"Why do your disciples…eat a meal with unclean hands?"
In today’s gospel, we see yet again how far the Pharisees and the Scribes are from God. It is as if they are on two different wavelengths. They are claiming to be for God, but their actions and attitudes toward God are hypocritical. Jesus, the Son of God, corrects them in order to not only help them, but all of us understand the importance of a clean heart.
Why does St. Mark talk about cleaning hands? St. Mark’s gospel was written for pagans and non-Jews, and for this reason he spends much of the first verses describing the purpose of cleaning hands. “Hands were washed not for reasons of hygiene or good manners but because the custom had religious significance: it was a rite of purification. In Exodus 30:17ff the Law of God laid down how priests should wash before offering sacrifice. Jewish tradition had extended this to all Jews before every meal, in an effort to give meals a religious significance, which was reflected in the blessings which marked the start of meals. Ritual purification was a symbol of the moral purity a person should have when approaching God (Psalm 24:3; 51:4 and 9); but the Pharisees had focused on the mere external rite. Therefore Jesus restores the genuine meaning of these precepts of the Law, whose purpose is to teach the right way to render homage to God (cf. Jn. 4:24).” [1]
As Catholics, we too say blessings before our meals—what’s the purpose of this? The prayer we say before meals is, “Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
From this simple prayer we recognize four things. First, we recognize that all gifts come from God. It is from His bounty, not our wallet, or the amazing grocery stores that we have. God is the source of all gifts. Second, we recognize that God gives gifts through His Son, Jesus Christ. Third, our action is one of receiving, not taking. Gifts are to be received, not taken or grasped at. We humble receive from our Lord what He offers. And fourth, God wants to bless us. He is generous with His blessing, blessing not only the gifts we have, but our greatest gift, the gift of our self.
Why didn’t the Apostles clean before they ate? Instead, they chose to follow Jesus’ example. If the apostles were in the wrong wouldn’t Jesus have done something? Wouldn’t He have corrected them? Jesus has always been quick to teach and correct His apostles and disciples when they are in the wrong, but in this circumstance they are not in the wrong, and Jesus defends them with passion.
Why were they mistaken about their cleanness? The traditions that the Jews were trying to uphold were of men, not of God. It is like when family traditions change and someone in the family gets upset about it. It’s not a law or a written rule to follow that tradition. These traditions of cleanness turned into a charade that lost their original meaning. The Pharisees saw only the ritual, not the original purpose of the ritual, which was to show cleanness of heart.
What does Jesus desire more—internal or external cleanness? Jesus desires a clean heart; clean from within. “Our Lord reacted strongly to this empty and formalistic attitude…True purity…is more meaningful than washed hands – to begin with the heart…” [2]
Why should we have a clean soul? When we keep our soul clean we live out God’s plan for us. Jesus said, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.” [3] If we want to see God within ourselves, our neighbors, and, most importantly, in the mystery of the Trinity, we must remain a clean soul. “Interior purity brings with it a strengthening and growth of love, along with man’s elevation to the dignity to which he has been called. His ever greater awareness of this dignity is in contrast to the great frequency with which he often appears to abandon.” [4]
In this Gospel, who did the Pharisee’s see? The Gospel says, “…they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean.” They observed or saw the disciples. They were watching others and comparing the actions of others to their own actions. They did not see God, because the Pharisees were too busy comparing themselves to the Disciples to see that the living God was actually among them. The challenge of this beatitude is to look at our own uncleanliness first. Then we will see God and guide others to God.
Fr. Pontifex - Shine (feat. Yung PK) If we are truly concerned about helping others, we must shine. As we shine, and holiness is prevalent in our life, the darkness in the world, our life, and others’ lives becomes evident. The Pharisees were more interested in questioning and trapping Jesus than they were in holiness. Many times we question, trap, and put conditions on Jesus, and thus lose our focus on holiness, too.
If we want to truly examine our conscience, we should take the same approach that a surgeon would. Surgeons have bright and direct light when performing surgery, which allows the surgeon to see even the minutest flaw. Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) says, “Are you the ray that flashes down from the eternal Judge's throne and breaks into the night of the soul that had never known itself? Mercifully relentlessly it penetrates hidden folds. Alarmed at seeing itself, the self makes space for holy fear, the beginning of that wisdom that comes from on high and anchors us firmly in the heights, Your action, that creates us anew: Holy Spirit ray that penetrates everything!” [5] The greatest sin of the Pharisees is that they believed themselves to be “the ray that flashes” and thus they placed themselves on “the eternal Judge’s throne”.
There was once a missionary that made a connection between dirt and sin. He gave the analogy of children playing in mud. All the children were covered in mud and did not realize how dirty they were because they were all muddy. They only recognized how muddy they were when another friend who was completely clean came over to where they were playing. In relation to their friend’s cleanliness, the muddy children finally realized how unclean they were. The same is true of sin. It is easy and sometimes very convenient to hang around people the sin as much or more than we do because then we do not appear sinful at all.
Has there ever been a time when you realized your own sinfulness (uncleanliness) because you encountered the holiness (cleanness) of another?
How can we be clean of heart? First, we must realize that this is not an easy path to follow. Christ never promised it would be easy, but He does give us the strength to be clean of heart. “From the depths of the human heart the Holy Spirit wishes to draw the source of that new life which little by little transforms our entire personality.” One of the strongest virtues God gives us is chastity. The prayer in the Liturgy on Pentecost Sunday says:
“Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away.
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.” [6]
Additionally, God has given us the Sacrament of Reconciliation to run to when we have offended God with our sins and when we are not clean of heart. We should also ask for the model of grace and purity of heart, the Virgin Mary, to help us. We ask for her intercession and grace to help us keep strong and to learn from her way so that we can inherit eternal life and be with her Son for all eternity.
[1] Navaree Bible Commentary pg. 114
[2] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 4, 83.1
[3] Mt. 5:8
[4] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 4, 83.2
[5] Novena to the Holy Spirit
[6] cf. Roman Missal, Pentecost Sunday, sequence