstochowa
Gospel: Matthew 23:27-32In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses the powerful image of “whitewashed tombs,” beautiful on the outside but filled with decay within, to warn us against a life in which appearance and reality are separated. God desires us to be beautiful both outside and inside, not merely correct in our behaviour, words, religious practices, and public image, but also pure in our intentions, desires, thoughts, and relationships. Authentic holiness creates harmony between the visible and the invisible: what others see in us should flow naturally from what God is transforming within us. This does not mean becoming perfect before we can do good; rather, it means allowing grace continually to purify the heart so that our external goodness becomes the truthful expression of an interior life with God. On this memorial of Our Lady of Częstochowa, Mary offers us the opposite of the “whitewashed tomb”: her outward simplicity reflected an extraordinary interior beauty. Her words and actions flowed from a heart completely open to God. The Gospel therefore invites us not simply to look good, but to become good—to allow Christ to make our hearts so beautiful with truth, humility, mercy, and love that the beauty others see outside is an authentic reflection of the beauty God is creating within. Let’s reflect: Is the goodness others see in me a true reflection of a heart being purified and made beautiful by God, or am I more concerned with appearing good than with becoming good?
Don Giorgio