Sunday Gospel Reflection
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Of Hand-washing and Stockings (and Questioning)
Rea F. Bunuan
Ministry of Lectors and Commentators
In today’s Gospel (Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23), Jesus is challenged by the scribes and the Pharisees because his disciples do not wash their hands properly before eating. This takes me right back to my childhood when my Lola would tell me to wash my hands before I sat down to eat or to wear stockings that matched my Sunday dress. (You see, I am a child of the 70s.)
I understood the importance of hand-washing but struggled to find value in having to wear matching stockings. Of course, I dared not defy my Lola’s instructions but I had this lingering question in my mind: why wear something uncomfortable? I knew my Lola had the best of intentions. And it was one of her intentions to make me presentable. It was all about appearance.
The hand-washing in today’s Gospel is not about hygiene. St. Mark points out that it is about the traditions of the elders (just like my Lola insisting on matching stockings). It is about observing appropriateness. Correctness. Respectability. Looking right. My Lola knew I was a clumsy, awkward teenager, but she wanted me to at least look more lady-like, prim and proper. Jesus challenges us to look at our tendency to use traditions to conceal what is truly in our minds and our hearts. Jesus tells us that the food we eat, or the cleanliness or otherwise of our hands, is not what makes us unclean. It is all about what is inside. What is inside our stomachs is nothing compared to what is inside our hearts.
In one Bible study, I learned that the rules followed by the Pharisees were made to distinguish the people of Israel from other tribes. These were imposed to show that they were the chosen ones and to demonstrate that they had a special relationship with God. But Jesus tells us that what God wants is for His people to show they are different by the way they behave and treat others, and not in terms of what they eat or how many times they wash their hands (or whether they wore the right stockings).
Something to think about: do our traditions and rituals reflect the love of God? Do they keep us in God’s love?
We may have different answers to these but the important thing is to keep asking questions. We should not simply ignore or disregard doctrine and the traditions of our elders. We should not just criticize especially those who want to preserve or challenge them. What we should do is to keep asking whether our inherited traditions reflect the God we worship.
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Photo by Joshua Lanzarini on Unsplash
