Dear Sisters and Brothers in Faith:
My mother, rest her soul, was a registered nurse, and she always did her best to see that my sister and I were well-fed and healthy. It was ever her admonition to us at meal time, “Go, and wash your hands for dinner!” It wasn’t the same ritual washing we hear about in today’s Gospel selection, but you might have thought it was because, no matter how many times I tried to get by with a quick rinse, I was always sent back to use soap and water and “do it right this time!”
The Jews who lived in the Holy Land at the time of Jesus were no strangers to the hardship of water shortage, but they never skimped when it came to washing people and things. Mark makes a big deal out of telling about their washing habits. The reason for all this washing was that, for them, external washing symbolized their desire for internal purity before God. So, when the Pharisees and scribes accused Jesus’ disciples of eating with unwashed hands, they were actually accusing them of impiety.
But Jesus knew that no external washing of one’s hands ever could give a foolproof description of a person’s heart before God! He knew that it is the heart, not the head that is the center of all human emotions, psychologically and spiritually speaking, and we know it, too. Think of all these common expressions: “Let’s get to the heart of the matter”; “I love you from the bottom of my heart”; “Her heart is in the right place”; “My heart just isn’t in it”; “Oh, have a heart”; “You gotta have heart”; “His heart went out to her”; “Love is the heart of the home”; “Let’s have a heart-to-heart talk”; “Home is where you hang your heart.” Such expressions as these show that we moderns, like our ancient ancestors, know the heart represents the center of our emotions.
But the human heart can drift away from God. Jesus knew that even among those giving lip service to God, their hearts may be far away from God. Moses had given the Israelites the way to give God heart-service instead of lip-service through the commandments and precepts of the law.
Saint James tells us that all good things come from above—from our father in heaven, and that the joyful light of God’s grace will never be overshadowed and is always ready to fill the hearts of those he has claimed and cleansed through the death and resurrec-
tion of Jesus.
I hope you have a Christ-filled week!
St. Vincent de Paul, pray for us!
May the Holy Spirit always be with you.
Deacon Mike