Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
I sometimes find myself getting caught up in what I need to do. With tasks constantly multiplying on ‘to do’ lists, long days, and seemingly never-ending agendas it is often difficult to perceive that God loves me unconditionally. The first reading for today reminds me that the reason for this lies in the fact that God created me and that what he created he called ‘good’.
As I reflected on the gospel reading in conjunction with Genesis 1 I found that the Pharisees accuse Jesus of eating after not having done his obligatory ceremonial washing before eating with his disciples. Yet to accuse Jesus of this is ludicrous. If the Pharisees had known who Jesus truly was they would have understood that he was without sin and therefore required no ceremonial washing. But what about his disciples? Didn’t they need to wash before they ate? Yes, because they are sinful human beings, but no, because they have already entered into the presence of God through their fellowship and friendship with Jesus. Therefore they do not need to do something more as precondition for doing so.
The passage focuses our attention not on the disciples but on the attitude of the Pharisees and their lack of comprehension of deep spiritual truths. Jesus points out the Pharisees’ inconsistency in following the letter but not the spirit of the law. In the story, if the Pharisees had stopped to think of God’s loving relationship to God’s creation they would not have made such a big deal about the disciple’s and Jesus’ lack of washing. And if they had stopped to reflect on this they would have realized that God gave the law through Moses to make his people more loving rather than less. Instead the Pharisees’ strict adherence to the law was cutting them off from God and from a recognition of God’s love for them and the people around them.
Genesis 1 reminds us that God created everything good and that human beings are created in God’s image. In Mark Jesus reminds us that we should be concerned above all with the spirit of the law and not with external rules. Reading this we should not lose sight of our human sinfulness. Yet this is not the most fundamental fact about us. It is an even deeper spiritual truth that we are created in God’s image.
I am reminded to ask myself whether I live daily in the recognition that my life is a gift of God and that I have a duty to look for and honor God’s image in myself and other people. And reflecting on this, I come to the realization that when I fail to do this I fail to live up to the standard set by Jesus in his daily life. I recognize that this is a basis for the Christian life. I will seek to be grateful for God’s love for us and the goodness of creation.
- Joel Schickel