some of his disciples were eating their meal with unclean hands, that is, without
washing them. Now the Pharisees, and in fact all the Jews, never eat without washing
their hands, for they follow the tradition received from their ancestors. Nor do they eat
anything, when they come from the market, without first washing themselves.
And there are many other traditions they observe; for example, the ritual washing of
cups, pots and plates. So the Pharisees and the teachers of the law asked him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but eat with unclean
hands?” Jesus answered, “You shallow people! How well Isaiah prophesied of you
when he wrote: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
The worship they offer me is worthless, for what they teach are only human rules.
You even put aside the commandment of God to hold fast to human tradition.”
And Jesus commented, “You have a fine way of disregarding the commandments
of God in order to enforce your own traditions! For example, Moses said: Do your duty
to your father and your mother, and: Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be
put to death. But according to you, someone could say to his father or mother,
‘I already declared Corban (which means “offered to God”) what you could have
expected from me.’ In this case, you no longer require him to do anything for his father
or mother; and so you nullify the word of God through the tradition you have handed on.
And you do many other things like that.”
Reflect
“Loving-kindness.” The focus and goal of our journey of faith is lovingkindness. The
Hebrew word for loving-kindness is chesed. This word indicates loyalty. Solomon
in the first reading attributes this word chesed to the Lord, the God who always keeps
his covenant. The God of the covenant never stops showing his loving-kindness to us.
Nevertheless, this same chesed is expected of us. As covenanted people, we are
called to show chesed to one another. At times, when we fail to show chesed to one
another, we are left with rituals which are ordinarily used as a coverup to our failure. In
today’s Gospel, Jesus appears to reprimand the Pharisees and the teachers of the
law who put more emphasis on rituals rather than God’s commandment characterized
by chesed. There are times when we are tempted to focus on the externality for our own
glorification. But the real challenge is to exercise chesed because in our every act of
loving-kindness, God is the one who is truly glorified.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2024