October 13, 2026
Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Lk 11:37–41

Today is Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time. In today’s Gospel at Mass, we see Jesus dining at the house of a Pharisee. Let us continue to understand.

First, Luke tells us: After Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited Him to his home. He went in and reclined at table to eat. The Pharisee noticed with surprise that He did not observe the ritual washing before the meal. (cf. Lk 11:37–38)

Why were the Pharisees so attached to ritual washing? In their view, because they walked in the marketplaces every day, they would inevitably encounter Gentiles whom they regarded as unclean. Yet in the Book of Leviticus, we find no explicit commandment requiring one to perform ritual washing upon returning from outside (cf. Lev 11–16). This Pharisee who invited Jesus into his home had elevated a simple hand-washing into a ritual requirement and demanded that Jesus and His disciples observe it.

This recalls certain phenomena we often see in our parishes today: some brothers and sisters in the Lord pursue external rituals, clinging to their own habits and imposing their self-made rules on others. They arrive at church very early, even more punctually than those who work. Rain or shine, they pray in church every day and keep watch before the Blessed Sacrament. They are constantly with the parish priest, assisting him full-time. In the eyes of other lay faithful , they appear to be holy people. Yet, once they leave the parish, their lives still follow the patterns of this passing world. They continue to chase after a life of luxury and dissipation. They take pride in being seated at the head table during the parish patronal feast, diocesan events, and meals organized by the parish priest. Jesus calls such people “blind Pharisees,” because their hearts are impure, and therefore they cannot see the things of God.

Today, let us ask God to grant us a pure heart, so that we may contemplate His holy word, rely on the Holy Spirit to reshape our conduct, and with a simple heart, together offer our prayer to God:

May your grace, O Lord, we pray,
at all times go before us and follow after
and make us always determined
to carry out good work.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever

©Totus Tuus 2026
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica