And you do many such things

Gen 1,20-2,4a; Ps 8; Mk 7,1-13
12 FEBRUARY

If the Lord condemns the solemn worship that is celebrated in his holy temple, because it is not the fruit of perfect obedience to his Commandments, can he be pleased with the tradition of the ancients that is built on the elimination of the very Law and his Commandments, on which the Alliance has been stipulated? The words of Isaiah show all the disgust of the Lord towards a cult celebrated as a blanket to hide sin, which is universal disobedience to his will and opposition to his Word.
What care I for the number of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I have had enough of whole-burnt rams and fat of fatlings; In the blood of calves, lambs and goats I find no pleasure. When you come in to visit me, who asks these things of you? Trample my courts no more! Bring no more worthless offerings; your incense is loathsome to me. New moon and Sabbath, calling of assemblies, octaves with wickedness: these I cannot bear. Your new moons and festivals I detest; they weigh me down, I tire of the load. When you spread out your hands, I close my eyes to you; Though you pray the more, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood! Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow. Come now, let us set things right, says the Lord: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; Though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool. If you are willing, and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land; But if you refuse and resist, the sword shall consume you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken! (Is 1,11-20).
At the time of Jesus people had gone much further. They did not act ignoring the Commandments of the Lord, they worked to evade the Law itself. While in ancient times one could have remorse and be converted, with scribes and Pharisees this remorse was annulled, because, circumventing the Word of the Lord, everyone believed to be in justice, in truth and in light. They did not wash their hands before taking food and were accused of serious transgression of tradition. They sinned. A Commandment was eliminated and it did not even come to mind that that was not God’s will. Jesus says it very clearly: “And you do many things like that”. The tithes of the cumin, of the mint or of other herbs were paid, but justice, mercy and fidelity were neglected.
Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 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 honours 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, ‘Honour your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother shall die.’ Yet you say, ‘If a person 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 favour of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.”
Jesus wants a clear distinction to be made between what the Word of the Lord and what personal fulfilment of the Word is, between what the decree of men is and what instead the Gospel is. What comes from God is un-modifiable over the centuries. What comes from the men can never have value of law, unless it is a clear, indeed very evident implementation of the Word of the Lord. The rule also applies to us that nothing is added to the Word and nothing is taken away, being the law of God perfect. The attention must great for all the “translators” into rules of the Word of Christ Jesus.
Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that we never elude the Word with our traditions.