CLEAN HANDS VERSUS A CLEAN HEART
INTRODUCTORY RITES
Gather as a family/ community; create an environment appropriate for prayer (dress appropriately - switch off your phones...).
We are conscious that Christ is present not only in the Blessed Sacrament but also in the Scriptures and in our hearts. Even when we are on our own, we remain part of the Body of Christ.
Place lighted candles, a crucifix, and the Bible on a covered table. These remind us of the sacredness of our time of prayer and could help us feel connected with our local worshipping communities.
You may sing or play an appropriate hymn. For instance:
The Sign of the Cross
Greeting and Introductory Words
L: The Lord invites us to the table of his Word: let us bless him for his goodness.
A: Blessed be God forever.
L: A post reads: It doesn’t matter how many Sundays you sit in Church. God sees what you do and how you treat people. That’s what really matters.
The first sentence is perhaps debatable. But the second is the core of today’s liturgy. The liturgy today invites each of us to undergo the “heart test” to know the motive for our actions—religious, liturgical, or otherwise. We pray that all our religious and liturgical practices may be done from and with the heart.
Penitential Rite
L: For the times we have been pre-occupied with externals, we ask God’s pardon.
Pause
L: Lord Jesus, you were sent to heal the contrite of heart:
Lord, have mercy.
A: Lord, have mercy.
L: Lord Jesus, you give us the consolation of the truth:
Christ, have mercy.
A: Christ, have mercy.
L: Lord Jesus, you ask us to keep the commandment of love:
Lord, have mercy.
A: Lord, have mercy.
L: May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins,
and bring us to everlasting life.
A: Amen.
Gloria
Opening Prayer
L: Father of light,
bring to fruition the word of truth
that we may rightly understand your commandments,
live your law of love,
and offer you pure and undefiled worship.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
A: Amen.
THE LITURGY OF THE WORD
Readings
The readings are those assigned for the day in the Lectionary.
Preferably use a Bible/ Lectionary for reading.
Reading 1 Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8
Psalm Psalm 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5
Response The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Reading 2 James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27
Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia.
The Father willed to give us birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Gospel Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Reflection on the Readings
Use one of the following ways to reflect on the readings.
Lectio Divina
Imagine you witness the discussion between the Pharisees and Jesus. What are your thoughts and feelings when you see the disciples neglect the ritual washing, when the Pharisees question Jesus about it, and when you hear Jesus’ response?
Sunday Snippets
IJesus and Jim were walking around in heaven. They saw Jim’s parish where the Eucharist was being celebrated. Something puzzled him: he could see the priest move his lips, the lectors read, the choir sing, and the organist thump the keyboard. But he couldn’t hear a sound. Was there something wrong with the amplification system or with his ears? Jesus explained: “We have a rule that if they don’t do things on earth with their hearts, we don’t hear them here at all!”
We “do” many “religious practices”; often our hearts are not in them! Today’s readings remind us that religion is not about externals and about fulfilling obligations; it is living God’s word from and with our hearts.
In the first reading, Moses urges the people to be faithful to God’s laws, which expressed their relationship with God. Over the years, the elders added numerous regulations to govern every action and every situation of life. The focus moved from love to the exact external fulfilment of the law; from relationship to ritual.
It is one of these numerous “traditions” that the disciples did not follow: they ate their meal without the ritual washing of their hands.
The dialogue between the Pharisees and Jesus highlights a crucial difference between two mind-sets. For the Pharisees, religion was a performance, a meticulous carrying out of external regulations without concern for attitudes. For Jesus, religion was a matter of the heart; about love of God and care of neighbour.
This is also the thrust of the second reading: true religion is listening to and acting on God’s word and caring for the weak and oppressed.
Like the Jewish elders, we can make religion a ritual while our hearts are far from God and neighbour. The attitudes that motivate our actions, the way we associate with our neighbour – this is the heart of religion.
Today’s readings invite us to undergo the “heart test” to reveal who and what I am before God and before neighbour. To what do I give importance: clean hands or clean hearts; ritual or relationship? Is my heart in all that I say and do? If not, I need to bring on the heart sanitizer!
Questions to Ponder
Reflect on some (or all) of the following questions:
Reading 1: How would “wise and intelligent people” create the “statutes and decrees” needed now to fulfil the “love your neighbour” part of the law that God gave Moses?
Reading 2: Am I a hearer of the word or also a doer of it? When have I failed to “walk the talk” of my faith? How can I practice what I preach?
Gospel: Do I worship and serve God out of love? Or do I pay more attention to outwardly keeping the rules and doing the ‘right’ things?
Let me consider my priorities. Do I need to change anything?
The Creed
Prayer of the Faithful
L: Let us pray to God, the giver of all good gifts, that we may always obey his laws with the free attitude of Christ: Lord, hear our prayer.
R: For the Church: that we may not replace the Gospel with rites and laws of human invention but bring people to the freedom and the gentleness, we pray…
R: For the world: that the Spirit may renew the dedication of those working for peace and help all to work together to defeat disease, ignorance, and poverty, we pray…
R: For all who hand on the faith, particularly preachers, teachers, and parents: that they may share the faith clearly and convincingly, and lead others into an experience of God’s great love, we pray…
R: For those affected by the heavy rains in Gujarat and other parts of the country and the typhoon in Japan: that the situation may ease and they receive necessary help from people and agencies, we pray…
R: For greater stewardship of earth’s resources: that, as we enter the Season of Creation, we may treasure the resources that God has given us and wisely use them for the good of the human family, we pray…
R: For ourselves: that we may recognize where we say one thing and live by another so that we may come to greater integrity and wholeness, we pray…
L: Lord our God, may we not only hear your word but live by it day after day. Keep us faithful to our stewardship of the earth which you have gifted us. Through Christ our Lord.
A: Amen.
SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
The Lord’s Prayer
Spiritual Communion
A: Jesus, I know and believe in your real presence in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. It is you I desire to love and receive above all things. As I am unable to receive your sacramental presence now, come and be with me in heart and soul. Let my entire self be united with you as I welcome you again and know your loving embrace. Amen.
Post Spiritual Communion Reflection
Lord,
let your Word grow in our hearts.
Let it take us to those in need:
the poor and the hungry,
the sick and the lonely,
the war-torn, homeless, jobless,
the imprisoned, the dying––
all who wait for us
to be “doers” of your Word.
Be in our hearts
so that all that we do,
we do in your love.
Let the world know we are your disciples
not because our hands are clean,
but because they are dirty
with reaching out to all your children.
CONCLUDING RITE
Concluding Prayer
L: Lord God,
open our hearts to your words,
that they may touch us
in the deepest of ourselves.
May they move us to serve you
not in a slavish way
but as your sons and daughters
who love you and whom you have set free.
Through Christ our Lord.
A: Amen.
Blessing
L: The Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and lead us to everlasting life.
A: Amen.
L: Go in the peace of Christ.
A: Thanks be to God.
Conclude with a hymn. For instance:
