22nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B)

Sunday 1st September 2024
Mk 7:1-8,14-15,21-23

“Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him… They asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly 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 human precepts as doctrines.’ You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition”.
(Mk 7:1,5-8)

Around the Sea of Galilee, Jesus’ fame is spreading. From the periphery of the Jewish world (remember the expression: ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’), it also reaches Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish religion and the place of anticipation of the Jewish people!

The Pharisees (perushim, from the Hebrew word perusha meaning ‘separation’) were those who ‘separate’ themselves from the rest of the Israelites: their piety is outward-facing and based on the Law. They had a good 613 precepts to observe with the maximum of scrupolosity. For this reason, and to help them in this difficult endeavour, they lived in communities called haberut. Per questo, per aiutarsi in tale difficile intento, vivono in comunità, chiamate haberut. Having come from Jerusalem, they gather around Jesus and question him about the disciples’ failure (in their opinion) to keep the ancient precepts, particularly regarding eating with unwashed hands.

Jesus is very severe about the Pharisaic attitude, accusing them of hypocrisy. The original use of this word is in Greek theatre, where ‘hypocrite’ meant the actor. The actor is the one who pretends to be what in reality he is not. In the spiritual sphere, pretentiousness is oriented towards holiness, in the sense that one pretends to act according to the dictates of God, but in reality the person neglects mercy, which is the very heart of divine action. This is the danger we run into when we perform acts aimed at satisfying a religious sentiment, innate in humans, but foreign to trusting faith in Jesus, who no longer calls us servants but friends. In the light of this dialogue, Jesus shows that a strict observance of the rules can actually contradict the meaning and sense of the rule itself, which is the exercise of mercy.

Let’s remember the command that the Master gives to each of us: “Be merciful as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36). The measure of the law is mercy!

p. Giuseppe