8 February 2022 - merely human tradition

Today's Readings

(Audio)

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.

The Pharisees hearts were already revealed by the way in which they were watching, waiting, looking for something to condemn. We too sometimes succumb to this temptation rather than simply keeping our minds on our business. But what will we see while thus watching except merely external matters, things that do not truly touch the heart or testify to the state of the soul? When we make it habit to judge others in this way we train ourselves to value external appearances over internal realities. Then we come to only value what seems to be the case from our perspective in others, and, in turn, we only value in ourselves what they can probably see from the outside.

And on coming from the marketplace

they do not eat without purifying themselves.

These ritual purifications were not meant to be a badge of honor, lorded over those who did not perform them by those who did. They were meant to be a sign and reminder addressed to the soul of an individual in need of purity. But as they became synonymous with the Pharisees' approach to Judaism they became a sign by which the perceived superiority of that approach could be weaponized. Pride would go to those who followed them and shame to those who did not. This was far from the original point of the purifications when they were first prescribed only for priests.

You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.

We are called to be on guard against merely human tradition even as we cling to the sacred tradition that has been handed down to us, whether in written form or by word of mouth (see Second Thessalonians 2:15). There is a great risk that if we do not thus guard ourselves we may become self-deceived, believing that our human precepts are the definition of a life pleasing to God. We will then wear that right clothes, say the right words, attend the right services, and even make impressive donations. But our hearts will remain disengaged. And to the degree that they do we will risk neglecting things that matter more than appearances.

“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.

If we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord and our ears open to his word we won't risk losing ourselves in externals and appearances. Our priorities will then be rock solid, and not put us at the risk of the pride, greed, and indifference that the Pharisees covered over with their self-constructed traditions.

Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?

If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you,

how much less this temple which I have built! 

How much less can our merely human traditions contain God than the magnificent temple constructed to be a sign of his presence? We are called to remember that it is a living God whom we serve, a God whose very word is alive, with whom we are called into a dynamic relationship. Human traditions place merely human limits on such a relationship with the result that they keep us sealed off from any challenges such a relationship might present.

May your eyes watch night and day over this temple,

the place where you have decreed you shall be honored;

may you heed the prayer which I, your servant, offer in this place.

Let us turn to the presence of the living God. He has made himself abundantly available to us. Rather than looking around at others seeking for something to criticize let us instead look to God himself and seek the mercy of which we ourselves always stand in need.

I had rather one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere;

Matt Maher - Better Is One Day