You and I, we have an exterior aspect, of course. But we also have an interior one. This seems to be the key to this Sunday’s Gospel.

Our exterior is what we often make use of to interact in a daily fashion with everything and everybody, without thinking about it. This is our outside. Acting from it, we may come across to others as, e.g., decisive or fun-loving or threatening or shy or easy to talk to, or who knows what else. It is how we make our way through the day in a busy world, or even in a non-busy time (e.g., reserved for watching TV, drinking beer, staying busy all the time, and so on).

We can find clues to our interior self in a calm time, such as we find at a quiet lake or at the sight of a budding tree or in the company of a much-loved friend. Stillness then emerges, a hushed sense of well-being. This deep interior is where feelings and thoughts can be themselves, can be just as happy or as sad as they feel like being

The Spirit of God chooses to dwell in these interior depths. Not because there is something wrong with the outside, but because the deep interior is where we are made in God’s image. There we are quietly open, desiring to give real love to other people and to receive it. And, if we knew it, to and from God.

The exterior sometimes dwells its life in storm, sometimes in sunlight. It is able at times to out-shout the inside! I want food. I want revenge. I am grouchy. I got three hours of sleep last night, gimmee rest. Gimmee pleasure. Gimmee triumph. I want everything. Gimmee!

Fine, but what if you get all these demands? What if you gain the whole world but in the process lose your very self?

You and I do get caught up in gaining external things. For instance, in Luke 12:15-24 Jesus points out this tendency. He says something like this:

You have built still another barn to hold your riches! But this very night God will ask your actual soul of you, and what will you take with you? Your riches? No. The way you look? No. Your interior self is all that can come with you when you die. God dwells in that inner self, in the quiet recesses of your being.

Today’s Gospel. does not receive well those who lead others away from their interior. Jesus says how he might react to anyone who teaches children in such a way.

Whoever causes sin in one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. Gospel

Maybe you were taught in this way. But do you really now want to ignore such a crucial part of yourself, while there is still time to find it? Why not let your inner self have a chance, as Jesus suggests.

How?

Spend some time in quiet each day. Have the heart to give a cup of water to someone thirsty. Be alert for the Spirit within other persons and respect them for it. Even if you do not like them.

You will be following Sunday’s Gospel!