HUMAN TRADITIONS ARE NOT SACRED

XXII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23

Time and again, as we read the Bible, we are reminded that only God is God, and that there is not other God, but God. Only God may demand total surrender; and that  surrender does not transform us into slaves, because it is the surrender of love, which makes us free, enabling us to be truly humans.

Only God is God; everything else is relative

The acceptance that only God is God relativizes everything else, making it of much less importance. In the past as well in the present, many things have risen above human beings and claimed total obedience and surrender, seeing any question or challenge as betrayal and treason. It can be the State and the ones who control the state machinery that become gods, demanding unconditional control of the citizens’ lives. It can be wealth, money and economic power – or the markets that become supreme, imposing themselves on people and controlling all levels of society. And it can the customs and traditions, which may bring oppression and discrimination and are an obstacle to development. 

Customs and traditions – our culture, as people like to say – are not sacred, unquestionable and unchangeable. In fact, customs and traditions are a product of human activity; they are a product of people living together in a certain place and time. As the times change, so people change, being faced with new conditions and challenges. As they change, their culture changes as well. In that change, the old and the new may go hand in hand, or may conflict with each other, causing some things to be disregarded while others are accepted.

Sometimes, we speak of culture as if it is something outside and above us. However, culture is what we are together in a given place and time.

Jesus challenges us

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus challenges us about our culture: our customs and traditions are not more important than God’s commandments, and they cannot be a pretext to ignore them. Once we accept Jesus Christ and choose to become his disciples, we are faced with many challenges in regards to our culture. Jesus can help us to integrate everything that his human and that enhances human dignity, communion and peace among people. But he will demand from us the courage to stay away and reject everything that creates discrimination, brings fear, instils hatred and tramples down upon our dignity or the dignity of our neighbours.