Tin Mừng hôm nay là một bản cáo trạng mà Chúa Giêsu lên án các quy luật của con người và những luật lệ mà những người Biệt Phái đã áp đặt nặng nề trên dân chúng. Những luật lệ này không có dính dáng gì tới trong việc thờ phượng Thiên Chúa đích thực.
Trọng tâm của Lề Luật mà Chúa dạy là yêu mến Thiên Chúa và thương yêu tha nhân. Tình yêu của Thiên Chúa không thể là sự mâu thuẫn với tình yêu tha nhân. Ví dụ, chúng ta không thể yêu mến Thiên Chúa và coi thường những người khác và bất kính với cha mẹ của chúng ta. Chúa Giêsu là gương sáng cho mọi người chúng ta bắt chước trong việc thờ phượng Thiên Chúa đích thực của Ngài.
Trong Tin Mừng hôm nay, Ngài bác bỏ việc thực hành những nghi thức rửa tay vô ích trươc khi ăn của những người Biệt Phái, Nhưng Ngài thực sự hiểu biết những gì là cần thiết để trở thành một Người Do Thái đạo đức và những gì là luật lệ vô nghĩa hoặc vô dụng. Đối với những người yêu qúy bản thân mình hơn cả Thiên Chúa, Ngài sẽ không ngần ngại khiển trách để giúp họ nhìn thấy con đường chân chính của sự thánh thiện.
Sự thánh thiện không phải là một sự tuân giữ luật lệ thế gian một cách hoàn hảo. nhưng phải biết kính mến Thiên Chúa với một trái tim tinh khiết. Ngoài ra , những vị thánh là những người biết tìm cách sống trong một cuộc sống thật đơn giản, biết sẵn lòng làm những điều tốt cho người khác và giúp đỡ những người nghèo khổ và bị áp bức.
Chúng ta không nên bắt chước cuộc sống của những người Biệt Phái. Nhưng thay vào đó chúng ta hãy như vua Solomon trong bài đọc thứ nhất, là người chỉ mong muốn xây dựng được một ngôi nhà cho Thiên Chúa ngự trị, Chúng ta hãy cũng bắt chước xây một ngôi nhà cho Thiên Chúa ngay trong tâm hồn của chúng ta, trong gia đình và trong khu phố của chúng ta. Chúng ta phải biết theo định hướng của Thiên Chúa vì đó sẽ là kim chỉ nam dẫn đưa chúng ta tới không những chỉ là sự thịnh vượng mà còn đưa chúng ta tới sự an bình và hòa hợp trong cuộc sống của chúng ta và trong những gia đình của chúng ta nữa.
The gospel is a very strong indictment of the human rules and regulations the Pharisees added to the Torah which deviated from the true spirit of worshipping God. These rules have no place in the genuine worship of God. The heart of the Law is to love God above all things and to love one's neighbor. Love of God cannot be contradictory to love of neighbor. For example, we cannot love God and despise or neglect our parents. Jesus is the best example of true worship of God. In the gospel, he would not perform the useless ritual washings of the Pharisees. He knew what was essential to being a good Jew and what rules were meaningless or useless. Also, he showed his love for his mother to the end. But he clearly put love of his heavenly Father above all things and this he taught to everyone. To people who love themselves more than God, he would reprimand in order to help them see the true path of holiness. Holiness is not in being a perfect accomplisher of rules and regulations but in loving God with a pure heart. Also, the holy man seeks to live a simple life, doing good to his neighbor and helping the poor and the downtrodden. Let us not be like the Pharisees. Instead let us be like King Solomon in the first reading who desired only to build a house for Yahweh to dwell in. Let us also build a house for God in our hearts, in our families and in our neighborhood. We have to be God-oriented because that will bring us not only prosperity but also peace and harmony in our lives and in the lives of our families.
“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.’” Mark 7:5–8
Isaiah’s prophecy rings as true for us today as it did when Isaiah spoke it and when Jesus quoted it. Worship of God must come from our hearts, from the depths of our beings. Only then is worship authentic.
Humans are complex. We are made up of body and soul. Though we have a physical heart, the “heart” Isaiah and Jesus are speaking of is spiritual in nature, essentially the human will. God created us with a free will, meaning we alone are the source of the decisions we make, though our good choices are always assisted by God’s grace.
When God speaks to us, revealing His Divine Will, He communicates to us through the use of our intellect. The intellect, enlightened by both natural reason and divine grace, identifies the good we must choose and proposes that good to the will. The will, moved by God’s grace, cooperates in freely choosing it or rejecting it. This cooperation reflects the cooperation between God’s action and our freedom.
When we freely choose the good, we open ourselves to the grace of charity which perfects our will. Charity strengthens us and enables us to love with God’s own love, allowing us to live out the divine commandment to love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves. This alignment of our intellect, will, and actions with God’s will is what makes our worship authentic and our lives holy.
This loving worship was absent from the practices of the Pharisees and scribes, whose devotion had become purely external. Their “worship” was steeped in pride, reducing their religious observance to a display of self-righteousness rather than a freely graced expression of love for God. Jesus’ rebuke, however, was not an act of condemnation but one of love. He sought to challenge their hypocrisy, convict their hearts, and call them into an authentic relationship with God rooted in true worship. Their refusal to respond with humility and repentance led many of them to plot against Him, culminating in His Crucifixion. This rejection of divine love reveals that their worship remained vain, as their hearts were closed to the grace that transforms external observance into a living relationship with God.
When you reflect on your own external acts of worship, do they flow from a heart fully devoted to God? What motivates you when you attend Mass, recite prayers, or perform works of charity? Is your worship a genuine expression of love for God, or is it sometimes reduced to routine or mere obligation? We would all do well to listen attentively to Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees and scribes, examining our own hearts to discern whether we, too, are guilty of falling into externalism or prideful worship. True worship requires humility, sincerity, and an openness to God’s transforming grace, which alone can elevate our external actions into a genuine offering of love.
The greatest and purest act of worship is to unite ourselves fully with the sacrifice of Christ in the Holy Mass, offering ourselves—body, mind, and soul—as a living sacrifice to God in loving obedience and complete trust. At Mass, the priest adds a drop of water to the chalice containing the wine. The water and wine are then consecrated into Christ Himself. That one drop of water represents us. Authentic worship will begin with us making that internal offering, united to the external ritual of the Mass, and flow into every other part of our lives.
Reflect today on every external act of devotion and charity you perform, especially your participation in the Mass. Listen to Jesus’ loving rebuke of the Pharisees and scribes, and use His words to examine your life. Where weakness, sin, pride, or empty routine are found, seek to replace them with heartfelt worship so that your entire life becomes an offering of authentic love and worship of God.
My Lord and my God, You alone are worthy of all my love, all my devotion, and the purity of my worship. Please reveal to me the ways in which my worship lacks authenticity, and grant me the grace to love You freely and wholeheartedly. Purify
Opening Prayer: Lord God, I pray that I do not nullify your word by choosing what is merely human and temporal over what is truly divine and eternal. Fill me with your grace so that I may do your will and follow your commandments, especially the commandment of love.
1. A Key to Reading and Understanding Mark’s Gospel: The Gospel of Mark is structured into sections that form chiastic “sandwiches.” Chiasms were ancient literary techniques in which the first part of a section corresponds to the last part. The second part corresponds to the penultimate part and so on. And there is a middle that serves as an interpretative key to the whole section. We are reading from the Bread Section in Mark’s Gospel, a section that highlights Jesus’ identity and ministry. Jesus’ identity was questioned before the feeding of the 5,000 in Israel and after the feeding of the 4,000 in Gentile territory. Jesus healed many in Israel after the feeding of the 5,000, and healed the Syrophoenician’s daughter in Tyre before the feeding of the 4,000 in Gentile territory. The debate with the Pharisees over purity and human traditions, which we read today and tomorrow, is in the middle of the Bread Section and gives us the key to understanding the profound meaning of the entire section: Impurity, evil, and sin, Jesus teaches, come from within our hearts, and are not caused by not externally observing dietary laws and traditions about cleansing “cups, jugs, kettles, and beds.” This teaching and refocus on the heart of God’s law justifies Jesus’ movement from Jewish to Gentile territories and his provision of bread to both groups. The human traditions that the Pharisees have built up have become an obstacle to faithfulness to God’s Law for the Jewish people and will be an obstacle to the proclamation of the Gospel to all nations. The Pharisees can no longer cling to their human traditions, and the Law of the Old Covenant will need to be brought to fulfillment in the New Covenant.
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. Mark 7:1–2
It seems quite clear that Jesus’ instant fame led these religious leaders to jealousy and envy, and they wanted to find fault with Him. As a result, they carefully observed Jesus and His disciples, and they noticed that Jesus’ disciples were not following the traditions of the elders. So the leaders began questioning Jesus about this fact. Jesus’ response was one of severe criticism of them. He quoted Isaiah the prophet who said, “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.”
Jesus strongly criticized them because their hearts were lacking true worship. The various traditions of the elders were not necessarily bad, such as the careful ceremonial washing of one’s hands before eating. But these traditions were empty if they were not motivated by a deep faith and love of God. The external following of human traditions was not truly an act of divine worship, and that’s what Jesus wanted for them. He wanted their hearts to be set ablaze with a love of God and with true divine worship.
What our Lord wants of each one of us is worship. Pure, heartfelt, sincere worship. He wants us to love God with a deep interior devotion. He wants us to pray, to listen to Him, and to serve His holy will with all the powers of our soul. And this is only possible when we engage in authentic worship.
As Catholics, our life of prayer and worship is grounded in the holy Liturgy. The Liturgy incorporates many traditions and practices that reflect our faith and become a vehicle of the grace of God. And though the Liturgy itself is far different from the mere “tradition of the elders” that Jesus was criticizing, it’s useful to remind ourselves that the many Liturgies of our Church must move from the external actions to interior worship. Going through the motions alone is pointless. We must allow God to act on us and within us as we engage in the external celebration of the Sacraments.
Reflect, today, upon the burning desire in the heart of our Lord to draw you into worship. Reflect upon how well you allow yourself to be drawn into this worship every time you attend the holy Mass. Seek to make your participation not only an exterior one but, first and foremost, an interior one. Doing so will help ensure that the rebuke of our Lord upon the scribes and Pharisees does not also fall upon you.
My divine Lord, You and You alone are worthy of all worship, adoration and praise. You and You alone deserve the worship I offer You from the depths of my heart. Help me and Your entire Church to always interiorize our exterior acts of worship so as to give You the glory that is due Your holy name. Jesus, I trust in You.
1. The Pharisees and Their Traditions: In the Gospel, we see that the plot of the Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem against Jesus continues to take shape. They opposed Jesus from the beginning of his ministry and accused him of blasphemy and associating with sinners. They said that Jesus’ mighty works were diabolical and not divine. Here, they accuse Jesus’ disciples of religious laxity. The Pharisees, who advocated strict observance of the Law of Moses and total separation from the Gentiles, saw that Jesus’ disciples did not wash their hands before eating. Here, Mark takes the time to explain the Jewish practice for his Gentile readers. While the Law of Moses did have rules for the priests to wash their hands and feet before offering a sacrifice and eating their share of the sacrifice, there was no obligation for the people to do so before every meal. This obligation was an oral tradition developed by the Pharisees and extended to every Jewish meal to make it a religious act and expression of Jewish identity.
Opening Prayer: Jesus, may I approach you in prayer with an attitude of sincerity and purity of intention. Help me to overcome any blindness that there may be in me and give me a real openness to change.
You Hypocrites: Jesus directly accused the men in today’s Gospel of hypocrisy, using Isaiah’s prophecy from the Old Testament to define it: “This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.” Hypocrisy is as much a temptation for us as it was for the men of Isaiah’s time, and for these Pharisees. There are many manifestations of this sin. The Pharisees were self-righteously misjudging the intentions of the disciples. “How seldom we weigh our neighbor in the same balance with ourselves” (Thomas a Kempis). Is this kind of hypocrisy a weakness of ours?
Tin Mừng hôm nay Chúa Giêsu cho chúng ta thấy rõ lạ trọng tâm của Lề Luật là yêu mến Thiên Chúa và thương yêu tha nhân. Tình yêu của Thiên Chúa không thể là sự mâu thuẫn với tình yêu tha nhân. Ví dụ, chúng ta không thể yêu mến Thiên Chúa và coi thường những người khác và bất kính với cha mẹ của chúng ta. Chúa Giêsu là gương sáng cho mọi người chúng ta bắt chước trong việc thờ phượng Thiên Chúa đích thực của Ngài. Trong Tin Mừng hôm nay, Ngài bác bỏ việc thực hành những nghi thức rửa tay vô ích trươc khi ăn của những người Biệt Phái. Nhưng Ngài thực sự hiểu biết những gì là cần thiết để trở thành một Người Do Thái đạo đức và những gì là luật lệ vô nghĩa hoặc vô dụng.
Ngoài ra, Chúa Giêsu cũng đã cho chúng ta thấy được tình yêu của Ngài đã dành cho mẹ của Ngài đến cùng. Ngài cũng đã đạt tình yêu của Ngài với Chúa Cha trên trời ở trên tất cả mọi sự và điều này Ngài đã dạy và làm gương rõ rang cho tất cả mọi người chúng ta. Đối với những người yêu qúy bản thân mình hơn cả Thiên Chúa, Ngài sẽ không ngần ngại khiển trách để giúp họ nhìn thấy con đường chân chính của sự thánh thiện. Sự thánh thiện không phải là một sự tuân giữ luật lệ thế gian một cách hoàn hảo. nhưng phải biết kính mến Thiên Chúa với một trái tim tinh khiết. Ngoài ra , những vị thánh là những người biết tìm cách sống trong một cuộc sống thật đơn giản, biết sẵn lòng làm những điều tốt cho người khác và giúp đỡ những người nghèo khổ và bị áp bức.
Chúng ta không nên bắt chước cuộc sống của những người Biệt Phái. Nhưng thay vào đó chúng ta hãy như vua Solomon trong bài đọc thứ nhất, là người chỉ mong muốn xây dựng được một ngôi nhà cho Thiên Chúa ngự trị, Chúng ta hãy cũng bắt chước xây một ngôi nhà cho Thiên Chúa ngay trong tâm hồn của chúng ta, trong gia đình và trong khu phố của chúng ta. Chúng ta phải biết theo định hướng của Thiên Chúa vì đó sẽ là kim chỉ nam dẫn đưa chúng ta tới không những chỉ là sự thịnh vượng mà còn đưa chúng ta tới sự an bình và hòa hợp trong cuộc sống của chúng ta và trong những gia đình của chúng ta nữa.
The gospel is a very strong indictment of the human rules and regulations the Pharisees added to the Torah which deviated from the true spirit of worshipping God. These rules have no place in the genuine worship of God. The heart of the Law is to love God above all things and to love one's neighbor. Love of God cannot be contradictory to love of neighbor. For example, we cannot love God and despise or neglect our parents. Jesus is the best example of true worship of God. In the gospel, he would not perform the useless ritual washings of the Pharisees. He knew what was essential to being a good Jew and what rules were meaningless or useless. Also, he showed his love for his mother to the end. But he clearly put love of his heavenly Father above all things and this he taught to everyone. To people who love themselves more than God, he would reprimand in order to help them see the true path of holiness. Holiness is not in being a perfect accomplisher of rules and regulations but in loving God with a pure heart. Also, the holy man seeks to live a simple life, doing good to his neighbor and helping the poor and the downtrodden. Let us not be like the Pharisees. Instead let us be like King Solomon in the first reading who desired only to build a house for Yahweh to dwell in. Let us also build a house for God in our hearts, in our families and in our neighborhood. We have to be God-oriented because that will bring us not only prosperity but also peace and harmony in our lives and in the lives of our families.
No comments:
Post a Comment