In today's Gospel, Jesus encourages us to understand the intentions behind God's rules. Rather than follow them shallowly, we need to offer our actions to God as an external expression of our love for Him.
Holy Spirit, fill my heart and illuminate my mind. Help me to hear and understand God's message today. Help me to recognize when God is trying to speak to me in my daily life. Amen
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.”
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFfXutHmz6g (Credit to Catholic Kids Media)
Say: In today’s Gospel, we hear the Pharisees challenge the practice of Jesus’ disciples that went against a rule that the Pharisees taught about washing hands and food utensils.
Ask: What did the Pharisees think that Jesus’ disciples should be doing? (washing their hands carefully) This was a practice of the Pharisees and of some Jewish people. They washed their hands and purified food utensils to make them clean. They thought that by doing this they were making themselves holy. Ask: What did Jesus say was a better indication of a person's holiness than washing one's hands and dishes? (the words and deeds he or she does)
Say: Jesus taught that the Pharisees had forgotten the meaning behind their rules. They thought that they were making themselves holy by following the rules about making things clean. But Jesus taught that there was something more important than these actions. Jesus taught that our words and deeds toward others are what show us to be holy people. God wants us to do good things with our lives, such as share our possessions, think kind thoughts even about those who hurt us, and be truthful.
Conclude in prayer together, asking God to help us live our lives in ways that show that our Pray together the Morning Prayer or the Act of Love.
Father in heaven, for the conversion of sinners, we give you today, all that we think and do and say, and we join it with all that was done by Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen
