O. T.  XXII (Dt 4:1-2, 6-8; Jas 1:17-18, 21-22, 27; Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)

For the Jews the holiest part of the Bible was the "Pentateuch" or the first five books, which they thought had been personally written by Moses, and which they reverently called the "Law." The Pentateuch contained Sacred Laws such as the "Ten Commandments" and customary laws to guide them in everyday life, such as laws regarding marriage and family, laws concerning inheritance, concerning crime and punishment, laws regarding diseases and rules of cleanliness. Pious Jews observed these laws with great sincerity and were even ready to sacrifice their lives when it came to breaking the laws.

There are a number of heroic examples in the Book of Maccabees. The story of seven brothers and their mother who refused to eat the forbidden food is very touching. Seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were compelled by the king Antiochus, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh. One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers." 

The king fell into a rage, and gave orders to cut out the tongue and cut off his hands and feet while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on. When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly.

After the first brother had died, they brought forward the second. They tore off the skin of his head with the hair. In the same way they tortured and martyred all the seven brothers. The mother saw her seven sons perish within a single day, yet, she bore it with good courage. She encouraged each of them, and died after her sons.

The story of persecution and defiance proved popular among Jewish communities, and the mother and her sons remained alive in Jewish memory.

The statement of Jesus in today's Gospel Passage has to be seen in this context. There were rigid rules for washing of hands. It was not in the interest of purity, but it was ceremonial cleanliness that was at stake. To fail to do this was in Jewish eyes to be unclean in the sight of God.  A Rabbi who once was imprisoned by the Romans, was given water to drink and he used the water for hand washing and in the end perished of thirst, because he was determined to observe the rules of cleanliness rather than satisfy his thirst.

The Scribes and Pharisees saw that the disciples of Jesus did not observe the tradition and the code of the oral law in regard to the washing of hands during meals. Jesus’ response was that he accused them of hypocrisy, by quoting the text from Isaiah. Legalism takes account of man’s outward actions; but it takes no account of his inward feelings. One may be meticulously serving God in outward things, and bluntly disobeying God in inward things. There is a story of a Mohammedan who was pursuing a man with upraised knife to murder him. Just then the call to prayer was heard. Immediately he stopped, spread out his prayer mat, said his prayers, and continued to pursue the enemy. Because it is prescribed that a devout Mohammedan must pray five times a day.

It is much easier to deal with outer, visible things than with the inner world of attitudes: with the heart. And so, like the Pharisees, we tend to evaluate ourselves and others in purely external ways: the number of prayers we recite, the amount of money we give, etc. There is nothing wrong with external things, but there is also an inner world that shapes and gives meaning to the external.

It is difficult to retain a clear vision of the Gospel: that “God is Spirit, and those who worship him should worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). We are forever in danger of stepping into the shoes of the Pharisees.

Religion is not about things, it is about us! It is about the kind of response we make to the world, to others, and to God. Today Jesus reminds us that there is no greater religious peril than that of identifying religion with outward observance. What matters in religion is to give one’s own heart to God. If the heart is not pure evil designs will emerge from it. Jesus gives a list of things as coming from the heart and making a man unclean. It is a summons to an honest self-examination of our own hearts.

 

We need to keep the spirit of the Church’s laws and practices. At least some of us add to or subtract, like the Pharisees,   from God’s laws given in the Bible and taught by the Church. Some of us pick and choose certain Commandments to follow, ignoring the others as we do food orderings in a cafeteria. For example, some actively do corporal and spiritual works of Charity, but avoid Sunday Mass. Acts of charity doesn’t allow us to replace Sunday Mass.  

St. James instructs us today to be attentive listeners to, and doers of, God’s word. We become more fully Jesus’ family members, only when we consistently “hear the word of God and do it” (Lk 8:21). When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion today, let us ask for the grace to become the doers of his word as Jesus was the doer of his Fathers’ will.