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Gospel: Matthew
15:1-2, 10-14
Some
Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your
disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when
they eat a meal.” He summoned the crowd and said to them, “Hear and understand.
It is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles the man; but what comes out of
the mouth is what defiles one.” Then his disciples approached and said to him, “Do
you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He
said in reply, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be
uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. If a blind man
leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.
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Reflection:
Whom
would you prefer a person who observes the tradition of washing of hands before
eating a meal or a person who doesn’t observe this tradition? We would
obviously prefer the one who observes the tradition.
But what
if those who observe the tradition do it only for people to see them doing it and
there’s no interior cleansing that happens to them? And those who don’t observe
the tradition are the ones who are interiorly clean. We would now prefer those
who do not observe the tradition but they are clean from within their hearts.
Jesus is
not against the washing of hands per se but what He is against is the
external display of holiness. For example, what is the use of our religious
devotions if there is no internal transformation that occurs in our hearts?
