PARISH NEWS

UNWASHED HANDS

Always a difficult gospel passage for us moderns to swallow, so to speak, particularly in Covid times, the Pharisees seem to be right on the money at one level, questioning Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands or observing the traditional “washing of cups and pots and bronze dishes.” (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15,21-23). Exactly our own observations!

But what is Jesus really getting at? He’s not saying, “Don’t worry about cleanliness.” In fact his point is not about hygiene at all but about those Pharisees and others hypocritically enforcing traditional rules and regulations (human traditions) while failing to observe God’s much more fundamental commandment of love.

Two thousand years later modern Pharisees are eager to pedantically follow traditional rules and understandings simply because they are “tradition” and to condemn those who don’t measure up to their exacting standards. Jesus defended and ate with poor, downtrodden sinners but the pompous righteousness of these hypocrites is “my way or the highway,” like those ancient Pharisees, proclaiming that they are ritually pure and therefore superior to the unwashed. Jesus has no time for such lip-service!

We are all in danger of falling into that same Pharisaic trap when we condemn others for being poor or rough, of different race or culture to our own, holding different values to ours. God is not interested! Jesus is not interested! First and foremost we are called to proclaim the Kingdom to them as Jesus did by loving and serving them without reserve.

St Teresa of Avila’s prayer reminds us, “Christ has no body now but ours …” and so, as the body of Christ, it is our gig to cherish and protect the vulnerable: the poor, the hungry, the uneducated and downtrodden, the unborn, women and girls, refugees and migrants, regardless of race or religion or meeting our middle class Christian standards. No room there for hypocritical superiority or condemnation.

Deacon Mark Kelly