Traditions and ideal order
(Mk 7:1-13)
Religiosity can deceive the ideal order; the life of Faith promotes it, relying on a perfection and purity derived simply from the human dimension - of common sense and awareness.
This is how the world is improved and redeemed: by uniting with the Father’ Shekhinah; not perched in a fort, as if we were in a den.
And the full adventure, beyond borders, in the Spirit, makes us feel beautiful inside, instead of sick to be cured; indeed, capable of giving space to the magic of the Divine in ourselves and in relationships.
Without ever feeling besieged, ‘sons’ spontaneously react to events - with countless personalizing charitable initiatives, unrelated to any habit, chain, nomenclature.
Under the Herods dynasty the sense of the clan and the community were crumbling.
Due to survival problems, families were forced to close in on themselves, loosen ties, think about their own needs.
This closure was reinforced by the forms of devotion of the time in every respect. In vv.10-12 we see an incredible example of this: those who dedicated their inheritance to the Temple could leave their parents without help!
Offence and offering: injustice and normative behaviour - a strange connection, in the apparent form of an exemplary accent.
Compliance with the purity rules was a factor of ordinary marginalization for many people.
It was precisely the miserable who were regarded as ignorant and cursed species, because they were unable to fulfil; as a result, they were unable to receive the consolating blessing promised to Abraham.
A daily dripping that undermined the profound meaning of existing together.
In particular, ablutions were a kind of rite during which a “satisfying” gap between the sacred and the profane was celebrated - in detachment from people and situations considered impure.
Staying out of the supposed filth, none of the sick could ever be relieved.
So the rules were not a source of peace, but of slavery. Extending a charitable hand would even be sacrilegious.
In short, inhuman trifles were placed before the Law itself, nullifying its understanding spirit [fraternity that would have accentuated the enthusiasm of existing].
Placed in that context, people only embraced paths they already knew.
Woman and man lost the sense of their multifaceted existence. And life without the "opposites" weakened the Exodus of the whole people.
«Artfully you cancel the commandment of God, to observe your tradition» (Mk 7:9).
Jesus could not tolerate the closed world of conformist religiosity being bent and used to annihilate relationships.
This is why the control of the Pharisees is opposed by the freedom of the disciples (v.2), who refuse to obey that which does not make sense for concrete life - where visible love feeds ideal love.
The Master and Lord teaches that true worship is Closeness. In this way, there is a stage and a whole new order in the groove of the Word, which conquers all external links to the interiority.
Authentic 'ecstasy' is the 'purity of benefiting all' - not the self-satisfaction of the perfection model.
[22nd Sunday in O.T. B (Mk 7:1-8.14-15.21-23) September 1st, 2024]
