Understanding the Forest for the Trees

Greetings on this the Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Genesis 1:20—2:4a; Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Mark 7:1-13

The Tradition of the Elders.

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.

Sometimes our traditions substitute for the presence of the Lord. We push Him aside for these good but inferior things. Our inferior motives are to push away the Lord, and control others.

Forest for the Trees

Sometimes we miss the forest for the trees (blocking our view). It’s the irony. The forest is the trees. The trees are the gift that make the forest. You are the gift that makes the Church. People first. Tradition second.

The Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.

A subordinate reality to the presence of Jesus. Missing the point, focusing on the secondary and trivial.

You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things.

So intense can our traditions be that we go so far as to nullify the word of God.

The Forest

God created man in his image;
in the divine image he created him;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them, saying:
"Be fertile and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it.

Personal Reflection on the Forest

It is easy to make our own idols wrapped in the ornamentation of the Church. It’s tragic but easy to do. But the Book of Genesis reminds us that God made the heavens and the earth. God made all living things. God made us in his image and called to his likeness.

Our prayer should be like the Alleluia verse today.

Incline my heart, O God, to your decrees;
And favor me with your law.

Amen.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021125.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry