In today’s Gospel Jesus accuses the Pharisees and scribes of treating their religious traditions as more important than the law of God. “You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” The human traditions they so rigidly observed had become quite numerous and burdensome, and the practice of religion itself had taken on a life of its own, far removed from the original purpose of the laws God had given through Moses.
In a passage that reveals how Moses himself regarded the law, today’s reading from Deuteronomy presents him speaking to the people of Israel. He clearly does not consider the law a burden. Rather it is a treasure, a precious guide, clear proof of God’s goodness and of his closeness to his people. Following the law is evidence of “wisdom and intelligence,” not scrupulosity and hypocrisy. Moses warned the people not to tamper with the wise statutes and just decrees that God had given: “you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.” Sadly, over the years the Pharisees did not heed this warning but instead kept adding rules, compiling a complex list that became known and honored as “the tradition of the elders.”
The multiplication of laws did not result in greater holiness or obedience. So Jesus gives the Pharisees a stern correction: “Well did Isaiah prophecy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, / but their hearts are far from me.” Then he proceeds to explain this distinction between the “lips” and the “heart,” that is, between the level of external observances and that of the interior life. The Pharisees had accused the disciples of being “unclean” because of their failure to follow the prescribed purification rituals. Jesus shifts the focus to the things that really make us unclean: “the things that come out from within are what defile.”
This teaching gives us pause to reflect on what human traditions may have taken on a life of their own in our own spiritual life and in the religious habits of our families. Have we taken on a devotion or practice, perhaps during Lent or when we faced a particular need, that has now become rigid and burdensome? Is it producing the fruit for which it was originally intended? As we reflect on our “human traditions,” guided with insight from the Holy Spirit, we may see some that have gone astray.
The second reading gives us wise advice to ensure that the traditions we practice produce good fruit. St. James tells us: “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.” We are not to look to external practices alone, as if these can save us, or as if we can save ourselves by doing them. Rather we look to the One who has planted his own word, “the word of truth,” in our hearts. As we allow the Lord to purify us from within, we grow in holiness and virtue. With his grace we can “be doers of the word and not hearers only.” While external observances are not enough, James is careful to prevent us from making the opposite mistake, that of thinking that listening alone is enough. He tells us to listen and put what God tells us into practice. As an example of pure and undefiled religion, James tells us to “care of orphans and widows,” and to keep ourselves “unstained by the world.”
We have already had too much of being stained by the world – that is, of allowing ourselves to be defiled by “the evils that come from within” – the “evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit” and all the rest. To pursue a course of life “unstained by the world,” we must reject the temptation of hypocrisy, of concentrating on exterior defilement while ignoring our inner life. Today’s readings move us to reflect on what is going on within us and to consider what sort of Christian witness we are giving to the world. We ask God to purify our thoughts, attitudes, and habits. Let us humbly welcome the word that has been planted in us.
How can I better appreciate the Law as a treasure, a precious gift? When have I found my religious practices unnecessarily burdensome? How is the Lord purifying me from within, so that I can grow in holiness and virtue?
Excerpt from The Anawim Way, Volume 20, no. 7. More information about The Anawim Way may be found here.