Reading 2
Dearest brothers and sisters:
All good giving and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.
He willed to give us birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this:
to care for orphans and widows in their affliction
and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Gospel
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 summoned the crowd again and said to them,
"Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.
"From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile."
Reflection
Today’s readings teach us what it means to live a just and holy life. As we learn from Jesus’s response to the Pharisees, a long list of good deeds or rule-following is not enough to be holy and “pure.” Yes, our actions matter very much, but here Jesus is concerned with purity of heart. He shows the importance of examining why we act, and He explains what it really means to be unclean.
Jesus says that the evils of mankind come “from within people, from their hearts…” He observes that outwardly deplorable deeds stem from an inward corruption. So, if we want to prevent evil, we should keep our hearts pure and holy. And although the Pharisees obsessively follow the traditions of their elders, Jesus notices that “[they] disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition." God’s commandments are just and designed to protect us from the impurity of sin. But the Pharisees are not concerned with what soils their hearts. They follow their rules because of human tradition, not out of love or a desire to purify their inner life.
In the second reading, St. James defines a pure and undefiled life as “[caring] for orphans and widows in their affliction and [keeping] oneself unstained by the world.” We must ask: what is it in this world that “stains” us? Jesus shows us that defilement does not come from the dirt that the Pharisees carefully scrubbed from their kettles. Temptations of greed, lust, and pride are the real dangers to a clean heart. The Pharisees neglected the commandments which protect against those real dangers. Instead, they sought to maintain an appearance of cleanliness by obsessing over their customs.
Let us ask the Holy Spirit to purify our intentions. When we do good deeds, let us pray for the grace to do them with clean hearts: out of a desire to please God rather than to appear good. Let us ask Our Lord to deliver us from the sinful inclinations that sully our hearts. With God’s help, we can “humbly welcome the word that has been planted in [us] and is able to save [our] souls.”
Please be assured of my prayers for you before Our Lord, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
+ Bishop Schlert
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