by Br Julian McDonald cfc
“Nothing that enters from outside can defile a person; but the things that come from within are what defile.” Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23
After five weeks of intense reflection on John’s theology of Eucharist, including Jesus’ identifying himself to his disciples as Bread of Life for the world, we return this Sunday to a gospel-reading from Mark in which we see Jesus jousting with a group of Pharisees and scribes who had come from Jerusalem and put their investigating microscopes on the failure of Jesus’ disciples to observe prescribed cleansing rituals. Their modern-day equivalents are self-appointed “temple police” who turn up in parish churches with clip-boards and pens to note any departures the priest celebrating Eucharist might make from the prescribed ritual.
Jesus was no expert in matters of personal hygiene and had no knowledge of germs or micro-organisms, but recognised hypocrisy and lack of integrity whenever he encountered them. He also knew that any criticism levelled at his disciples was directed at him, their teacher and leader.
Jesus was in no doubt that the Law of Moses was designed to help the Chosen People to live in harmony with one another, respecting one another, and leading them to live in union with God. He had no time for nit-picking pedants, who were intent on elevating relatively insignificant cultural practices to the level of Law. So, when the “purity police” found fault with Jesus’ disciples for failing to follow the traditional hand-washing ritual before eating, Jesus took them head-on, quoting a passage from Isaiah that challenged the motives that drove their obsession with hand-washing: “This people honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me. The worship they offer is worthless, the doctrines they teach are only human regulations. You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions. (Isaiah 29: 13)
Applying this to those who had seen fit to condemn his disciples for failing to scrub up, Jesus effectively said: “Is your hand-washing a humble expression of your need and wish to be forgiven from your sins, or is it, rather, a show for others to see how virtuous you are? If you try to pretend that clean fingernails are all you have to have to come into God’s presence, then your brains are addled and your hearts are in the wrong place!”
While our gospel-reading is an account of how Jesus had deflated a group of “purity police” who had come for no other purpose than to carp and criticise, how might we be being invited to participate in the story we have heard?
Might I suggest that this story opens the way for each of us to ponder our own little excursions into hypocrisy?
We know how easily we can find fault with the behaviour and actions of those with whom we live and work, thereby presenting ourselves as beacons of virtue. We can easily focus on the frailties and vulnerabilities of others while ignoring our own. We can set behavioural expectations for others and have a different code of conduct for ourselves. Moreover, we recognise how right Jesus was when he pointed out that it is our thoughts of hurting others and our plans for getting even that show where corruption and evil have their source.
At every Eucharistic celebration, the celebrant engages in a symbolic hand-washing ritual at the end of the Offertory, and prays God’s forgiveness for his sins. We can participate in that by silently acknowledging our sinfulness and asking God’s healing of whatever part of our lives is in need of such.
This reading ultimately invites us to stop and ask ourselves what is at the heart of what we do when we join with the other members of our community in celebrating Eucharist. We begin by acknowledging our sinfulness and recognising our need for conversion of heart. Do I engage seriously and mindfully in that penitential rite or is it a formula that I rattle off without even looking any other parishioner in the eye and telling him/her than I am a sinner in need of his/her prayerful support?
Do we ever ask ourselves: “Why am I here at Mass in the first place? Is it out of obligation? Is it about pausing with others to recognise our need for God and to acknowledge that as a community of the people of God we are meant to go from the Church to be for others the Jesus we have received in communion, to be bread broken and given for a broken people?”
Surely James got it right for us all when, in today’s second reading, he asserted: “Religion that is pure is this: care for the most needy (widows and orphans) and freedom from the false values of society” (James 1: 27).
