By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
“You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” (Matt. 23).
The frauds have been unmasked. An episode in the Scriptures about hand-washing can shed some light. Just as a gnat was unclean and so was strained out of water or other liquid before drinking, so was washing hands also ceremonially purifying.
“At that time, the Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, ‘Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the ancients? For they do not wash their hands when they take food’” (Matt. 15).
In the Holy Gospel for Wednesday of the third week of Lent, the Lord is attacked by His detractors among the scribes and Pharisees. They catch His followers violating one of the many minor precepts governing Jewish life.
They want to protect the people from themselves. Keep them clean. Safe. Healthy.
But meanwhile they themselves are hypocrites because they gladly receive corban, offerings for sacrifice, while mothers and fathers are left unsupported.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matt. 23).
“But He answered and said to them, And why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God said, Honor your father and your mother; and Let him who curses father or mother be put to death. But you say, Whoever shall say to his father or mother, Any support you might have had from me is dedicated to God, does not have to honor his father or his mother. So you have made void the commandment of God by your tradition. Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; and in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine the precepts of men” (Matt. 15).
Such religious leaders leave souls in danger, neglecting their true spiritual good, demanding obedience to strictures invented by men, while the help of God remains beyond the reach of the people, prevented as they are from keeping the laws of God and pleasing Him.
Yes, disease can do terrible things to a human being and can even cause death. But disease can affect only the body. We are not purely corporeal. If we have faith we know and believe that we each have an immortal soul which with God’s grace can share in His life eternally. But only with grace.
But back to hand washing, something much spoken of in our own day, along with mask wearing and social distancing. An obsession with what goes into people to make them unhealthy, should be balanced by a much more urgent issue: what comes out of them.
“Then He called the crowd to Him, and said to them, ‘Hear, and understand. What goes into the mouth does not defile a man; but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man.’ Then His disciples came up and said to Him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees have taken offense at hearing this saying?’ But He answered and said, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides of blind men. But if a blind man guide a blind man, both fall into a pit.’
“But Peter spoke to Him, saying, ‘Explain to us this parable.’ And He said, ‘Are you also even yet without understanding? Do you not realize that whatever enters the mouth passes into the belly and is cast out into the drain? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and it is they that defile a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, immorality, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”
Civil and religious leaders have issued severe restrictions about hand-washing and related issues while hindering everyone’s access to the Kingdom. Churches were locked. Sacraments denied. At times, souls languished and died without consolation. Some may never return to Sunday Mass. Their hands are immaculately clean and they may have escaped from COVID, but if their souls are marked with sin, they risk eternal punishment.
Hypocrites. You are unmasked. You do not believe. If you did you would move Heaven and Earth to save souls. You would dirty your hands to serve the people yourself, to ensure they received the help of God in the sacraments which He sends you to give to the people.
And while obsessed with hand-washing and government funding, some of these same leaders actively encouraged or allowed for those evil things which come out of men and which in fact make unclean.
What is Communion for adulterers (see Amoris Laetitia) but encouraging and blessing adultery? What is LGBT “ministry” and hyphenated Catholic identity but a condoning of sodomy? Yes, these sins make men unclean no matter how many seconds they have scrubbed the outside of themselves. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, immorality, . . . to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”
The ministry of God is perverted by men. The body is scrupulously cared for to the neglect of the soul. What cannot last is exalted over what is eternal. Sin, which can cast both body and soul into Hell, is encouraged while the least infraction of the laws of men in regard to the health of the body can cast men into prison.
A minister in Canada, who kept his church open in defiance of the unjust laws of men, languishes in jail at this moment. We can both protect the vulnerable and keep God’s law. We can reasonably and justly respect the needs of the body while truly caring for the soul. But the body cannot take precedence over the soul.
Some things never change. And one thing which cannot be taken away is the presence of Christ from His Church no matter the sins of her members or false teachers and dissidents among her bishops and priests. He is truly present in the Eucharist, Word Incarnate, and in the word of Scripture and truth of Church teaching.
“I am with you always, even until the end of the world.”
We can be consoled only by Him. Do not seek the Lord where He may not be found among hypocrites and blasphemers and you will never be deluded or lose hope.
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