“Then came to him from Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees, saying: ‘Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the ancients? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.’ But he answering, said to them: ‘Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? For God said: ‘Honour thy father and mother.’ And ‘He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death.’ But you say: ‘Whosoever shall say to father or mother: The gift whatsoever proceedeth from me, shall profit thee.’ And he shall not honour his father or his mother: and you have made void the commandment of Gode for your tradition. Hypocrites, well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘This people honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men.’’”
The religious leaders of Judah, centered in Jerusalem where the most prestige and influence would be, come to Jesus, who had wrought an abundance of miracles, even by the very touch of His garment: “Who shall declare the powers of the Lord? Who shall set forth all his praises?” (Psalm 105:2). They go not to learn from Jesus, aid in His mission of love, or see His miracles, but to reprove Him for a trifle, and such nitpicking is contrary to love: “For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7:2). When they come to do this, it is not to highlight a breaking of the Law of Moses, but of a tradition they had instituted, when Moses himself had said: “You shall not add to the word that I speak to you, neither shall you take away from it: keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:2); by adding precepts, they bind their hands down all the tighter rather than freeing them up for authentic justice and merciful love: “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice” (Osee 6:6). It can be argued that this was taken as a literal interpretation of the prophet Isaiah: “Wash yourselves, be clean” (Isaias 1:16), and thus brings the importance of a right interpretation of the Scriptures. Now, this can be a lesson, Theophila, to take your commandments on how to live from the Scriptures and the Catechism rather than what one saint did or taught, for they had their own spirituality, and you have yours, and they may have needed to quench a passion in a particular way that you are not called to do, and by trying to live like someone else you lose your you-ness, which is where beauty is: “How beautiful art thou, my love, how beautiful art thou!” (Canticle 4:1). It is better, with the writings of the saints, to look to increase one’s love of Jesus or to seek truth; “Stand in the multitude of the ancients that are wise, and join themselves from thy heart to their wisdom, that thou mayst hear every discourse of God, and the sayings of praise may not escape thee” (Ecclesiasticus 6:35). Let them help your heart sing, that you may join in angelic praise: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come” (Apocalypse 4:8), rather than fastening your hands with many commandments: “For you are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). By washing one’s hands in truth and acting in accordance with this truth, one acts with love: “I have no greater grace than this, to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4), and this is to “Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm” (Canticle 8:6), for in keeping the love of the Father in your heart, with truth of Jesus in your mind, and the love of the Holy Spirit in your actions, you manifest the Holy Trinity in all that you do. Now, even if eating with unwashed hands is a tad garrulous, Jesus points out that the one that sins in great matters should not pick at the slight faults of others: “And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye?” (Matthew 7:3). The Apostles were tending to the commandments of God, those of love and mercy, at the expense of the commandments of the elders, whereas the scribes and Pharisees kept the commandments of the elders at the expense of love: “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24). When Jesus then emphasizes to “honor your father and mother,” this is not so much in kind words or salutations, but in genuine good actions and support: “My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth” (1 John 3:18). To curse them, in word or in action, brings a startling sentence: “Let him die the death,” for St. John says, “If any man say, ‘I love God,’ and hateth his brother; he is a liar” (1 John 4:20) and “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now” (1 John 2:9), and if one has no affection or loving deeds even to the ones nature inclines towards such things, there is a serious spiritual malady, or even the spiritual death of a lack of love: “If the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men” (Matthew 5:13). What the scribes and Pharisees taught was that what should be for the service of one’s parents could be offered to God by the service of the priests, which would in turn benefit the parents spiritually, wherein the parents would go without and suffer. It seems like piety, but the comfort of the religious leaders was such that this was a movement of avarice rather than true devotion: “Thus saith the Lord God: ‘Woe to them that sew cushions under every elbow: and make pillows for the heads of persons of every age to catch souls” (Ezechiel 13:18). The scribes and Pharisees were leading sons away from the love of their own parents for the sake of their personal luxury, moving through the commandments of God like a whale through a net, yet observing such small commandments as the frequent washing of hands. To be a hypocrite is to feign something in action, whereas in the heart is the harboring of something else, and so the religious authorities were feigning piety, when in fact they nourished earthly gain. This leads to the final point, that to harbor anything besides love of God and neighbor in your heart is sin, “For all that is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). Things that are not these, or even outright contrary, will arise within you, but when you turn away from such temptations for the sake of love, you make an act of love, conquering the world, the flesh, and the devil with love: “Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good” (Romans 12:21).