The inner way

St Augustine is, perhaps, best known for his Confessions, the first truly psychological autobiography ever written, and the pouring out of the soul of that greatest of post-apostolic saints. It is, as it were, a manifesto of one man’s inner life, as a model of looking for all into our lives. As he put it:

Men [and women] go to gape at mountain peaks, at the boundless tides of the sea, the great sweep of the rivers, the encircling ocean and the motions of the stars: and yet, they leave themselves unnoticed; they do not marvel at themselves (Confessions, Book 10, ch. 8).

To make the inward journey, to search ourselves—our motivations and drives, our desires and intentions—so as to find God and our closeness to God, was Augustine’s great task.

To quote again from his Confessions, ‘[God], you were right before me: but I had moved away from myself. I could not find myself: how much less, then, could I find You.’ The inner way was, for Augustine, the true way to life, and to the one who was—and is—the Way, the Truth and the Life.

It is the turn to the inner life that is on Jesus’ mind in today’s gospel, as he confronts the Pharisees and scribes with their externalised measure of the good of someone’s life. They had placed their reliance of the measure of a good life on adherence to external traditions, empty of meaning and value—the washing rituals, the measuring requirements, the wearing of religious symbols.

These things, in themselves, were not a problem, but they were hardly a way of measuring the keeping and living of the commandments of God, the true calling of God’s people. One can easily look good on the outside, while practising deceit and injustice within. Don’t we know this to be true when we learn of corruption in settings that appear righteous? And closer to home, do we also not know this to be true when we honour political status over truthful leadership? ‘Hypocrite’ is a strong accusation, but a fairly common practice.

So Jesus says to the scribes and Pharisees, ‘Nothing that goes into a [person] from outside can make [them] unclean; it is the things that come out of [someone] that makes them unclean. For it is from within, from [people’s] hearts, that evil intentions emerge.’ As with the words of Augustine, Jesus condemns those who imposed adherence to letter, but not to truth, the blindness of leaving themselves unnoticed, in their inner motives and intentions.

How much do we attend to noticing ourselves, our inner lives and ways? We can see inside when we are attentive to how we act and behave. Recall the exaltation of Moses from our first reading: ‘Israel, take notice of the laws and customs that I teach you today … Keep them, observe them, and they will demonstrate to the peoples your wisdom and understanding.’ Our inner lives show. Do they show wisdom and understanding? Does what comes from me reveal to you the God-given goodness within?

St James helps us see how this is to operate. He says, ‘Accept and submit to the word which has been planted in you and can save your souls. But you must do what the word tells you, and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves.’ God wishes for us to find ourselves, and to do so by finding him—his Word—within.