You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition

2 SEPTEMBER (Mk 7,1-8.14-15.21-23)

When wisdom becomes foolishness, religion always gets transformed into idolatry and inhumanity. Religion is needed for the greater good of a man, of every man, never for his evil. A religion that does not elevate man is always a fruit of human ignorance, in its turn a fruit of the sin that governs the heart. When the intelligence is eclipsed, the true faith also is obscured and in place of the Word of God the word of man takes its place, which deteriorates, ruins, and obscures even the holiest things.

The Lord said: Since this people draws near with words only and honors me with their lips alone, though their hearts are far from me, And their reverence for me has become routine observance of the precepts of men, Therefore I will again deal with this people in surprising and wondrous fashion: The wisdom of its wise men shall perish and the understanding of its prudent men be hid. Woe to those who would hide their plans too deep for the Lord! Who work in the dark, saying, “Who sees us, or who knows us?” Your perversity is as though the potter were taken to be the clay: As though what is made should say of its maker, “He made me not!” Or the vessel should say of the potter, “He does not understand.” But a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest! On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see. The lowly will ever find joy in the Lord, and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the tyrant will be no more and the arrogant will have gone; All who are alert to do evil will be cut off, those whose mere word condemns a man, Who ensnare his defender at the gate, and leave the just man with an empty claim. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of the house of Jacob, who redeemed Abraham: Now Jacob shall have nothing to be ashamed of, nor shall his face grow pale. When his children see the work of my hands in his midst, They shall keep my name holy; they shall reverence the Holy One of Jacob, and be in awe of the God of Israel. Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction”. (Is 29,13-24).

Religion is in the service of the truth of man. Building a religion in order to aliment the falseness of human nature is an inhuman and an anti human thing. That religion unable to make a clean cut distinction between what is morally evil and on the contrary what is ritually opportune, not opportune, convenient, and not convenient; is harmful. Never must, what is morally evil, be done. On the contrary, what is opportune and convenient, depends on the circumstances, on the situations, on the particular moments one lives in. Moral law must never be transgressed. Ritual law depends on the historical possibility. One washes his hands if there is some water. If there is no water, he can also eat with not perfectly clean hands. On the contrary, moral law is absolute. It always obliges.

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 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.”

Today, Jesus puts moral law back in its right place. He gives the ritual law its role of opportunity and convenience. Nothing more. It is the task of every man of God to operate this sound and holy discernment. That is why one must let himself be guided by the wisdom of the Hoy Spirit, that never might inhabit a heart in which sin, transgression, injustice, wickedness, evilness, moral disorder, and vice; reign.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels, and Saints give us the true wisdom.