Message of Abbot Paul - Sunday 29th August
Message from Fr Paul for Sunday, 29th August 2021
Today we go back to reading Mark’s Gospel each Sunday for the rest of the liturgical year. It was good to have a few weeks’ break as we read chapter 6 of John. We take up the story in Mark chapter 7 with the visit of yet another group of religious leaders coming from Jerusalem to question Jesus and investigate his teaching and the behaviour of his disciples. What they see annoys them intensely, for the disciples do not carry out the ritual washing before eating that they insist is part of the Law, when in fact it is only a human tradition. The ritualistic washing before meals with the accompanying prayers took place after and in addition to any washing for hygienic reasons. The Pharisees and scribes were referring to elaborate ceremonial washings, not washing for the sake of cleanliness. In fact, the behaviour of Jesus and the disciples is parable-like, as can be seen by Jesus’ explanation of why they omit these rituals. Jesus quotes Isaiah 29: 13, which sums up the situation. Placing more emphasis on rules and regulations not based on Scripture or on the teaching of Moses is clear proof for Jesus that they are “far from God.” They have turned into doctrine the teaching of men and insist that everyone should follow this teaching to the letter. Where does God come into this, asks Jesus. What is more important, the Law of God or human regulations that are not even based on the Law of God? Jesus goes further. He criticises them for rejecting the Law of God in favour of their own traditions, “human regulations,” as he describes them. Jesus denounces their hypocrisy.
He then goes on to tell these religious leaders that God is far more concerned with what comes out of us, than of what goes into us, as regards food, traditions and rituals. He says, “Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean.” But he goes further. Jesus tells them, as he tells us today, and let us not forget that Jesus was not only speaking to a group of scribes and Pharisees sent out from Jerusalem 2,000 or so years’ ago, Jesus is speaking with religious leaders today and he is speaking to you and me. This is what he’s telling us. “For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.” As William Barclay commented, “Every outward act of sin is preceded by an inward act of choice; therefore, Jesus begins with the evil thought from which the evil action comes.” The list of twelve sins that follows manifests that fundamental choice each one of us makes. All we need do is look into our own hearts to see the source of our sins, the source of evil. Our hearts, though healed by grace in Baptism, have nevertheless been allowed by each one of us to slip back to its natural, unconverted and unreformed state. Each day we need to begin again on the road that leads to repentance and radical conversion, but on this journey, we are not alone. Jesus is with us to lead the way, to guide and encourage us and to lift us up when the going gets hard and we stumble and fall. Let us never forget that what is impossible for us, is possible for God and he will see us through, provided we surrender our hearts to him and rely on him alone.
