CLEAN HANDS VS A CLEAN HEART
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8; James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Jesus and Jim were walking around in heaven. They saw Jim’s parish where the Eucharist was being celebrated. Something puzzled him: he could see the priest move his lips, the lectors read, the choir sing, and the organist thump the keyboard. But he couldn’t hear a sound. Was there something wrong with the amplification system or with his ears? Jesus explained: “We have a rule that if they don’t do things on earth with their hearts, we don’t hear them here at all!”
We “do” many “religious practices”; often our hearts are not in them! Today’s readings remind us that religion is not about externals and about fulfilling obligations; it is living God’s word from and with our hearts.
In the first reading, Moses urges the people to be faithful to God’s laws, which expressed their relationship with God. Over the years, the elders added numerous regulations to govern every action and every situation of life. The focus moved from love to the exact external fulfilment of the law; from relationship to ritual.
It is one of these numerous “traditions” that the disciples did not follow: they ate their meal without the ritual washing of their hands. The dialogue between the Pharisees and Jesus highlights a crucial difference between two mind-sets. For the Pharisees, religion was a performance, a meticulous carrying out of external regulations without concern for attitudes. For Jesus, religion was a matter of the heart; about love of God and care of neighbour.
This is also the thrust of the second reading: true religion is listening to and acting on God’s word and caring for the weak and oppressed.
Like the Jewish elders, we can make religion a ritual while our hearts are far from God and neighbour. The attitudes that motivate our actions, the way we associate with our neighbour – this is the heart of religion.
Today’s readings invite us to undergo the “heart test” to reveal who and what I am before God and before neighbour. To what do I give importance: clean hands or clean hearts; ritual or relationship? Is my heart in all that I say and do? If not, I need to bring on the heart sanitizer!
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