Mark 7:1–13
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come
from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples
were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the
Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their
hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything
from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions
that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the
Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according
to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ He said to them,
‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
“This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts
are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human
precepts as doctrines.”
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human
tradition.’
Then he said to them,
‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your
tradition! For Moses said, “Honour your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever
speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” But you say that if anyone
tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban”
(that is, an offering to God)— then you no longer permit doing anything for a
father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that
you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’
Reflection:
Do I also follow the tradition of the elders rather than the
teaching of the Church?
How I honour my parents?