5th Week in Ordinary Time (B) : Tuesday 9th February 2021

The Genesis account of creation as in the First reading illustrates how God looked into every detail in His art of creation. The climax was the creation of man and woman in His Own image and likeness (v. 27). Everything God made was good.

In the Gospel reading, we see how the Scribes and Pharisees adopted the practice of ‘ritual purity’ as a necessary condition for approaching God in worship. Such ‘tradition of the elders’ was well guarded by the Scribes and Pharisees. They considered that the non-observance of their ‘tradition’ was tantamount to transgressing Mosaic law.

Jesus took up the broader question of obedience to God’s will and focused on it in sharp contrast with such blind observance of human-made traditions. He called them hypocrites!

He referred to their ‘Corban’ (a Semitic word that means “a gift made to God”) as a dubious way to nullify God’s commandments and submitted to the elders’ traditions. So, Jesus denounced such obedience as mere submission to ‘human tradition’.

We ask ourselves if we also submit to such kinds of blind obedience to human-made rules/laws and forget God’s commandments. Or do we prefer to remain in silence to situations of injustice around us? As followers of Jesus, we observe traditions provided they embody Gospel values like equality, love and justice.

“Lord, grant us the grace to be discerning in our observance of rules and regulations in life.”