Wednesday of Week 5 in Ordinary Time
Gen 2:4-9,15-17
Mk 7:14-23
“…it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean.”
The Jews had many complicated and detailed dietary laws which banned certain foods because they were believed to defile a person. Even utensils had to be cleaned a certain way. These laws were strictly observed because once defiled, a person was ritually unclean and could not worship in the temple. In today’s gospel, Jesus was direct and emphatic with his words, declaring that strict observation of these laws did not make one holy. “Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean”. Imagine how this teaching of Jesus might have sounded, both offensive and scandalous, to his audience. In fact, when his own disciples sought clarification, Jesus sounded almost exasperated. “Do you not understand either? Can you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean, because it does not go into his heart, but through his stomach and passes out into the sewer?”
By exhorting the Jews to look past scrupulous observations of the laws – what to eat and what to avoid – and to look honestly instead at what came out of their hearts, he was teaching them the real source of sin. He cited fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly – what he called ‘evil intentions’ – as examples of what lurks in man’s heart and infecting his thoughts, words and deeds.
Observing the dietary restrictions might have made a Jew ‘feel’ holy and right with God, but it did not lead him any closer to God himself who is love. Many examples in the bible show the Pharisees up for their hypocrisy. They thought of themselves as morally superior because of their compliance with the Torah. Yet, no matter how scrupulous they were in their observances of the laws, they didn’t grow in holiness. For us today, what ultimately makes a difference to our discipleship is a real relationship with Christ; he is the bridge between man and God as mediator. Discipleship is about following a person — Jesus himself. Religion per se, even with its rules, does not lead us to God unless the Spirit animates our lives and our worship of God finds expression in how we truly love others. The internal disposition of our hearts matters because that will be how we are judged. God himself is love. Jesus’ teachings consistently come back to our actions of love as the benchmark and litmus test for whether or not we are Pharisaical. He himself showed how love looks like when he healed on the sabbath – the apparent sin of breaking the law (keeping the sabbath holy) was more than cancelled by his saving act of mercy.
I recall how heartbroken a good friend of mine was when his staunchly church-going siblings refused to send their non-Christian father off at his funeral because it involved Taoist rites. It caused huge division within the family and hurt their mother so deeply, that all hopes my friend had of leading her to Christ were dashed. His mom saw their Christian God as a judgmental God – and was put off by what she saw as the hardening of her children’s hearts.
Perhaps this is why many today resist being affiliated with any religion, preferring to describe themselves as spiritual, and not religious. Religiosity, when it becomes over-scrupulous, becomes a burden almost – cumbersome and restrictive without adding anything to life. It might be helpful, as part of one’s nightly examen, to consider honestly what one’s motivations are for our choices and decisions. To what extent am I concerned about maintaining appearances? Have there been times when I was overly anxious about observing a rule at the expense of another, or scandalising the church and God? Have I reduced the practice of my faith to a mere box-ticking exercise?
Satan’s primary aim is to keep us from having a real relationship with Christ. Jesus instead challenges us to look attentively into our hearts to see what it is that stands in the way of growing more into His image and likeness. May we, with the help of the Holy Spirit, come to see how we need to reorient our hearts to align them with His, so that we can love God and neighbour with purity of intention.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Corinne Cheok)
Prayer: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Help me purify my intentions to grow in authentic holiness. Amen.
Thanksgiving: Thank you, dear Jesus, for opening our eyes to what really matters in our worship of you, and for loving us even when we fall short in our love for you and our neighbour.
OXYGEN 
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