＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Jeremiah 30:1-2, 12-15, 18-22

This is another word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh:

Yahweh, God of Israel says, “Write in a book all that I have communicated to you, Yahweh says, “Your wound is incurable, your injury is grievous.  There is no one to plead your cause. There is a remedy for an ulcer but no healing for you!  All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you.

For I struck you as an enemy does, with a cruel punishment, because of your great guilt and the wickedness of your sin.  Why cry out now that you are hurt?

Is there no cure for your pain? Because of your great crime and grievous sin I have done this to you.

Yahweh says, “I will restore my peo­ple into Jacob’s tents and have pity on his dwellings. The city will be rebuilt over its ruins and the palace restored on its prop­er place. From them will come songs of praise and the sound of merrymaking.

I will multiply them and they shall not be few. I will bestow honor on them and they shall not be despised. Their children will be as before and their community will be established before me. I will ask their oppressors to account.

Their leader will be one of themselves, their ruler shall emerge from their midst. I will bring him close to me for who would dare to approach me? You shall be my people and I shall be your God.”

 

Ps 102:16-18, 19-21, 29 & 22-23

The Lord will build up Zion again, and appear in all his glory.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Matthew 15:1-2, 10-14

Then some Pharisees and teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. And they said to him,  “Why don’t your disciples follow the tradition of the elders? In fact, they don’t wash their hands before eating.”

 Jesus then called the people near him and said to them, “Listen and understand:  what enters into the mouth does not make a person unclean, what defiles one is what comes out of his mouth.”

After a while the disciples gathered around Jesus and said, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended by what you said?”   Jesus answered, “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be uprooted.  Pay no attention to them! They are blind leading the blind. When a blind person leads another, the two will fall into a pit.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

Sociology tells us that high culture is concerned more of How things are done rather than WHY things are done. In eating, focus is given on how to use the knife, spoon, or fork than to address a starving stomach.

In grooming, there is more concern with fabrics and dress-cuts than getting oneself covered. In praying, one worries more of posture or recitation than of engagement with God.

Jesus does not condemn the raising of the standards of how we live and believe in God. He condemns how those standards are used to judge others. Worse, standards are raised so high that even those setting them fall short.

Yet, they pretend that they meet those standards. This is hypocrisy in its purest form. The intention is to make goodness so unachievable to have the license to condemn others. But Jesus comes to give us spontaneous access to God.