Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 30, 2015)

Gospel:

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. —For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. 

So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” 

He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. 

“From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”

Gospel Trivia:

Why so much fuss about whether one washes one's hands or not?  Washing one's hands before or after certain acts were parts of the Jewish rituals and laws.  Not doing so were serious violations.

Jesus criticized how the law has put barriers between God and humanity.  People, particularly the Pharisees and scribes, have reduced righteousness with God to simply following a set of rules.  Certainly, our faith is more than following laws, but building a relationship with our God.

What is being rejected is not the law, but the slavish attitude towards the letter of the law.  Moral uncleanness, according to Jesus, is not about the food or the ritual, but about the heart.

Do you love one another?  Do you forgive?  Do you care for your hungry neighbor by giving food to eat, or water to drink?

It is easier to wash one's hands than to wash one's heart.

Reference:

- Nil Guillemette, SJ, A Kingdom for All (Manila: St. Paul Publications, 1988), pp. 58-59.