20200804 PURIFICATION
04 August, 2020, Tuesday, 18th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: White.
These are the readings for the feria
First reading |
Jeremiah 30:1-2,12-15,18-22 © |
Your wound is incurable but I will heal you
The word addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord: the Lord, the God of Israel says this: Write all the words I have spoken to you in a book.
Yes, the Lord says this:
Your wound is incurable,
your injury past healing.
There is no one to care for your sore,
no medicine to make you well again.
All your lovers have forgotten you,
they look for you no more.
Yes, I have struck you as an enemy strikes,
with harsh punishment
so great is your guilt, so many your sins.
Why bother to complain about your wound?
Your pain is incurable.
So great is your guilt, so many your sins,
that I have done all this to you.
The Lord says this:
Now I will restore the tents of Jacob,
and take pity on his dwellings:
the city shall be rebuilt on its ruins,
the citadel restored on its site.
From them will come thanksgiving
and shouts of joy.
I will make them increase, and not diminish them,
make them honoured, and not disdained.
Their sons shall be as once they were,
their community fixed firm in my presence,
and I will punish all their oppressors.
Their prince will be one of their own,
their ruler come from their own people.
I will let him come freely into my presence
and he can come close to me;
who else, indeed, would risk his life
by coming close to me? – it is the Lord who speaks.
And you shall be my people and I will be your God.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 101(102):16-21,29,22-23 © |
The Lord shall build up Zion again and appear in all his glory.
The nations shall fear the name of the Lord
and all the earth’s kings your glory,
when the Lord shall build up Zion again
and appear in all his glory.
Then he will turn to the prayers of the helpless;
he will not despise their prayers.
The Lord shall build up Zion again and appear in all his glory.
Let this be written for ages to come
that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord;
for the Lord leaned down from his sanctuary on high.
He looked down from heaven to the earth
that he might hear the groans of the prisoners
and free those condemned to die.
The Lord shall build up Zion again and appear in all his glory.
The sons of your servants shall dwell untroubled
and their race shall endure before you
that the name of the Lord may be proclaimed in Zion
and his praise in the heart of Jerusalem,
when peoples and kingdoms are gathered together
to pay their homage to the Lord.
The Lord shall build up Zion again and appear in all his glory.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn8:12 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light of life.
Alleluia!
Or: | Jn1:49 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Rabbi, you are the Son of God,
you are the King of Israel.
Alleluia!
Gospel |
Matthew 15:1-2,10-14 © |
Any plant my Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots
Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus and said, ‘Why do your disciples break away from the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat food.’ He called the people to him and said, ‘Listen, and understand. What goes into the mouth does not make a man unclean; it is what comes out of the mouth that makes him unclean.’
Then the disciples came to him and said, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were shocked when they heard what you said?’ He replied, ‘Any plant my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them alone. They are blind men leading blind men; and if one blind man leads another, both will fall into a pit.’
PURIFICATION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [JER 30:1-2, 12-15, 18-22; Mt 15:1-2, 10-14 ]
In the first reading, the Israelites were suffering the effects of the Babylonian’s final invasion of Judah in 587 B.C. They were inattentive to the earlier signs that the Lord gave them on the destruction of the Northern Kingdom by the first two Babylonian attacks on Judah in 602 and 597 B.C. Instead of listening to Jeremiah, they listened to the false prophets, hoping that the Babylonian empire would collapse. In their misery, the Lord said to them, “Your wound is incurable, your injury past healing. There is no one to care for your sore, no medicine to make you well again. All your lovers have forgotten you; they look for you no more.”
Indeed, God often sends us warning after warning to repent, but like the Israelites we would not listen. We have to pay the price for our sins and our folly. We are always punished by our own sins. “Yes, I have struck you as an enemy strikes; with harsh punishment (so great is your guilt, so many your sins). Why bother to complain about your wound. Your pain is incurable. So great is your guilt, so many your sins, that I have done all this to you.” When we suffer the pain of our sins, we should not blame God or others but we should look into ourselves and see where we have failed and what we can learn from them.
Indeed, God does not stop loving us even when we sin against Him. Whether He punishes His people or consoles them, His only intention is to heal and redeem. God would use the period of exile, 70 years in all, to help the Israelites come to their senses, to yearn and long to go back to Jerusalem and once again, make God as the center of their life. Indeed, God promised Israel that He would rebuild them once again. God will restore them to Jerusalem and they would once again increase and multiply, as in the case with Noah when God gave him and his family a new beginning after the Flood had washed away all their sins and evil in the world. They would have a new ruler that is their own and not from a foreign country. They would once again be able to come before God’s presence freely and they would be God’s people.
But all this is possible only when they have a new heart. This was what Jeremiah prophesied, “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” (Jer 31:33f)
The Lord in the gospel seeks to give this new heart to His people. Jesus criticized the Pharisees for paying more attention to the ceremonial laws, which were extrapolated from the Oral Traditions of the elders. These were laws added to the Mosaic Laws to help the people to be more faithful to God. They were not essential laws, just as in the example that Jesus gave on hand washing. (Mt 15:2) It was a custom adapted from the foreign Jews, or could also have been an extension of the ritual of cleansing of the priests before entering the sanctuary to offer sacrifices. (cf Ex 30:17-21) In itself, washing our hands before eating or doing anything is certainly a good hygiene discipline. It is not just a religious expression of interior cleanliness but also protects us from food poisoning.
We must be clear that Jesus does not condemn such extra-biblical traditions in the lives of the Jews. In every community, regardless whether it be religious, sociological, or national, we have cultural norms, both written and unwritten. Such customs reflect the values of the community and serves to express filial piety, respect, appreciation, joys or sorrows. They play an important role in the life of the community. However, such human traditions are changed and modified according to its time. Cultures are always changing, adapting and transforming. Over time, some customs will no longer be applicable or useful. These must be discarded, modified and new ones be instituted.
What Jesus condemned was the hypocritical way in which the elders kept the traditions, and even using them to break the commandments of God. Jesus asked them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: ‘This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.'” (Mt 15:3,6-9) There was a lack of sincerity in what they did. They performed them externally but they did not intend them for good but for their self-image.
But nothing was so wicked and selfish as those who used traditions or customary laws to get around the commandments of God, as in the case of the Corban Law laid down for the Jews. Instead of honouring their parents they used it as a means to avoid looking after their elderly by consecrating all they had to God. And since it was an oath taken, it could not be broken. (Num 30:2) This was going against the spirit of the law. Indeed, there are many people today who try to get around the laws of God by twisting the spirit of the laws. Isn’t this what smart lawyers try to do by finding loopholes in the laws on technical points instead of being true to the real intention or the spirit of the law for which it was formulated and implemented? For Jesus, what is of utmost importance is not just obedience to the laws but compassion and charity towards others.
So Jesus is asking for a purification of the heart, the intention of what we do. He reminded us, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:20) We need to move beyond a mere observance of the laws and the traditions, particularly when they are human traditions. All human traditions at its best are extrapolations from the scriptures. But the way the principles and the commandments enumerated in the Bible and applied to concrete situations must keep up with the changing reality. What we must bear in mind is the intention and the spirit of what we do. This was why the Lord remarked, “Listen and understand. What goes into the mouth does not make a man unclean; it is what comes out of the mouth that makes him unclean.” He was not against the ceremonial cleansing but this should not be done as an external act that did not represent the interior cleansing of the mind and heart.
The truth is that in the final analysis, what we do externally might not impact our minds and hearts. So what is even more necessary is to transform our mind and heart. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom 12:2) What matters in Jesus’ teaching is the purity of the heart in whatever we do. He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Mt 5:8) More so for those of us who are teachers and leaders. We know the laws so well and there is always a temptation to get around the letter of the laws. If we ourselves do not have purity of heart and mind, then the Lord warns us, “Any plant my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. They are blind men leading blind men; and if one blind man leads another, both will fall into a pit.” Let us therefore purify our minds and hearts so that we can walk in truth and love. All laws must help us to love God and our fellowmen more truly.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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