Clinging to the Details

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

Whenever we read the parts of the Gospel in which Jesus chastises the religious authorities or the Pharisees, we must be careful to avoid the very human tendency to "point fingers" at "them." All too often, well meaning people tend to look at the Pharisees, scribes, lawyers, and priests of the Gospel and fail to see that they represent people who were law abiding citizens and devoutly religious. They were not guilty of breaking the commandments or of watering down the observance of the covenant between God and the people of Israel. Their fault lies in the fact that their adherence to the Law had become so absolute that they believed that the Law was their salvation. Many times throughout the Gospel, Jesus tells people that their faith has saved them. This was, in fact, Jesus' way of telling them that their salvation was grounded in God, not in the Law.

Whenever we start to glorify rules and regulations to the point that we forget the underlying reason for the commandments, we walk the same road as the Pharisees and scribes. The Covenant of Sinai and the New Covenant we have in Jesus are based on love, not on rules and regulations. However, because it is often easier to keep the rules and regulations than it is to love, we tend to gravitate to the former. This happens each time we find an excuse not to extend the hand of Christian charity to someone when it gets in the way of our routine. Charity sometimes causes difficulty or stretches our resources. Seeing the person of Jesus in those who are looking for a helping hand means that we might have to break with certain traditions.

This is certainly the case in the Gospel passage which we read today. The objections which the Pharisees raise today are grounded in the rules regarding ritual purity. However, these rules made it so difficult for poor people to observe ritual purity, especially those people who lived and worked in the fields, that they were frequently excluded from communal worship simply because they were unable to adhere to the rules. Excluding others is never the way to keep the Law. Rather, like Jesus who ate with sinners and frequented the homes of tax collectors, we are called to include them. Only then will we be acting in accordance with the underlying Law of Love.