Book of Deuteronomy 4,1-2.6-8. Moses spoke to the people and said: "Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it. Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, 'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.' For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?"
Psalms 15(14) 2-3a.3cd-4ab.5. He who walks blamelessly and does justice; who thinks the truth in his heart and slanders not with his tongue.
nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor; and slanders not with his tongue. Who harms not his fellow man, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
By whom the reprobate is despised, while he honors those who fear the LORD. Who lends not his money at usury and accepts no bribe against the innocent.
One who does these things shall never be disturbed.
Letter of James 1,17-18.21b-22.27. all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change. He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Therefore, put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7,1-8.14-15.21-23. When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.) So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?" He responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.' You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition." He summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile." From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile."
The Gospel for today’s liturgy shows a few scribes and Pharisees amazed by Jesus’ attitude. They are scandalized because his disciples pick up food without first performing the traditional ritual ablutions. They think among themselves: “This way of doing things is contrary to the religious practice” (cf. Mk 7:2-5).
We too could ask ourselves: why do Jesus and his disciples disregard these traditions? After all, they are not bad things, but good ritual habits, simple cleansing before eating. Why is Jesus not concerned with this? Because for him it is important to bring faith back to its centre. We see it repeatedly in the Gospel: this bringing faith back to the centre. And to avoid a risk, which applies to those scribes as well as to us: to observe outward formalities, putting the heart and faith in the background. Many times we too “put makeup” on our soul. Outward formality and not the heart of faith: this is a risk. It is the risk of a religiosity of appearances : looking good on the outside, while neglecting to purify the heart. There is always the temptation to “deal with God” with some outward devotion, but Jesus does not settle for this worship. Jesus does not want outward appearances, he wants a faith that touches the heart.
In fact, immediately afterwards, he calls the people back to speak a great truth: “there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him” (v. 15). Rather, it is “from within, out of the heart” (v. 21) that evil things are born. These words are revolutionary, because in the mindset of the time, it was thought that certain foods or external contacts would make one impure. Jesus reverses the perspective: it is not what comes from the outside that is harmful, but rather, what is born from within.
Dear brothers and sisters, this also pertains to us. We often think that evil comes mainly from the outside: from other people’s conduct, from those who think badly of us, from society. How often we blame others, society, the world, for everything that happens to us! It is always the fault of “others”: it is the fault of people, of those who govern, of misfortune, and so on. It seems that problems always come from the outside. And we spend time assigning blame; but spending time blaming others is wasting time. We become angry, bitter and keep God away from our heart. Like those people in the Gospel, who complain, who are scandalized, who cause controversy and do not welcome Jesus. One cannot be truly religious while complaining: complaining poisons, it leads you to anger, to resentment and to sadness, that of the heart, which closes the door to God.
Let us ask the Lord today to free us from blaming others — like children: “No, it wasn’t me! It’s the other one, the other one…”. Let us ask in prayer for the grace not to waste time polluting the world with complaints, because this is not Christian. Jesus instead invites us to look at life and the world starting from our heart. If we look inside ourselves, we will find almost all that we despise outside. And if, with sincerity, we will ask God to purify our heart, then indeed we will be starting to make the world cleaner. Because there is an infallible way to defeat evil: by starting to conquer it within yourself. The first Fathers of the Church, the monks, when they were asked: “What is the path of holiness, how should I begin”? The first step, they used to say, was to blame oneself: blame yourself. Blaming ourselves. How many of us, during the day, in a moment of the day or a moment in the week, are able to blame ourselves within? “Yes, this one did this to me, the other one … that one, a barbarity…”. But me? Do I do the same thing, or do I do it this way.... It is wisdom: learning to blame yourself. Try to do it, it will do you good. It does me good, when I manage to do so, but it is good for us, it is good for everyone.
May the Virgin Mary, who changed history through the purity of her heart, help us to purify our own, by overcoming first and foremost the vice of blaming others and complaining about everything.
FAUSTI - "Their hearts are far from me," says the Lord. The words of Isaiah (29:13), which Jesus addresses to the Pharisees, Mark addresses to the Church. What keeps good people away from God are "religious traditions", detached from love, their source. Man, even if he does not know it, is always traditionalist and habitual. He does not have to invent adequate attitudes and answers every time. He relies on the usual, on what has already been done and learned. In short, he lives on memory. But the Christian breaks with the past, because he lives on an unprecedented novelty: the memory of the Body and Blood of his Lord, given to him in the Bread. This Mystery of Love is "his" tradition, which he has received and, in turn, transmits. In Israel, the marrow of tradition is the law, given by God as the path to life. It is synthesized in the command to love Him and our brothers and sisters. As we can see, it is good, but no one is able to observe it. That is why it convinces everyone of sin. Thus, showing the evil, he invites us to turn to the doctor who can heal. But the proud one prefers to defend himself. Neglecting the substance, he attaches himself to an observance, sometimes meticulous, of certain details, to justify himself and condemn others. In reality, the real function of the law is not to mask or heal from evil, but to highlight and denounce it, to make us feel the need for forgiveness and mercy. Only in this way do we know God as He is and as He reveals Himself in the Bread, a gratuitous Love that gives Himself. The use of law and tradition as self-justification is both an effect and a cause of the hardness of the heart, which prevents us from recognizing the reality of God in the Bread. But we reduce the reality of this gift to a ghost, because we remain in a formal religiosity, which observes all the laws, except the fundamental one of loving. No sin is as far from God and His Bread as the claim of religious skill. "You who seek justification in the law, have fallen from grace" (Gal 5:4). Self-justification cancels justification, depriving us of true knowledge of ourselves as misery and of God as mercy. It urges us to do everything, even to the point of trying to love, rather than accepting to be loved freely and to trust in Him. Thus our hearts remain hard, dead and calcified, deaf and blind to Love and Life. We have eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear. Jesus, with His Bread, not only diagnoses, but also heals us from our deafness and blindness. Jesus is the Master capable of writing in our hearts the inner law of love. And he does so through the iterated memory of His Bread that reveals to us and gives us a God who loves us unconditionally. The disciple eats this bread and lives from it, even he is undeserving. He bases his life not on his own observance of the law, but on Grace. He must always beware of legalism and all traditions that reduce the reality of the Lord to a ghost. He also accepts all creation as good, and knows that evil proceeds from his heart of stone, still unable to love.
Book of Deuteronomy
RispondiElimina4,1-2.6-8.
Moses spoke to the people and said: "Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.
Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, 'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.'
For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him?
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?"
Psalms 15(14)
2-3a.3cd-4ab.5.
He who walks blamelessly and does justice;
who thinks the truth in his heart
and slanders not with his tongue.
nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
and slanders not with his tongue.
Who harms not his fellow man,
nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
By whom the reprobate is despised,
while he honors those who fear the LORD.
Who lends not his money at usury
and accepts no bribe against the innocent.
One who does these things
shall never be disturbed.
Letter of James
1,17-18.21b-22.27.
all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.
He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Therefore, put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint Mark
7,1-8.14-15.21-23.
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"
He responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.'
You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."
He summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile."
From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile."
POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaANGELUS 29 August 2021
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Buongiorno!
The Gospel for today’s liturgy shows a few scribes and Pharisees amazed by Jesus’ attitude. They are scandalized because his disciples pick up food without first performing the traditional ritual ablutions. They think among themselves: “This way of doing things is contrary to the religious practice” (cf. Mk 7:2-5).
We too could ask ourselves: why do Jesus and his disciples disregard these traditions? After all, they are not bad things, but good ritual habits, simple cleansing before eating. Why is Jesus not concerned with this? Because for him it is important to bring faith back to its centre. We see it repeatedly in the Gospel: this bringing faith back to the centre. And to avoid a risk, which applies to those scribes as well as to us: to observe outward formalities, putting the heart and faith in the background. Many times we too “put makeup” on our soul. Outward formality and not the heart of faith: this is a risk. It is the risk of a religiosity of appearances : looking good on the outside, while neglecting to purify the heart. There is always the temptation to “deal with God” with some outward devotion, but Jesus does not settle for this worship. Jesus does not want outward appearances, he wants a faith that touches the heart.
In fact, immediately afterwards, he calls the people back to speak a great truth: “there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him” (v. 15). Rather, it is “from within, out of the heart” (v. 21) that evil things are born. These words are revolutionary, because in the mindset of the time, it was thought that certain foods or external contacts would make one impure. Jesus reverses the perspective: it is not what comes from the outside that is harmful, but rather, what is born from within.
Dear brothers and sisters, this also pertains to us. We often think that evil comes mainly from the outside: from other people’s conduct, from those who think badly of us, from society. How often we blame others, society, the world, for everything that happens to us! It is always the fault of “others”: it is the fault of people, of those who govern, of misfortune, and so on. It seems that problems always come from the outside. And we spend time assigning blame; but spending time blaming others is wasting time. We become angry, bitter and keep God away from our heart. Like those people in the Gospel, who complain, who are scandalized, who cause controversy and do not welcome Jesus. One cannot be truly religious while complaining: complaining poisons, it leads you to anger, to resentment and to sadness, that of the heart, which closes the door to God.
Let us ask the Lord today to free us from blaming others — like children: “No, it wasn’t me! It’s the other one, the other one…”. Let us ask in prayer for the grace not to waste time polluting the world with complaints, because this is not Christian. Jesus instead invites us to look at life and the world starting from our heart. If we look inside ourselves, we will find almost all that we despise outside. And if, with sincerity, we will ask God to purify our heart, then indeed we will be starting to make the world cleaner. Because there is an infallible way to defeat evil: by starting to conquer it within yourself. The first Fathers of the Church, the monks, when they were asked: “What is the path of holiness, how should I begin”? The first step, they used to say, was to blame oneself: blame yourself. Blaming ourselves. How many of us, during the day, in a moment of the day or a moment in the week, are able to blame ourselves within? “Yes, this one did this to me, the other one … that one, a barbarity…”. But me? Do I do the same thing, or do I do it this way.... It is wisdom: learning to blame yourself. Try to do it, it will do you good. It does me good, when I manage to do so, but it is good for us, it is good for everyone.
EliminaMay the Virgin Mary, who changed history through the purity of her heart, help us to purify our own, by overcoming first and foremost the vice of blaming others and complaining about everything.
FAUSTI - "Their hearts are far from me," says the Lord. The words of Isaiah (29:13),
RispondiEliminawhich Jesus addresses to the Pharisees, Mark addresses to the Church.
What keeps good people away from God are "religious traditions", detached from love, their source.
Man, even if he does not know it, is always traditionalist and habitual. He does not have to invent adequate attitudes and answers every time. He relies on the usual, on what has already been done and learned.
In short, he lives on memory.
But the Christian breaks with the past, because he lives on an unprecedented novelty: the memory of the Body and Blood of his Lord, given to him in the Bread.
This Mystery of Love is "his" tradition, which he has received and, in turn, transmits.
In Israel, the marrow of tradition is the law, given by God as the path to life.
It is synthesized in the command to love Him and our brothers and sisters.
As we can see, it is good, but no one is able to observe it.
That is why it convinces everyone of sin. Thus, showing the evil, he invites us to turn to the doctor who can heal.
But the proud one prefers to defend himself. Neglecting the substance, he attaches himself to an observance, sometimes meticulous, of certain details, to justify himself and condemn others.
In reality, the real function of the law is not to mask or heal from evil, but to highlight and denounce it, to make us feel the need for forgiveness and mercy.
Only in this way do we know God as He is and as He reveals Himself in the Bread, a gratuitous Love that gives Himself.
The use of law and tradition as self-justification is both an effect and a cause of the hardness of the heart, which prevents us from recognizing the reality of God in the Bread.
But we reduce the reality of this gift to a ghost, because we remain in a formal religiosity, which observes all the laws, except the fundamental one of loving.
No sin is as far from God and His Bread as the claim of religious skill.
"You who seek justification in the law, have fallen from grace" (Gal 5:4).
Self-justification cancels justification, depriving us of true knowledge of ourselves as misery and of God as mercy. It urges us to do everything, even to the point of trying to love, rather than accepting to be loved freely and to trust in Him.
Thus our hearts remain hard, dead and calcified, deaf and blind to Love and Life.
We have eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear.
Jesus, with His Bread, not only diagnoses, but also heals us from our deafness and blindness.
Jesus is the Master capable of writing in our hearts the inner law of love.
And he does so through the iterated memory of His Bread that reveals to us and gives us a God who loves us unconditionally.
The disciple eats this bread and lives from it, even he is undeserving.
He bases his life not on his own observance of the law, but on Grace.
He must always beware of legalism and all traditions that reduce the reality of the Lord to a ghost.
He also accepts all creation as good, and knows that evil proceeds from his heart of stone, still unable to love.