 1st September 2024
Lectionary Readings: Dt 4:1-2, 6-8; Ps 15: 2-5; Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Theme: What comes from within
The gospel for this Sunday from chapter 7 of  Mark’s version is made up of three passages selected from the last block of teaching that Jesus gives before he leaves Gennesaret in Galilee for the gentile coastal region of Tyre. The first and longest section (vv. 1-8) has to do with the Pharisees and scribes who have come from Jerusalem to confront him; the second (vv. 14-15) is spoken to the crowd, and the third (vv. 21-23) to the disciples. But strung together as they are in our liturgy these excerpts are obviously meant to be taken as a coherent whole addressed to the listener or reader.
In the first section Matthew offers two verses of explanation, enclosed in brackets in most English versions, for the opposition to Jesus of “the Pharisees and all the Jews” who observe, “in the tradition of their ancestors” and with great strictness, the purity laws that relate to the washing of hands, vessels and produce brought from the market. Some of them would no doubt have been more concerned with external observance than interior dispositions and for them, human traditions like ritual washing had become the touchstones of orthodoxy and the marks of right living. As a blanket statement however, it would seem to be an exaggeration to claim they were all like this. We know from other Gospel passages that some of Pharisees and others were genuine seekers after truth and open to Jesus’ teaching.
There is good evidence to show that in the second half of the first century, and so probably also in Jesus’ day, rabbis were exploring different strands of Jewish belief and practice as to what constitutes the good life. Jesus was surely engaged in vigorous debate with other rabbis on key questions of the Law and how to interpret it in the difficult times in which they lived.
One of the most highly regarded sages of the late first century was Rabbi Eleazar ben Arach, described as an “overflowing spring” of innovative insights. Of him it was said that if all the sages of Israel were on one side of a balance scale and R. Eleazar on the other, he would outweigh them all (Pirkei Avot 2:8). In Pirkei Avot 2:9 four of his contemporaries identified “the straight path that a person should cling to as “a good eye”, or “a good friend”, or “a good neighbor”, or as “seeing the consequences of one’s actions”. R. Eleazar’s answer, “a good heart”, was hailed as the best because it included all the others. Jesus would surely agree, given his insistence in our present Gospel passage on the importance of what comes from within, from our hearts – from our own moral choices as to the path to follow in life.
For Reflection and Discussion: 1. What does a “good heart” mean for you? 2. Discuss some current moral issues about which there is disagreement as to whether they contribute to a good life or not.
Bibliography: Mishnah tractate Pirkei Avot, Sefaria, https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/40050?lang=bi; Strack, H.L. & Billerbeck P.A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash Vol.2 (Bellingham WA: 2022).
This week’s Sunday Liturgy Commentary was prepared by
Kevin L. McDonnell cfc, Australia, Bat Kol Alumnus: 2003, 2004, 2005
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