GOSPEL
Mark 7:1-8. 14-15.21-23
Translated
from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio
Don
Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .
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Gospel Reflection)
The
Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered round Jesus, and they noticed that some of his disciples
were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. For
the Pharisees, and the Jews in general, follow the tradition of the
elders and never eat without washing their arms as far as the elbow;
and on returning
from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling
themselves. There are also many other observances which nave been
handed down to them concerning the washing of cups and pots and
bronze dishes. So these Pharisees and scribes asked him, ‘Why do
your disciples not respect the tradition of the elders but eat their
food with unclean hands?’ He answered, ‘It was of you hypocrites
that Isaiah so rightly prophesied in this passage of scripture:
This
people honours me only with lip-service,
while their hearts are far from me.
The worship they offer me is worthless,
the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.
while their hearts are far from me.
The worship they offer me is worthless,
the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.
You
put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.
He
called the people to him again and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you,
and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make
him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him
unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil
intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice,
malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these
evil things come from within and make a man unclean.”
The
Gospel of the Lord: Praise
to you Lord Jesus Christ
Kieran’s
summary . . . In
the Gospel, Jesus attacks the Pharisees because they seek to save
themselves by means of their own actions. They do not submit
themselves to the saving power of God. In our day, we too reject our
incompleteness and our need for salvation by our disordered searches
for beauty, power, health, and well-being. But
our limits and incompleteness are the places where we encounter the
love and mercy of God! Like Adam and Eve in the garden, all sin
originates in the drive for egoistic completeness or fulfilment. On
the contrary, when humanity accepts its fragile nature and realizes
that it is loved for what it is, then we begin to behave like the
disciples of Jesus who no longer enter into meaningless rituals, who
are no longer obsessed with their own righteousness or beauty. Rather
than constantly seeking for things to make
ourselves feel better, more beautiful, healthier,
this passage encourages us to allow ourselves to be visited by
the Lord.
That which truly contaminates man is his denial of his own fragility,
his own incompleteness, his own humanity. May the Lord bless us with
the grace to have simple and humble hearts that allow themselves to
be loved.
Both
the first reading and the Gospel highlight the dangers of becoming
fixated with our own efforts to “save” ourselves,
In
the Gospel for this Sunday we find a description of the rituals
minutely performed by the Pharisees, who criticize the failure of
Jesus’ disciples to observe the same customs and ablutions. The
figure of the Pharisee is an important one in the Gospel and it gives
Jesus the opportunity to deliver
some important teachings.
In the first reading from Deuteronomy we read of the call to observe
the precepts of the Law. We hear of the entry into a beautiful way of
life that is protected by these laws. But the text already warns that
nothing is to be added and nothing taken away from these laws. This
highlights the tendency of humanity to go through life searching for
rites and laws that help make one feel at peace with one’s
conscience. This tendency can become an obsession where one becomes
fixated with the dots and commas of reality in order to feel
righteous.
Humanity
has a tendency to try to “heal” itself by seeking to make itself
the basis of its own well-being, its own beauty, its own
righteousness. All of this is a denial of our status as creatures of
God who are incomplete in ourselves
We
might look at this reading and think that this type of fixation is
far distant from us. The obsession of the Pharisees was with their
personal righteousness. But this preoccupation with bettering oneself
has new forms today. Our world is fixated with aesthetics. People
spend their whole lives trying to become more “beautiful” or to
improve their well-being. They go from one therapy to another,
spending a shameful amount of money on cosmetics. In every age we
find humanity in a
state of anguish
in
order to
feel “better”,
to
be stronger, more powerful, more wise. In all of this we see a
struggle to overcome one’s own insufficiencies and incompleteness.
At the end of the day, this behaviour manifests an implicit hatred
for these limits. To make oneself feel righteous, there is a
preoccupation with never-ending rituals. In the struggle to become
more beautiful, people spend their lives hating their appearance in
an adolescent manner. Some
people
already have a health that would be the envy of most of the world’s
population, but they are constantly searching for better food and
more effective cures. All of this constitutes a denial of our own
weakness and insufficiency.
When
our hearts refuse to accept the incompleteness that is part of being
a creature, we begin to commit the vilest kinds of sin. When we
accept our fragility, it becomes the place where we encounter the
love and mercy of God
Why
did the disciples of Jesus not observe these rituals? Why did they no
longer have the instinct to follow these impulses? Jesus says, “It
is not what enters a man from without that contaminates him”. All
the things that we seek to make
of
ourselves, to assimilate from without, these are things that do not
really touch our fragility and weakness. When our hearts refuse to be
themselves, refuse to accept the weakness that is part of being a
creature - a creature that needs to be loved and forgiven - such
hearts give rise to disorder. Until we discover the peace of the
mercy of God, we will continue trying
to find “life” by means of our works. Until we discover the love
that gives us the right to exist exactly as we are, we will pass our
whole lives trying to convince ourselves that we are righteous,
beautiful, strong, intelligent, better. Our weakness is not something
to escape from but to accept. This weakness is the perfect place to
encounter the love of God. We are incomplete and
God loves us as we are. He permits us to experience his mercy in this
very condition. In the temptation of Adam and Eve, the rejection of
their own incompleteness following the suggestion of the serpent,
their effort to become like God is what produces evil. All of the
evils of man – the passage speaks of fornication,
theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy,
slander, pride, folly - all
of this catalogue of horrors derives
from humanity’s denial of its own weakness. On the contrary, when
humanity accepts its fragile nature and realizes that it is loved for
what it is, then we begin to behave like the disciples of Jesus who
no longer enter into meaningless rituals, who are no longer obsessed
with their own righteousness or beauty. Rather than constantly
seeking for things to give ourselves, this passage encourages us to
allow ourselves to be visited. That which truly contaminates man is
his denial of his own fragility, his own incompleteness, his own
humanity. May the Lord bless us with the grace to be simple, to have
simple and humble hearts that allow themselves to be loved.
