A pure heart and clean hands

Listening to the Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.

Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Listening to the Word

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, 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.”

Reflection

Nowadays, we can find signs of washing our hands everywhere, and we are more conscious about our hygiene. This awareness is not related to any purification rite or tradition but to keep a healthy lifestyle and prevent diseases. In Jesus' time, the washing of hands had a religious meaning. It was part of their tradition and rituals of purification.

We listen in today's Gospel that Jesus' disciples didn't follow the purification ritual of washing their hands. The Pharisees and some scribes complained, bringing about the question of tradition. Answering the question to the Pharisees on what defile and traditions about purity, Jesus brings us to the center of the problem, which is found within the human heart and not from external practices.

If the root problem of evil is found within, in that case, the healing process must begin inside through the purification of the heart. How to purify our hearts? How can we wash our hearts and not only our hands? Many things inside our hearts defile us, like resentments, guilt, anger, etc. A true purification cleans all those things that bring evil actions into our lives.

Simple actions can help us clean our hearts, for example, to apologize for our grown doings. I like the word that we use in Spanish for 'apology,' which is 'disculpa'; 'culpa' means guilt, and 'dis' is the prefix that means removal. Then, the action of a person asking for an apology alludes to the removal of guilt. I wasn't aware of the word's meaning. Still, I think it's meaningful because it helps us understand the dynamism of inner evil and its healing process.