Fr Ed Homily 10-13-20

Rules and Idols

Paul and Jesus are trying to explain that love is key in all we do and in all our relationships. Somehow the Pharisees lost this concept. God had given them basic instructions to worship God in the temple. The Pharisees recognized that what was good to help worship in the temple would be good for us in our life situations. Special instructions were needed for cleaning and washing in order to handle sacred vessels. People are sacred vessels, so rabbis thought that the same rule for cleanliness for handling sacred vessels should also be done for people in everything they do. It is not a bad idea except for the “in everything we do” part. That is impossible. Then scrupulosity gets in, and the rule becomes something of an idol. Cleaning becomes a ritual, and that was not the intention.

Jesus breaks tradition not because it is bad, but because it became an idol for Jewish leaders to control other people. Cleaning had nothing to do with loving your neighbor or God. How about you? What idols do you hold on to that prevent you from loving God and your neighbor?

May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen