By Ishongkun Kurbah –
Readings: Jer 30:1-2, 12-15, 18-22; Mt 15:1-2, 10-14
“We spend billions and billions of dollars to eliminate the diseases that kill us, but we pay little attention to routing out the motivations that cause us to kill each other.” There is something similar that we see in today’s gospel. While the Pharisees are worried about the physical cleanliness, which is one of their traditional observations of the law, Jesus is more concerned in teaching us about the purification of our hearts.
During this pandemic, majority of us are extra careful and cautious in taking care of our physical body by washing our hands, eating nutritious food to keep our immune system strong so that we can protect ourselves from COVID-19 and, from death itself. Everyone is afraid to die. Let us ask ourselves, have we given serious attention to the needs of our soul? We are a composite being made of body and soul; neither of which can exist without the other.
Through the Gospel, Jesus tells us plainly that we should not give so much importance to the external needs of the body that we forget the internal needs of our soul. We should also purify our inner self. If we had paid as much attention to the needs of our soul as to our physical needs, we would have been able to throw away feelings of hatred, prejudice, lust, and greed for pleasure and power. And the world would have been a more just and peaceful place to live in.