The Pharisees and teachers of the law came from Jerusalem, to watch and listen and confront our rabbi. Swathed in an air of purity they passed through the crowd, and the people stood aside as they moved, to honour them and to spare them from being contaminated by the common man and woman. They even avoid letting their eyes light on anything which might taint their purity. The people are in awe of them because they not only know the Scriptures but can recite every part of the oral traditions around them. They understand that their life springs from a deep faith and love of our people, and a longing to be clean enough to come into the presence of the Holy One, the Lord God.
The people lowered their eyes in the presence of these separated ones. We all knew that we were tainted in one way or another, the men whose work brought them into contact with unclean things or animals, all those who were sick or disabled and those who had to care for them, those with foreign blood, and the women, they were especially tainted.
We, the little group who followed Jesus, knew there would be a problem. Of all the activities which took place around him, we wondered what would they find fault with? How had we broken the law of Scripture and let down our people?
Traditions of the Elders
It was not Scripture though. We had violated the “traditions of the elders,” those spoken words the holy ones recited perfectly to their own students, passing on messages to future generations. Of course we had washed our hands and cleaned ourselves before coming to our meals. Our food was blessed and we prayed, as often as we should, with love and devotion to our God and to Jesus. But the ritual ablution according to their tradition was not part of our life. We had not kept separate from people who were ritually impure nor performed enough rituals of cleansing.
We waited, sensing that Jesus had drawn close to his Father in the moments before he replied. He looked at the poor people, the sick, the widowed and orphaned, those who our law sought to protect and whose hearts were open to God, and then he looked at the separated ones, and it seemed he saw into every heart. In that moment we who loved and followed him, had a glimpse of what he saw. Where we had seen purity there was pollution, with taints of sin, like stains on a fine garment. We lowered our eyes.
Lips Not Hearts
Next he recited the words of Sacred Scripture, from the prophet Isaiah, ‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules’. And then said boldly ‘You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.’ He turned back then, to the crowd of people who had gathered around him like sheep, stumbling, thirsty and in need of a good shepherd, and he consoled and taught them. He told them that they are not contaminated by anything outside, only by what is within them.
Back at home we drew closer to Jesus, waiting for him to expand on his teaching. “What comes out of a person is what defiles them,” he said. I thought of the stain I had glimpsed, seeping out from a man’s heart. I lift up my eyes to him now, praying he will remain in my heart so that only goodness comes out of me.
[Readings: Dt 4:1-2, 6-8; Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23]
