- Psalmody: Psalm 31:6b–7a; 1; Psalm 6:2a, 2b-3a; Psalm 103:10; 79:8–9; Psalm 109:21a; Psalm 16:11a
- Lection: Exodus 20:12-24a ; Matthew 15:1-20
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Lent, which by week’s end shall be already halfway over, is a blessèd and necessary annual re-training of the Christian heart with the goal of bringing us, and our whole person, back to reality. We all need Lent, at minimum annually, for none of us shall shed the need of discovering and repenting of the sins in our lives until the Lord returns or until He ends this life of sin by death to draw us to Him yonder. We will only be done with our fight against sin and the war against the flesh by the soul’s separation from the body of death one way or another; either in our own death or in the death of all sin that shall come on the Last Day. Until then, we walk on, we march on, we fight on, not growing weary in the Lord, but looking to Him and His Word so as to daily put the old Adam to death in the drowning waters of our blessed baptism into Christ. He is the refreshment of the soul, the strength to carry on in this wilderness, in this valley. He is the Rest needed in our pilgrimage. Sunday shall bring the refreshment of Laetare, yet let us not be so quick to want to see the increased intensity of self-examination and repentance be done away with, as if the bright mirror of the Law is to be shrouded or forgotten outside of Lent.
This Wednesday evening of Oculi again brings us masterful words from our Lord’s mouth that cut to the quick of pharisaical self-deception that lies in all our hearts ready to be awakened at each prideful opportunity. It is clear from the Gospel text that the pharisees had taken God’s Holy Law and added to it ‘traditions of the elders’, an act in itself that should cause any faithful heart to recoil in dread at such presumption. The great lawgiver, Moses, himself writes in Deuteronomy four, ” You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.” Still, these traditions grew and grew in their detail and severity over the years to the point that we heard where even the washing of hands before eating became a test of one’s morality, righteousness, and worth. May God make us wise to see where we are prone to judge one another in accordance with traditions, with standards, by which we condemn, and by which we are quick to pronounce judgment and derision upon those who don’t live exactly as we do.
The Lord Jesus did not gratify the Pharisees’ accusation with a defense of his disciples’ unwashed hands, but with a rebuke of their judgmental eye that wasn’t even judging by God’s Word, but by their own. He rebukes them and all who pride ourselves in what we do, or rather, what others do or don’t do as opposed to us. He rebukes with teaching about true sin and the danger it poses to those who go about speaking haughtily and in judgment of others while absolutely daring not to be so harsh with the self about the sin within. Lent is a time not to be harsher toward one another, but rather toward our own sins. Jesus rebukes the heart that in great fervor is ready to betray and demean others while the tenacity to dig up its own foolishness, darkness, and wretchedness it is not so intent or quick to speak about, not even in confessional and repentant prayer.
Christ calls us, the multitude, unto Himself to hear the reality of what it is that defiles us. It is not what we are most disgusted by. It is not life’s contents in the dirty diaper as parents clean a baby from what has been eaten, entered the stomach, and was eliminated. It is not the winter-preserved dog mess cleaned from the backyard just before dinner. We have ideas and opinions about just how disgusting this kind of filth is, especially when thought of in proximity to approaching the dinner table to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. We dare not come there with dung upon our hands to ask for and receive our Father’s fourth petition answers. May we do better and not approach Him with hands that are unclean and hearts that are impure with sin that is ignored. The greater reality about which our concern should be is what defiles us.
The filth that does that doesn’t come from others not living up to our standards. It doesn’t come from the infant’s uncontrolled bowels nor from the pets’ excrement. Such things do not truly defile us, for they can be easily washed away. Greater is the sin that lurks within that takes much deeper discovery and cleansing; a cleansing that comes through the self-scrutiny with which Lent blesses us; a cleansing that comes through the effective and thorough washing of rebirth and renewal of the baptismal life in which we strive to be done with our sins and receive the sure forgiveness of Christ.
For, if we have been overtaken by this sin, it is Jesus Who cleanses as He bids us to cleanse our hearts in preparation for the Paschal Feast of forgiveness and joy that soon comes. He cleanses by His word of repentance; that we turn away from the condition of the heart that reveals itself and truly defiles us in how we speak to each other; in how we speak about each other. His perfect Law gives us no option of continuing in sin as if it is just the way that we are or as if nothing can be done about it. No, much can always be done. May we never be content with sin in our lives! Instead, let us see our sins, confess them, weep, moan, and cry out to God over them. Let us apologize to those who have received the lashing of our tongue and strive to speak well, as is fitting for saints. Let peace be upon our lips. For, as St. Chrysostom says so well, “Since in truth the tongue is the hand of them that pray, and by it we lay hold on the knees of God. Defile it not therefore, lest to thee also He say, ‘Though ye make many prayers, I will not hearken.’ Yea, and ‘in the power of the tongue are death and life;’ and, ‘By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.’ (Matthew 12:37) I bid thee then watch thy tongue more than the apple of thine eye. The tongue is a royal steed. If then thou put a bridle on it, and teach it to pace orderly, the King will rest and take His seat thereon; but if you suffer it to rush about unbridled and leap wantonly, it becomes a beast for the devil and bad spirits to ride on.”
And St. Paul, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from us, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave us.” These are trustworthy goals in Lent and all year round unto the Day without end. May we ever hear Christ, Who loosens our tongue from the bondage of sin, so that it may speak the praises of Him Who died, and speak peace to and about those around us for whom this same gracious Savior bled upon the cursed tree that our hearts may be cleansed from that which defiles them from within.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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