CELEBRATING OUR TRADITIONS

20160209 CELEBRATING OUR TRADITIONS

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Green.

First reading

1 Kings 8:22-23,27-30 ©

In the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord and, stretching out his hands towards heaven, said, ‘O Lord, God of Israel, not in heaven above nor on earth beneath is there such a God as you, true to your covenant and your kindness towards your servants when they walk wholeheartedly in your way. Yet will God really live with men on the earth? Why, the heavens and their own heavens cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built! Listen to the prayer and entreaty of your servant, O Lord my God; listen to the cry and to the prayer your servant makes to you today. Day and night let your eyes watch over this house, over this place of which you have said, “My name shall be there.” Listen to the prayer that your servant will offer in this place.

  ‘Hear the entreaty of your servant and of Israel your people as they pray in this place. From heaven where your dwelling is, hear; and, as you hear, forgive.’

Psalm

Psalm 83:3-5,10-11 ©

How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord, God of hosts.

My soul is longing and yearning,

  is yearning for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and my soul ring out their joy

  to God, the living God.

How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord, God of hosts.

The sparrow herself finds a home

  and the swallow a nest for her brood;

she lays her young by your altars,

  Lord of hosts, my king and my God.

How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord, God of hosts.

They are happy, who dwell in your house,

  for ever singing your praise.

Turn your eyes, O God, our shield,

  look on the face of your anointed.

How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord, God of hosts.

One day within your courts

  is better than a thousand elsewhere.

The threshold of the house of God

  I prefer to the dwellings of the wicked.

How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord, God of hosts.

Gospel Acclamation

Ps118:24

Alleluia, alleluia!

Train me, Lord, to observe your law,

to keep it with my heart.

Alleluia!

Or	Ps118:36,29

Alleluia, alleluia!

Bend my heart to your will, O Lord,

and teach me your law.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Mark 7:1-13 ©

The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus, and they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. For the Pharisees, and the Jews in general, follow the tradition of the elders and never eat without washing their arms as far as the elbow; and on returning from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling themselves. There are also many other observances which have been handed down to them concerning the washing of cups and pots and bronze dishes. So these Pharisees and scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not respect the tradition of the elders but eat their food with unclean hands?’ He answered, ‘It was of you hypocrites that Isaiah so rightly prophesied in this passage of scripture:

This people honours me only with lip-service,

while their hearts are far from me.

The worship they offer me is worthless,

the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.

You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.’ And he said to them, ‘How ingeniously you get round the commandment of God in order to preserve your own tradition! For Moses said: Do your duty to your father and your mother, and, Anyone who curses father or mother must be put to death. But you say, “If a man says to his father or mother: Anything I have that I might have used to help you is Corban (that is, dedicated to God), then he is forbidden from that moment to do anything for his father or mother.” In this way you make God’s word null and void for the sake of your tradition which you have handed down. And you do many other things like this.’

CELEBRATING OUR TRADITIONS

SCRIPTURE READINGS: 1Kgs 8:22-23. 27-30; Ps 83:3-5, 10-11; Mk 7:1-13

“You put aside the commandments of God to cling to human traditions.”  This text of the bible has often been taken out of context to condemn all human traditions.  Quite often, this verse is used to attack the Ecclesiastical laws of the Catholic Church, such as liturgical laws and practices; and Catholic traditions such as the use of sacramentals, e.g. holy water, statues, oil.  We have been told that these are man-made and therefore not binding.  By so doing, we have grossly misunderstood Jesus; that He is against traditions, particularly human traditions.   This would not be true because Jesus Himself being a Jew would, in order to live, have accepted the customs and traditions of His days.  Otherwise, He would have lacked an identity, a culture and values.  If one is a Jew, then we presume He would have imbibed the Jewish culture and all their traditions, whether it is eating, drinking, rituals, customs, etc. Even St Paul wrote to the Christians, “So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.” (2 Th 2:15)

Consequently, we cannot deny the importance of human traditions.  No society or community can exist without traditions.  We are all determined by the traditions that we have inherited.  Traditions are the means by which we pour out our values into the world.  So every community would have developed certain values to guide themselves so that there will be harmony and order.   So long as there are human beings coming together, there will be a set of customs and rules.  So no one is exempted from traditions.  For those celebrating Lunar New Year, this festival is celebrated with many customs and such customs vary with the different ethnic communities. This is true of all religions, including Christianity.  We have Catholic traditions but so too, the mainstream churches have their own traditions, be it Orthodox, Anglicans or Methodists.  As time develops, even the newfound evangelical churches will eventually develop their own traditions, practices and customs.  So let us not be too naive to think that only Catholics are required to observe traditions.  Even the other Christians are required to observe their traditions; otherwise they could not be considered a member of that community.

Traditions are also evolving.  Traditions are dynamic in nature.  We cannot freeze traditions; otherwise we will be living in the past. Tradition means to transmit, to pass on, but by so doing, there is a need to adapt to the current culture and needs.  This also accounts for the recent change by the Holy Father to permit any member of the faithful to have their feet washed during the Mass of the Last Supper.  In the past, it was confined to the priests, but it is now extended to all and one day perhaps, to non-Catholics even.  It all depends how we want to interpret the symbol and enlarge its meaning.  So traditions can change and must change with the time to bring about the meaning that we seek to convey.  Thus, let us not be too upset at the changes, especially if the changes are meant to bring the full reality of the gospel to the people.

Traditions are dynamic, unlike written traditions craft on paper.   This is where the danger lies.  Because unwritten traditions are changing with the times as traditions are concerned with living realities, there is always a possibility of injecting false or bad traditions over a period of time.  Not all traditions and customs are necessarily good for the people.  Some are corrupted, distorted and tainted over time and need to be purified. Some of our Chinese traditions are purely materialistic and self-centered.  So when Christians take over these traditions e.g. the giving of oranges, we give them a different meaning, namely, the spiritual blessings of the gospel.  It is for this reason, traditions need to be purified and always need another authority to check whether such traditions are good and positive.

This is where the written traditions of the past can help.  Most religions have their inspired sacred texts.  For us Christians, we have the bible which we believe is inspired by the Holy Spirit with God as the divine author working with the human authors.  Yet, let us not forget also that the written tradition of the Church, the Bible, was once an oral tradition.  It took the Church more than a hundred years to gather the texts together; and another 300 years to agree which text is inspired and only in 1500 AD that the Council of Trent solemnly defined the Books of scriptures.  So whilst the bible now guides the Church in her assessment of oral traditions and practices, it was the Church, the community, that authenticates which were the books that considered to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, leaving out those that are dubious but have some values which we call the apocrypha.

Within the context of human customs and traditions, we need to situate divine and religious laws.  The commandments of God, as Jesus mentioned, are not totally unrelated to human customs.  Some of us would want to believe that the Decalogue and the Mosaic Laws found in Deuteronomy and Leviticus are given directly by God. This would be too simplistic a view, as if God directly communicated the laws to Moses through verbal dictation.  More likely, Moses, who was at the Mountain for forty days and nights in prayer, would have reflected on how to govern the motley crowd of former slaves.  Through his own knowledge of the laws of neighhouring countries and that of the Egyptian Laws and inspired by God, he would have formulated the laws according to the customs of that time.  This is not to say that he was not inspired.  Certainly, he was guided by the Lord, but God would have inspired according to the limited knowledge and understanding of his time.   In other words, all the Mosaic Laws, whilst certainly inspired by God, were also taken whenever possible from the existing laws of that time.  Moses did not write the laws from a “tabula rasa”.  This is the implication of the words of King Solomon when he exclaimed, “Yet will God really live with men on the earth?  Why, the heavens and their own heavens cannot contain you.”  God will use ordinary things of creation to show us His love and His presence.

The point in case is the washing, when what was a hygienic tradition becomes an expression of interior cleanliness before God. “For the Pharisees, and the Jews in general, follow the tradition of the elders and never eat without washing their arms as far as the elbow; and on returning from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling themselves.  There are also many other observances which have been handed down to them concerning the washing of cups and pots and bronze dishes.”  So it was a good symbol to remind them to be spiritually clean before God at all times.   So, too, for all other religious customs, symbols and practices as well.  The date of Christmas was originally a pagan festival worshipping the Sun God.  The Christians transformed that celebration into the birth of Christ, the light of the World.  Circumcision was for hygienic reason as well for the Israelites who lived in the desert and contending with the scarcity of water.  But they too gave it a special significance of being inducted as a member of the people of God.

Thus, the point of contention is not whether they are divine or human laws but whether the traditions truly mediate the presence and the love of God.  Jesus was attacking the Jews for trying to use the laws in such a way that go against the spirit of the law as in the case of the Corban law.  The irony of the situation is that they were not observing the laws in spirit!  They were trying to find ways to get around the laws!  It was not because the laws were bad but they made them bad by twisting the intention of the laws.  He said, “You put aside the commandments of God to cling to human traditions. How ingeniously you get round the commandment of God in order to preserve your own tradition!  In this way you make God’s word null and void for the sake of your tradition which you have handed down.  And you do many other things like this.”   As such the Church is always reviewing her traditions, removing some excesses e.g. the monetary dimension attached to indulgences.  At the same time, she is inventing new ones but the task of the Church is to safeguard the purity of the faith, and she is always watchful of new traditions which originate from the People of God.

So what is at stake is that we need to keep the traditions alive by going back to the true spirit of the traditions, be they human or religious, oral or written traditions. It is not what we do that matters, but rather, the values and meanings that we want to convey or reinforce for the good of the individual and society.  Blindly following traditions, even if they are good and helpful, will not be of use to us as well.  Soon, we begin the season of Lent and many Catholics and Christians will observe the traditions of the Lenten season e.g. fasting, abstinence, praying the Stations of the Cross, etc but too many just observe them externally, forgetting the spirit of what they do.  So too during the Chinese New Year festival, many of us follow the traditions without knowing the meaning.  This explains why, when the traditions prove meaningless, they are eventually given up and cease to be practiced.

In the first reading, we have the completion of the Temple of Jerusalem.  The Temple is indeed a useful place not just for worship but for the community to gather together so that we can support each other in prayer.  It is also important for the community to gather together to share their faith stories and to journey together in life.   So the Temple or the Church is only meant to be a place that is tangible so that we can feel the presence of God in our midst not just in the Church itself but mostly, in His presence among the members of the community.  God is dwelling not just in the Temple of the Church but He is most present in us and in the people of God.

Of course, the Church remains a very important place to experience His Sacred Presence.  As Church, we need a structure to worship together.  This is where the liturgy of the Church is required so that there will be unity and order.   But again, let us remember that the liturgy is always a work in the making.  Liturgical laws are not crafted in stones.  Whilst we want order and unity in worship, we must not be rubricists and fall into legalism.  But it would not be right for anyone, especially the priest, to take the liturgy, which is the property of the People of God, into his own hands and do what he wants with it without the Church’s approval.   We cannot unilaterally at will change the liturgy according to our personal preferences, whims and fancies.  We will only create confusion and disunity.  It is not helping people to pray together but only make them feel uneasy at worship.  So let us be respectful of traditions and use them well for the purpose of living out the Spirit of the gospel.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved