Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Both today's first reading from St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians and today's Gospel reading from the Gospel of Luke deal with the same issue, freedom from the Mosaic ceremonial law. In the case of the Letter to the Galatians, the issue is circumcision, must a male Christian be circumcized in order to be saved and enter heaven? In the context of today's Gospel reading we might ask the question of whether or not Jesus has committed a sin by not performing the ritual washing before eating? The Laws of the Old Testament did not go away with the coming of Christ, but the ceremonial rituals became no longer necessary, since they pointed to Christ. Even in Jewish tradition, there is an understanding that once the Messiah comes to usher in the Messianic Age, many if not all of the ceremonial rituals prescribed in the Old Testament will no longer be necessary. Why would this be?

The reason is that the bulk of the ceremonial laws in the Old Testament (primarily the Book of Leviticus) was added in after the Israelite's committed idolatry by worshipping the golden calf. Circumcision had already been a central part of the law, ever since Genesis 17 with Abraham, but even then, circumcision only entered after Abraham transgressed and slept with his wife's maidservant Hagar. Abraham was already justified before God before Genesis 17, before he was circumcized.

Many of the Mosaic laws, particularly the ceremonial laws, were in place to help the people of Israel remain separate from the Gentiles, from the nations around them. This was because the Israelites kept being converted by the nations, as opposed to converting the nations. The golden calf is a great example. God had taken Israel out of Egypt, but "Egypt" was still in Israel; they reverted to Egyptian style worship by worshipping the golden calf. So the ceremonial laws were a means of teaching the Israelites so that they could be pure and holy and follow God alone.

The vision of the Old Testament is that at some point in the future, they would no longer need such means of remaining separate from the Gentiles, the nations, because they would begin to convert the nations. We see the beginning of this with the kingdom of David, and his son Solomon, where the Temple itself is built with Gentiles in mind. Indeed, much of the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament, Pslams and Proverbs, etc., is simply the moral codes of the Mosaic Law written in wisdom language that the Gentiles could understand.

During Jesus' time, much of this reaching out to the nations under David and Solomon had been forgotten, and instead, the Pharisees fell back on the Mosaic ceremonial law, but they did so in such as way as to protect the ceremonial laws so much that they actually increased the rules and regulations. Jesus and Paul are basically explaining that these ceremonial rituals are less important than the inward attitutdes they are meant to represent. Ceremonies are great, but what good is circumcision if your heart, your inner being, is not "circumcized" (metaphorically speaking)? External circumcision, as the Old Testament makes clear, represents the internal circumcision of hard hearts.

With Jesus, circumcision is no longer the entrance into the covenant, rather Baptism is the new covenant entrance ritual, by which the laws of God are written upon our hearts (Jeremiah 31). As we continue in the Year of St. Paul, let us really reflect upon his message, as well as Jesus' for us today. Let us make sure our inward being, our inward attitude, is in the right place. Let us do what is good and right, but let us also try to have the right attitude at heart.

- Jeff Morrow