Tuesday of Week 5 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Mark 7:1-13

A group of self-righteous scribes and Pharisees come to Galilee from Jerusalem to observe Jesus. Obviously, word has reached Jerusalem about what Jesus has been doing up in Galilee. They immediately notice that Jesus and his disciples do not observe some of the “traditions of the elders”, especially with regard to the washing of hands before eating. These traditions were a body of highly detailed, but unwritten human laws, which the scribes and Pharisees regarded as having the same binding force as the Law of Moses. Paul admits to having been a fanatical upholder of these traditions (see Gal 1:14).

It is hard not to come to the conclusion that many of these observances were originally based on practical experience. Eating without washing one’s hands could be a source of sickness, although they knew nothing about germs or bacteria. Because sometimes it could be diseased, eating pork made some people seriously sick, so the meat was banned altogether. But in order to ensure these hygienic requirements would be observed, they were linked to a religious sanction. Violating them was not just bad for your health, but a violation of God’s will. In the thinking of the Jewish leaders, to ignore them was to disobey God.

Clearly Jesus was not against the washing of hands as such, even as a religious observance. What he was against was the legalism by which the mere observance of some external actions was equated with being a devout lover of God. He quotes from the prophet Isaiah:

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines. (Is 29:13)

The real commandments of God, like unconditional love of the neighbour, are neglected in favour of what are purely human traditions. Jesus illustrates the hypocrisy involved by showing how some supposedly devout people got around the basic responsibility of respect for parents (which the Mosaic law demanded) by claiming that they had consecrated all they owned to God and the Temple, while in fact keeping it for their own use. The Corban (or Qorban in some translations) was a way of supposedly making a gift to God by an offering to the Temple, but in such a way that the donor could continue to use it for himself and not give it to others, even needy parents. This is like the story about the pastor who said, “Each week I throw all the collection up in the air for God. What stays up, he keeps; the rest comes to me”.

We sometimes meet Catholics who confuse the essential service of God with some religious rule. They judge people by whether they eat fish on Friday or not. They piously go through all kinds of devotional exercises, but their conversation is full of gossip and destructive criticism of others.

Others get tied down by scruples (“Did I say my penance after Confession?”) when the more important question would be, “Did I change my behaviour?” or “How did I keep my promise not to repeat the same sins?” Some ask: “Did I observe the full hour of fasting before Communion?” when the more important issue would be, “Does my going to Communion bring me closer to God and make me a more loving person with others?”

There can be a bit of the Pharisee in all of us, and that is the real subject of the teaching today. We will be judged by the depth of our love and nothing else.

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Tuesday of Week 5 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Genesis 1:20—2:4

God completes the work of creation we were considering in yesterday’s reading.

Evening and morning, the fifth day
On the fifth day God creates swarms of living creatures from the waters (rivers and seas, and salt and fresh water are not distinguished) and the birds of the air. These include:

…the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm and every winged bird of every kind [i.e. everything that flies, including insects].

The Hebrew word for ‘create’, bara, is a verb whose only subject can be God. There are three objects of creation mentioned: the universe as a whole, sea monsters controlling the waters, and human beings, who control the land. And:

God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

And, as before:

…God saw that it was good.

Evening and morning, the sixth day
On the sixth day it is the turn for land-based creatures—all kinds of domestic animals (cattle, sheep), creeping things (reptiles, snakes, insects and small animals), and wild animals. It was God who brought all these into being. And he saw that they were good.

Also on the sixth day he creates human beings, saying:

Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

The “us” in this passage certainly does not denote many gods, but God taken together with the retinue of the divine court. The plural can also express the majesty and fullness of God’s being, and the common name for God in Hebrew is elohim, a plural form (recall also that, in the past, the pope and some royalty used the term ‘we’ in speaking of themselves).

While some translations of the Bible use the word “man” in lieu of “humans”, the original translation of the word used is a collective noun for the whole human race, male and female, and so we read later in the sentence, “let them have dominion”. The New Revised Standard Version Bible updated edition (NSRVue, the translation cited in these commentaries) is more accurate in using the term “human” (note, the separate creation of man and then woman is found in the second creation account).

In our image
The human image, in some paradoxical way, resembles a God who has no visual image—perhaps in his speech, his intelligence and moral sense. We should note the opposite, namely, that the Bible does not hesitate to depict divine manifestations in human form. God is even presented with human feelings—sadness, disappointment, anger, vengeance and so forth.

This close relationship with God distinguishes human beings from the animals. It also involves a distant sharing in God’s nature: intellect, will, dominion and authority. We are like God in our access to truth and wisdom, if on an infinitely lower level. We are like God in ability to love. All this paves the way for an even higher image: our sharing in the divine nature through the gift of grace (God’s love experienced and active in our lives). Being in God’s image, humankind is given dominion over all other living things, including wild animals—in the sea, on land and in the air.

Now we have the first piece of poetry in the Bible—forty-percent of which is poetry:

So God created humans in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

Male and female God created them
Both male and female are created equally in the image of God, who is beyond gender and inclusive of both. Compare this also to the later narrative of woman’s creation (see this Thursday’s reading).

They, too, are told to increase and multiply, to fill the earth and be responsible for it and for all the animals, birds and living things within it. And to both humans and all the fish, animals and birds are given the fruits and seeds of every tree and plant. It is a description of a golden—and vegetarian—age, when human beings and animals were at peace with each other, all having only plants for their food. That will change with the coming of Noah (Gen 9:3).

The work of creation of both heavens and earth is now finished, completed in the six days when work was allowed:

God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.

God rested on the seventh day
With his work completed, God rested on the seventh day. And in this way God blessed the seventh day and made it ‘holy’, because on that day he had rested from his work of creation. In future, his people would work on six days but would, in imitation of Yahweh, ‘keep holy the Sabbath day’. It would be a day of prayer and worship and of rest from all kinds of work.

The Sabbath (Hebrew, shabbat) is of divine institution, for on that day God himself rested. The word shabbat is avoided here since, according to the Priestly author, the Sabbath was not imposed until the giving of the law on Sinai, when it then became the sign of the covenant (Exod 31:12-17). However, even at the creation God set an example which was to be followed.

The last sentence of the passage brings to a close one of the creation stories in Genesis, but it can also be read as the beginning of the next section:

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

Reflecting on today’s reading, we cannot be unaware that our responsibility to be stewards of God’s creation has frequently led to serious abuse of our environment at all levels and is a major concern today. We have mistaken stewardship for domination and control rather than good management.

The whole of creation is put into our hands to supply our needs. But we realise more and more that we ourselves are part of that creation, and that there is an essential symbiosis, a mutual interdependence. From mighty galaxies to sub-atomic particles there is a seamless robe of being into which we must fit, in a way that benefits all.

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