A mother, a talented cook, was sharing her cooking expertise with her grown daughter. Sharing her recipe for the perfect baked ham, she instructed her daughter to carefully slice about 1 inch from each end of the ham. The daughter asked why? The response from mom: that’s how my momma taught me.
When grandma came for a visit, the granddaughter related the cooking lesson so she naturally asked why did you teach mom to slice the ends of the ham? Well, she replied, that is how my mom taught me. Totally frustrated, she asked more forcefully, but why does cutting the ham make such a difference. Grandma replied it doesn’t really; you see the ham never fit in my mom’s small pan.
What seemed liked the secret to cooking a really good ham was nothing more than passing on an outdated tradition. Traditions! We all have them. Tradition literally means passed on, handed down. Many things we do in our personal lives, among our families are based in traditions. How we cook, what we like, our family celebrations, holiday events are influenced by traditions.
We even have many traditions regarding our spiritual life. As people of faith, do we cling to mere traditions; satisfying our curiosity with we’ve always worshipped that way or do we develop a deep personal relationship in matters of faith.
St. Mark’s Gospel today describes the Pharisee’s and the scribes objecting to disciples not closely following the traditional washing ritual. This is not just simply washing up or doing the dishes, this is a purification rite that the religious leaders of the day have made more complicated. The Pharisee’s and scribes were more interested in the outward appearance, the showiness of the ritual and paid little attention to the motivation of the heart. They were misusing the traditions of God and being hypocrites in their rules and regulations.
Jesus, of course, knows what is on the inside; he knows the hearts of all. Jesus never criticized the law or the rituals; he criticized the man made interference with God’s law and the hypocrisy of the ritual. After all, if the inside, which Jesus tells us can produce such an impressive list of sins, is not clean; if the heart cares little about a relationship with Him, then all the outward appearances; all the detail to tradition means little.
Is this relevant to us today? Do we belong to a church that has rituals and traditions? Are we following God’s law or those of man? Difficult questions that beg careful answers! First, we know that Jesus came to earth and established a church. The church indeed needs rules and regulations. He established a church on the first Pope, Peter and has allowed for successors all the way to Benedict 16th. And we have a teaching authority, called the Magisterium, which is the Pope and all the Bishops who cooperate with him in guiding the church under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The Bishops are the successors to the original Apostles. Our current Bishop is Archbishop Gregory Aymond.
But what does that have to do with us? We are obligated to follow the teaching authority of the church but we are also obligated to develop an interior relationship with God. God wants our hearts. He wants a personal relationship with each of us. He wants us to be the same on the inside as we appear to be on the outside. He wants us to look and act the same inside Church and outside in the parking lot. He wants us to interiorly know why we make the sign of the cross, genuflect, stand, kneel and sit. If someone asks you why do you Catholics do that; can we answer them or do we simply say, I’ve always done it that way, my mom told me to or everyone else does that way too. Maybe we can ask ourselves; why do we do it. Is it mere tradition or does it flow naturally from a sincere interior and a clean heart that wants to love, obey and worship God.
Let’s also be honest with ourselves. Temptation to sin is strong. Jesus knows this. If our exterior appearances cries out “look at me; I’m holy, I’m religious” but our interior likes that list of sins we just read, we need to pray for a clean heart.
We also are called to live out our faith by our response to each other. Do we live out from our interior the call to serve our brother and sister in need? St. James puts it best in our 2nd reading today: be doers of the word not just hearers of the word. Are we doers?
In just a little while we will approach the Eucharist and proclaim amen when we hear “Body of Christ”, “Blood of Christ”. Do we say amen because we always say amen or do we believe with a clean heart? In the week ahead, simply take some appropriate time in prayer and ask ourselves, do we follow traditions or do we truly believe. Let’s ask ourselves is our interior as clean as our exterior. And ask God to help you find the answer. Ask Him to create a clean heart.
And in the week ahead, spend less time cleaning the dishes, pots and pans. And remember, you don’t need to cut the ends off the ham anymore!
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