A Pharisee invited Jesus to dine at his home. He entered and reclined at table to eat. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal. The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees!  Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.”

Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was a person who sought after truth. He loved his country of Germany, and as he served in its army during the Second World War, he knew that he had to fight for what was right. He had a conscience, and his conscience was formed by everything that was good. As he contemplated the evil ruler of his country, he formed his conscience this way: "The Fuhrer's promises of peace and prosperity have fallen by the wayside leaving in their wake a path of destruction. The outrages committed by Hitler's SS are a stain on the honor of the German Army. There is widespread disgust in the officer corps toward the crimes committed by the Nazis, the murder of civilians, the torture and starvation of prisoners, the mass execution of Jews. My duty as a officer is no longer to save my country, but to save human lives. I cannot find one General in a position to confront Hitler with the courage to do it." Therefore he had to do it. His plan involved re-directing the military Operation Valkyrie. In this beginning session of the movie named after the action, von Stauffenberg gradually understood that his courage to seek the truth might lead him to a path that he never dreamed of.    

What is the greatest evil that we human beings do? Is it the misery and tragedy that we cause in our world? Or, is it nothing more than our own inhumanity and our refusal to admit it? Claus von Stauffenberg saw the inhumanity that was happening in front of him, and he decided that he had to do something about it. His country had promised to pursue the truth and in his judgment, there was no truth in what was happening.
 
The Pharisees of Jesus' time and the Nazi leaders of the Second World War would probably not appreciate a comparison to each other, but in many ways, their thinking was the same. They refused to look within themselves as they went about what they were doing. They were not open to the truth that they should change. Jesus told the Pharisees and would have told Hitler and the Nazi leaders that they must learn to give of themselves, and only then would evil disappear. “But as to what is within," Jesus said, "give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.” When we manage to understand that giving to another is what our inner selves tell us to do, then we will be clean.

We find truth only when we are able to study some guide for human behavior and then question ourselves about whether we are following such a guide. Jesus reminds us that if everyone learned to look within themselves, there would be no evil. At the core of our being, all of us find the thought that we must give to others, to allow others the same break that we allow ourselves, to really care about the world around us. If we manage to understand the importance of giving, we might find some answers to our problems.                

THOUGHT
PRAYER

Good and gracious God, we know that there is evil in our world because sometimes unfortunately we are involved in it. We know that we do things that we should not do. Help us to learn the value of giving to others so that we can conquer the evil. Be with us, we pray.

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©2007 Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America