Tuesday of the 18th Week in Ordinary Time
August 5, 2014 8:30am
Today’s gospel passage is in a
way very fundamental.
It gets close to the core of the
clash between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day, and it has
implications for us.
The leaders are upset because
Jesus’ disciples do not observe all of the traditions that have been passed
down.
There were very detailed and
numerous rules about diet and about washing your hands and utensils.
If you did not observe these
practices, you were considered unclean.
And if you someone was unclean,
you could have no contact with that person.
The religious leaders of Jesus’
day in effect equated all of this with religion.
These practices in their eyes
were religion.
Jesus completely disagreed with this
understanding.
As we hear today, he says “It is not what enters one’s mouth that
defiles one, but what comes out of one’s mouth that defiles one.”
This is very tough for those
leaders.
Not only is it different from
their understanding, but it is harder.
A religion based on ritual
observance or external practice is easy – it makes it easy to define what
constitutes goodness and easy to feel self-satisfied and self-righteous.
Jesus teaches against this.
All the external practices are
fine.
But they are a means to God and
true religion.
They are to be a means to
respectful and caring personal relationships and a humble spirit or attitude
toward God.
In effect, Jesus teaches: it is
not just how we act, but why we act.
It is not just what we actually
do, but what we wish to do in our heart.
As Saint Thomas Aquinas said, “We humans see the deed, but God sees the
intention.”
So, a religion based more on
relationship and on intention, and not just ritual and other external practices
– this is what Jesus brings.
