Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B

The Pharisees of Jerusalem attack Jesus on the subject of ablutions

# The tables of the law are alluded to in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. God decided to seal a covenant with him and Moses was the intermediary. God enunciated ten Words and accompanied them with developments, the code of the Covenant. Moses wrote down all the words spoken by God on tablets of stone, recalling the law and the commandment that the people of Israel were to keep in a chest (the Ark of the Covenant) to be placed on a table and pitched in a tent. The people lost their patience and confidence and turned to other gods.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, carrying the two tablets, he realised that his people had broken the covenant that had just been made, and he threw down the two tablets, which broke. A new covenant was sealed between God and his people. Moses was commissioned to carve two new tablets similar to the previous ones, on which the terms of the law were once again engraved. The words in Exodus 34-27 are the words of the covenant God made with Moses.

Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the tablets, which were kept in the Ark of the Covenant as soon as it was built. This episode is recalled in Deuteronomy10. Today, there are traditions that place them in different parts of the world.

From the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Mark

At that time, the Pharisees and some scribes from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. The Pharisees, like all the Jews, always washed their hands carefully before eating, in keeping with the tradition of the elders; and when they returned from the market, they did not eat until they had sprinkled themselves with water, and they were still attached by tradition to many other practices : washing cups, decanters and dishes.

So the Pharisees and scribes asked Jesus, ‘Why don’t your disciples follow the tradition of the elders? They eat their meals with unclean hands. Jesus replied, ‘Isaiah prophesied well of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me; the doctrines they teach are only the precepts of men ; and you also put aside the commandment of God and cling to the traditions of men. Jesus answered them, ‘Isaiah has prophesied well of you hypocrites, as it is written, ’This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me; the doctrines they teach are only human precepts.

You too leave aside the commandment of God and cling to the traditions of men. Calling the crowd together again, he said to them : ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand this. Nothing that comes out of a man and goes into him can make him unclean. 

But what comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. And he said to his disciples, away from the crowd: ‘Evil thoughts come from within, from the heart of man: indecent behaviour, theft, murder, adultery, covetousness, wickedness, fraud, debauchery, envy, slander, pride and immoderation. All this evil comes from within and makes a man unclean’. (Mk 7, 1-8.14-15.21-23)

The Pharisees of Jerusalem attack Jesus on the subject of ablutions

This meeting of Jesus’ opponents showed the importance of their action.

It was official. How did these Pharisees and scribes come from Jerusalem if they had not been sent by the Sanhedrin ? Mark explained their scruples to his readers, who were strangers to Judaic customs, by adding this phrase : ‘That is to say, not purified’.Mark interrupted his narrative to explain all these Jewish customs to his readers who, having converted from paganism, were unaware of them. He attributed these practices not only to the Pharisees, who observed them most rigorously, but to all the Jews.

To wash one’s hands with one’s fist means to wash by alternately rubbing one open hand with the other closed, so as to remove all impurity from the palms of the hands. The tradition of the ancients was opposed to the prescriptions of divine law.  These were customs founded on the authority of the ancient Jewish doctors and often placed above the law itself. The public square was the place where the people gathered and where the market was held; on returning from there, the Jews did not take their meals without having purified themselves.

Some interpreters applied this purification not to people, but to food brought from the market. The setier is the name of a measure of liquid. This word here refers to wooden or earthen wine vessels. Beds were the sort of divans on which the elders ate their meals, leaning on their left elbow. According to Matthew, Jesus answered the Pharisees’ question with another that would confuse them. He applied to them the harsh words of the prophet Isaiah : ‘Isaiah has prophesied well of you hypocrites; as it is written, “This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”.’

It is a strange derangement to put the ordinances of men in the place of the law of God. Self-love is delighted to take the change and give to pots and cups the care and application we owe to the heart.’ (Quesnel) After accusing the Pharisees of nullifying God’s commandment by their traditions, Jesus showed them striking proof of this in the way they evaded the sacred obligation imposed on children by the fifth commandment. After recalling this commandment : ‘Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest have long life in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee’ (Ex 20, 12) ‘He who curses his father or mother shall be put to death’. (Ex 21, 17)

After accusing the Pharisees of nullifying God’s commandment by their traditions, Jesus showed them striking proof of this in the way they evaded the sacred obligation imposed on children by the fifth commandment. After recalling this commandment : ‘Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest have long life in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee’ (Ex 20,12) He who curses his father or mother shall be put to death. (Ex 21, 17) So what did the Pharisees teach? That a man, faced with the duty of assisting his aged father or mother, could say to them, : ‘What you could be assisted with by me, I have made a corban, an offering to God, and that thus he was relieved of all obligation to them.’

It is as if a son were to say to his needy father : , ‘Father, I would gladly give you what may assist you in your old age, but I have made it an offering. It is better that I consecrate it to God, you will benefit more from it’.

Deacon Michel Houyoux

Links to other Christian websites

◊ United staes Conderence of Catholic Bischops : click here to read the paper → Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB

◊ U. S. Catholic : click here to read the paper → A reflection for the twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Video Institude of Catholic Culture : click here → https://youtu.be/wgesaVeZFUY