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Gospel Mark 7:1-13
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. (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.) So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, "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.
You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition." He went on to say, "How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and Whoever curses father or mother shall die. Yet you say,
'If someone says to father or mother, "Any support you might have had from me is qorban"' (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things."
Reflection: saiah’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 my heart so that my worship may glorify You and advance Your Kingdom. Jesus, I trust in You.
