Jesus' Woes

 The twenty third chapter of Matthew's Gospel consists of those passages that spell out those things that I call Jesus' Woes. In actuality they were warnings to the pharisees and scribes of the day who were so often very hypocritical.
As I was listening to today's Gospel at Mass, the phrase Our Lord uses is white washed tombs. Those things that look real nice on the outside, but not so much inside. This was the case of most of the pharisees and scribes of Jesus' time.
The stark yet vivid imagery of that phrase, white washed tombs, really struck me. I began to think about the state of my own soul; is it a white washed tomb? Are the exteriors there all bright and shiny, but the interior beginning to look a little dingy and dirty?
Jesus gave us the perfect cleaning agent to get our souls bright and shiny inside and out when He instituted the sacrament of Reconciliation. The grace of this sacrament along with the Eucharist will keep our souls from taking on that dead white washed appearance and keep them as living tabernacles of His presence.
I don't know about you, but I am definitely a little overdue for cleaning off the white wash!
Thank You, Jesus for the grace of Your sacraments.