First reading: Dt. 4:1–2,6–8

Moses said to the people: “Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it. Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’ For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?”

Second reading: Jas. 1:17–18,21b–22,27

Dearest brothers and sisters: All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change. He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Gospel: Mk. 7:1–8,14–15,21–23

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 summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.

“From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”

In other words

by Fr. Magdaleno Fabiosa, SVD (St. Arnold Janssen Home, Tagbilaran City, Bohol)

It is a consequence of our being human that our innermost sentiments and convictions get externalized through words and actions. Words are the vehicles of our innermost thoughts and feelings. In primitive times a word of a person was sacred. When making agreements no guarantees were needed except “giving one’s word.” A word of a person was enough. This transparency is not anymore the case in our modern and developed world. A word is not enough because it does not anymore express what is inside us. We hide behind our words. We say “yes” when we mean “no.” That is why when making agreements we need so many kinds of guarantees and collaterals because a word is not anymore enough.

The same may happen in our relationship with God. Every religion has its own set of rituals. There are rituals connected with a religious action of a community at a place of worship. What we are doing at this celebration of the Eucharist, for example, is composed of a set of rituals that get repeated all over the Christian world on a Sunday. Rituals are consequent to our being human. We need to express externally, in sets of actions, what we feel deep inside us regarding our relationship with God. Some rituals are official others are ordinary actions that individuals practice in the course of a day. Some ordinary ritual practices, for example, are: what people usually do when they visit a church, praying before eating, making the sign of the cross before one does any activity. These practices are meant to make religion permeate every action of a person during the day.

Rituals externalize our inner experience of a personal relationship with God. It is not important, therefore, what these actions are. If wiping the statue of Jesus, Mary, or any favorite saint, with a handkerchief, evokes this personal relationship one has with God and makes one aware of the responsibilities he/she has as a Christian, who am I to criticize such a practice? Who am I to criticize somebody’s practice of saying the rosary when such practice occasions for the individual a chance to contemplate Jesus whom we all are supposed to follow and imitate? The same can be said regarding the practice of walking on one’s knees in prayer, lighting votive candles, and attending regular novenas weekly. What is to be avoided, however, is that these practices do not degenerate into an activity of performance.

This is what angered Jesus against the Pharisees. He laughs at them saying, “Empty is the reverence that they show me.” We need to guard against identifying religion with performing external acts. Going to church, saying prayers, reading the Bible, and giving to charity do not in themselves guarantee holiness, if we do all these for the wrong motive and in an unloving way. What counts is not so much what we do as why we do them.

Last Sunday, related a story about Malcolm Muggeridge who was converted from agnosticsm to the Catholic faith. According to him what brought about this conversion was the fact that everything that Mother Teresa did reminded him of a God whom he, for so long, took for granted. There was a transparency between what she did and the motive that moved her from the inside—her love for God. Thus she became a powerful symbol, a transparent instrument of God’s presence.

This is actually what Jesus is trying to bring home in today’s Gospel, that from the abundance of our hearts, our life must speak. If our Christian behavior is motivated other than our love for God, then our Christian life cannot become an instrument of God’s presence; it loses its power to attract.

You must have seen scarecrows in rice fields. They are made up of old rice stalks dressed up in man’s used clothes and put on top of bamboo poles. They are to ward off birds, especially mayas that come in droves. Once I saw that the image of the scarecrow was losing some of its power when I noticed that mayas were feeding themselves on the rice. Just how much it had lost its symbolic power was even more evident when I saw some birds sitting on the head of the scarecrow.

There is an obvious conclusion here. An image without essence will eventually lose its power to do its job. This is what happens when religion is only an outward form and religious rituals are not experienced in the heart; it loses its symbolic and attracting power. Outward form and image are important, but it is our hearts that Jesus wants and is concerned about. Let it never be said of us what Jesus said of the Pharisees in today’s Gospel: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…”