Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 6, 2024

Mark 7:1-13

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 went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and Whoever curses father or mother shall die. Yet you say, ‘If someone says to father or mother, “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. You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.”

In order to understand what is happening in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, it helps to know a little more than what St. Mark explains about the purity laws.  While the ancient Jewish Law prescribed certain regulations regarding purity, they mostly concerned the priests and anything that had to do with the sacrifices that were commanded.  The Pharisees, however, interpreted these laws to apply to everyday life and not merely Temple worship.  Thus, up until the time of the Pharisees, there was no law regarding the washing of the hands before meals: this was ordered for the priests in the Temple concerning sacrifices.  As the views of the Pharisees spread, the practice of washing hands increased until it was taken for granted that this was commanded by the Law, when in fact it was merely the interpretation of the Law by the Pharisees.  This is why Mark is able to say that “For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews” practice this.  And yet, not all the Jews did.  It is very unlikely that John the Baptist and his followers did, or the zealots.  And so we see here that “some of [the Lord’s] disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.”  

Now, the Pharisees visiting the Lord Jesus show that they themselves know that the washing of hands before meals is not required by the Law, since they say to him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”  They do not say, Why do they not follow the Law.  They say, Why do they not follow the tradition of the elders.  It is as though the Pharisees expect that should follow the the traditions of the Pharisees.  Jesus does address the question of whether he or his disciples nor he are bound by their customs, but he makes clear that their going beyond the requirements of the Law and insisting that others do so as well means breaking it.  If God wanted to make a law requiring people to wash their hands before meals, he would have done so at the time he gave the Law to Moses.  Humans are not free to impose their own restrictions and then call them God’s.  And so the Lord Jesus contrasts the commandments of God with the “traditions of men”.  He declares to them: “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition!”  The Pharisees have made their ideology, their aims, primary to God’s Law, however they think to disguise this.  The Lord then gives a very clear example involving the Fourth Commandment and the law regarding qorban, offerings made in the Temple to God, which eventually included other kinds of gifts offered in the Temple.  The Pharisees taught and persuaded many people to believe that a person could avoid responsibility for carrying out other parts of the Law by giving money or property to the Temple.  Jesus condemns them for this because what is essential in religion is the carrying out of its laws: going beyond the intention of the Divine Lawmaker, as evidenced by what he has commanded, is to replace sacred law and with human precepts.  

We do this when we fall into the trap of perfectionism and scrupulosity wherein we consciously or not set standards that we cannot hope to reach, and which we move if we advance towards them.  God calls us to be perfect, — not according to our ideas of what this means but according to his: what God calls us to is perfection in love of him and of our neighbor.  When we consider this, we see how trivial are our attempts tat reducing the law of God to mere legalism.