5th Week of Ordinary Time 2022 - Wednesday - Purification from what defiles us

 He fed five thousand people with a handful of bread, he walked on water, he performed countless healings, but the Pharisees and scribes choose to focus on how the Lord and his disciples ate without the ceremonial purifications that weren’t even prescribed by the law.

Sure, the Law of Moses prescribed ceremonial washing for the priests serving at the altar in the Temple, but the Pharisees extended these rules to everyone, and then condemned people for not observing them.

The Pharisees were perverting the Law of Moses and missing its purpose entirely—they were like the mean kids from grammar school that bullied you for breaking rules you didn’t even know about. And now they are all grown up, and have political sway, but they are still on the same toxic power trip.

In response to the Pharisees criticism, our Gospel begins today with the Lord summoning a crowd to address this unjust Pharisaical standard and their misapplication of the Law of Moses—their fake news, so to speak. 

“Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters a person from outside can defile that person,” rather what defiles are the moral evils that fester in the human heart: unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, and so on.

You want to know what defiles a person? Human sin, evil conduct. 

The Lord exposes the Pharisees for being more concerned with outward appearances than true inner moral goodness. They were a bunch of fakers, religious fakers. And the Lord, speaking with authority, sets the true standard for his followers. We must seek authentic conversion from all sin, including inner purification from sinful desires and ruminations. 

For Catholics, we’ve come up with some pretty practical ways of conforming to this teaching. We are to make a daily examination considering if our actions and attitudes over the course of the day have been unclean, and if they were, to repent of them. 

We are to make frequent use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We are to reflect upon God Word daily, to help us examine and conform our lives. We are to avoid using dirty language and fixating on dirty images. We are to seek freedom from all unforgiveness, ingratitude, selfishness, greed and gluttony. 

Jesus makes a very powerful promise to the pure of heart. “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” The Pharisees were unable to see that Jesus was God because they may have been ritually pure on the outside, but inside, they were full of corruption and defilement. 

So too in our culture: so many have lost touch with God precisely because they have allowed themselves to be defiled and refuse to repent and seek that purification that can only come from Him.

Lord, cleanse us, make our hearts new, purify us that we may see your face, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the Holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her, and bring cleansing to all the impurity which afflicts her members and leaders.

For the conversion of all those who have fallen into serious sin, for a return of fallen away Catholics to the Sacraments, and that all young people may be protected from the perversions of our culture.

For healing for all those suffering disease, especially diseases without known cures, for the people of China and all people afflicted by the Coronavirus, and all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief.

For the dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Holy mass is offered. 

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you are the source of all goodness, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith, we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.