Matthew 15:1-2,10-14
for Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time.
As we
heard in yesterday’s Gospel, Christ is now at Gennesaret, on the shore of the
lake in the land of Galilee.
Today,
Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem in the land of Judea, a walk of two or
three days away, have come to demand of Christ why his disciples break the old
tradition by not washing their hands before they eat, thereby defiling
themselves.
But before
answering the Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes, Christ first called over the local
Galilean crowd.
He made
sure the Galileans heard his answer that offended the Judean Pharisees, namely
that one defiles oneself by what comes out of one’s mouth.
You and I
own up to that at the beginning of Mass, when we say aloud to God and to each
other:
... I have greatly sinned,
in my thoughts and in my WORDS,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,
... through my most grievous fault.
Elsewhere
in his Gospel, Christ says our mouths show whatever evil is within us.
So how do
we avoid defiling ourselves?
We need to
prudence to open our eyes to seek, know, and name right and wrong.
We need to
ask in all things and every moment:
Does this
give glory to God?
Does this
serve the true good of my neighbor?
Does this
serve my own true good?
Then, we
need to choose to obey based on what we have come to know as good or bad.
By so
doing, we let Christ’s heavenly Father plant us.
Otherwise,
as Christ says today, we will be uprooted, and end up at the bottom of a pit.
Every
plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.
Let them alone [the Pharisees and scribes];
they are blind guides of the blind.
If a blind man leads a blind man,
both will fall into a pit.
We have a
sharp-eyed guide in the person of Christ.
He is food
and drink for what we do with our bodies, feelings, minds, and wills.
In his
Eucharist, he gives glory to his heavenly Father.
In his
Eucharist, he is the true good of our neighbors and us.
Giving
himself to us in his Eucharist, he tells us: Do
this in memory of me.
Having
received him in his Eucharist, do we then go on to reveal and do what we have
received?
Do our
thoughts, words, and deeds show that we have the Body and Blood of Christ
within us?
Do we
serve God’s glory and the true good of others?
Such
service is ultimately for our own life and joy, for Christ speaks today of such
service as our being PLANTED by his heavenly Father.
PLANTED!
After
making the human race, the first thing God did was PLANT a garden to serve as our
peaceful home of living and joyous communion with him.
God wants
to see us planted there forever.
His
Eucharist offers us the reality, the power, and the opportunity.
The choice
is ours in every thought, word, and deed.
Turn.
Love. Repeat.
