Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Mark 7, 1-13
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 went on to say,
“How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
‘If someone says to father or mother,
“Any support you might have had from me is qorban”‘
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things.”
Unclean hands
1. Observed. There will always be people who will look at your mistakes and even criticize you, and there will be people who will point out your mistakes and help you out of them. Remember that you succeed by what you learn and that you learn from your mistakes. Don’t let criticism hold you back in life, but rather may you be encouraged to overcome flaws and problems.
2. Tradition of elders. When religion focuses only on rites or laws, when your life dwells on the past, then you lose your creativity, and your vitality. Keep your faith alive, nourish it and live by it. Give yourself the opportunity to be happy with what you have and don’t dwell on the past, or on what you could have been or had.
3. Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy will always be around us and that’s what we’ll have to work on. We must try to be coherent with our faith and our life. We must strive to be better people one day at a time. Seek God in your life and your life will be full of God.
Today we celebrate our Lady of Lourdes. We ask for her intercession and healing. She soothes us with her tenderness. Mary repeats in your heart the words she said in Lourdes to St. Bernadette, “I do not promise you happiness in this world but in the next.”
Remember that something good is on the way!
God bless you and be with you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
