13 October 2020
Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
“For freedom Christ set us free; so, stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.”
Today’s Gospel with its prescriptions to ritual cleansing is the site for Jesus’ challenge to the religious mindset of the day that reduced God’s law to only a surface level reality. The freedom that Christ sets us free for is not a license to act as we wish, neither it is a freedom that only touches our external rituals, rather it is a freedom that transforms the depths of our hearts, our attitudes, and our way of living. Jesus’ salvation isn’t a mere spiritual shower, it is a total spiritual blood transfusion.
In our time of the COVID pandemic we can risk becoming like these pharisees in the story; our endless handwashing, mask wearing, distance keeping, sanitize rubbing, and the myriad other ways we seek to clean the outside of our homes and bodies is a reality that we have been living for over half a year now. With this relentless focus on the outside, on the purity of the exterior – for these new ritual cleansings – is there a risk that our interior life has become judgmental, hardened, or suspicious of those who do not follow the rituals as well as we do? Have we participated in public or silent shaming, judging, and condemning of others? Christ’s freedom does not just apply to when we can freely move about, but it is a gift that is meant to transform even lockdowns and viral vigilance with Christ’s charity and peace toward others. Cleaning is not condemned by Christ, but he calls his listeners to not reduce our lives to this alone. Where might be reflect and take fruit from this advice in light of our world today?