Tuesday of Week 5 (Year II): reflection

Theme: Obedience to God comes first

Reading: Mk 7:1–13

One of the problems in our nation (and in our world) this day is the tenacity with which many people hold fast to traditions that promote discrimination, division, and hatred, even when they claim to be adherents of religions that promote inclusion, non-discrimination, love, and peace. We live in a world where many people happily and strongly cling to traditional givens (customs) that drive them to harm other people, even when their religions forbid them from doing so. This is one of the root causes of racism, tribalism, xenophobia, caste systems and other forms of discrimination that plague our world.

In the gospel of today, our Lord Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and scribes who were teachers in the Jewish religion. Though the Pharisees and scribes were teachers of the commandments of God, they were often insensitive to their violations of the commandments of God. Occasionally, those violations resulted from their attempts to uphold the customs of their elders. Jesus said to them today: “you leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.”

Dear friends in Christ, this day provides us with a wonderful chance to examine ourselves deeply and identify those traditions and customs that we cling to despite the fact that they contradict the gospel of Christ and the natural law. There are plenty of them in almost all communities of the world, so there’s no need to list them here. Often, people strongly cling to them out of fear of the unknown, even when they are aware that the death of Christ has freed us from being slaves of sin and fear. Dear friends, we ought to permit the light of Christ’s teachings to permeate all of our traditions and customs in order to free them from anything that is hostile to humankind. As Christians, any custom that contradicts the love preached by Christ should not be accepted.

Paul Mikki and his 25 companions, whose feast day is today, refused to accept traditions that opposed the gospel of Christ in Nagasaki, Japan, and they gave their lives for it in 1597.

May the blessings and graces of God lead you in your activities this Tuesday. Amen

Fr Isaac C. Chima