With the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, we return again to Saint Mark for our gospel readings, as the regular evangelist of Cycle B. The gospel text (Mark 7:1-8.14-15.21-23) narrates the confrontation Jesus had with some Pharisees and scribes about clean and unclean according to the prescriptions of tradition. To be a follower of Jesus, one is called
to be one heart and one spirit with him.
Questions on traditions
The Pharisees and scribes wanted so much to bring up some charges against Jesus, because he was a challenge to their power and authority. Coming all the way from Jerusalem, they could not yet pin him down personally on anything, so they focused on his more vulnerable followers. These were observed eating with unwashed, therefore unclean, hands. They pounced on Jesus: “Why are they violating the traditions of the elders? Why do you allow this? Why don’t you reproach them?” The Jewish traditional practices of carefully washing hands when returning from the marketplace, and also of cups, jugs and kettles, were intended to purify persons and everyday objects from all risk of legal impurity. Unknowingly one could have come into contact with a pagan or a person with some hidden infirmities, and so become impure oneself. One should be pure before God.
This question of traditional religious practices indeed confronted the early Christians. Must they still abstain from blood and from meat from sacrifices and of strangled animals? Must converts from paganism be circumcised too? After the arduous debate in the so-called Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:1-31), it was concluded that there should be no unnecessary burdens placed on the brethren. This issue of whether certain traditional practices are of permanent value is historically a recurrent question among the faithful. Must evangelizers impose all their traditions on the evangelized? How do you show respect for the diverse cultures of people and avoid religious imperialism? How do you avoid the formalism that threatens certain religious practices? Or distinguish between mere human traditions and divine commands?
Jesus answers
Ritual washing is meaningful to the extent that it expresses the purification of the heart. External religious actions by themselves have value only when truthful, i.e., when one’s inner dispositions are in conformity with what they signify. No rite, however sacred and ancient, can replace the necessity of honoring God in our heart, which is essential. Jesus, citing the prophet Isaiah (29:13) on hypocrisy, captures it succinctly: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.” Turning to the crowd, Jesus explains to them that nothing from the outside can automatically defile a person, but what comes out from within a person can really be defiling and defiled already. One must succumb to evil, agreeing with it, before it can defile you.
Jesus shares His wisdom with His disciples: “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts…theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” Purity is not just about some external rituals, but must be of the heart. If the heart is already consumed with evil, as committing adultery in one’s heart (Matthew 5:28), what emanates from it would be dripping with evil, like acts of lasciviousness or sexual harassment. On the other hand, especially in a culture of “palabas at pakitang-tao” (show off for human respect), sheer good intention does not automatically mean, nor can it replace, good deeds.
Alálaong bagá, it is imperative that we watch over our hearts, for spiritually we are as our hearts are. Our real thoughts and desires, our true values and commitments are of the heart. Saint Paul reminds us that on the Day of Judgment, the Lord “…will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts” (1 Corinthians 4:5). It is vital for us as Jesus’ disciples that we become and are of the same heart and mind with Jesus Christ, his “kadiwa at kapuso.”
Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.