Are you Perfectly Unstained?
Pure ka ba? Are you perfectly unstained? No matter how much we try to live faithfully, we fall. We are all sinners.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus confronts the Pharisees and the scribes for projecting a “holier than thou” mentality. To hide their own struggles, flaws and sins, they sought refuge by obeying the commandments. Worst, they strictly emphasized the purity laws as God’s commandments that must be perfectly observed. But why did they insist on purity laws as “the” Commandments? History tells us that by observing such laws, the Jews were separated from the Gentiles; those who are holy are separated from the profane and mundane.
But Jesus goes further. Knowing that we cannot pretend to hide from God our flaws, struggles and sins to appear to be best among the rest, Jesus challenges their external observance of the commandments by saying, “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile: evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance and folly.”
We might appear to be externally presentable, but our unbecoming attitudes are abhorred. Pogi at maganda ka nga pero, sa masamang ugali mo, hindi ka lang iniiwasan, sinusuka ka pa. Following the letter of the law is just the bare minimum. But there is something more by which Jesus challenges us to be and to do. As we listen to Jesus, let us reflect and examine ourselves, “What are the areas in my life that need God’s mercy and forgiveness?” When misery meets mercy, there is lavish charity. Only God can cleanse us and make us whole.
Carl Jung said that the brighter the light, the darker our shadows become. Life’s task is not perfection but integration. As Christians, when we accept that we are sinners, yet called and loved by God, peace, joy and God’s glory shine through as goodness, truth and beauty.
01 September 2024, 22nd Sunday in the Ordinary Time, Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
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