Tuesday, August 04, 2020 - 18th week of Ordinary Time - Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 15, 1-2. 10-14 - Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!
From the outset, we congratulate all the priests on the feast of St. John Mary Vianney, and we urge Christians to pray for them and support them as much as possible.
We have heard the scribes and Pharisees criticize Jesus' disciples, and they ask, "Why do your disciples transgress tradition and not wash their hands before eating?" So first of all, it's neither tradition nor hand washing that's wrong. It is well known that this gesture is part of a massive campaign during these confinements and continues to this day; and also a sign of decency. And in Scripture it is a sign of respect for sacred things. The reproaches of the scribes and Pharisees seem legitimate here.
It is in this context that Jesus takes the opportunity to pass on his teachings. He says, "It is not what goes into the mouth of man that defiles him", and in another passage of the Gospel he continues by saying, "it is what goes out of man that makes him unclean". This shows first of all that there is no unclean animal. We will examine this more closely next time, but what Jesus wants to convey in the Gospel is that even if we take a bath every day, and use every kind of perfume and anything that is meant to embellish us outwardly, but we hate our neighbors, slander and persecute them, speak wickedness and blasphemy, we are unclean in the sight of God. Therefore, let us always make an effort to purify ourselves both internally and externally.
The next thing we can say is that Jesus protects his disciples. In other words, no matter how imperfect we are, as long as we trust the Lord, He will protect us.
Finally, the Pharisees and their companions were offended or angry when they heard Jesus' words and teachings, as if they had refused to be rebuked and corrected. So for us, if we want to grow spiritually, let us accept the leadership of the Church because one visually impaired person guiding another visually impaired person will go straight into the abyss.
