How lovely is your dwelling place Oh Lord

1 Kgs 8:22-23.27-30, Mk 7:1-13. What a travesty it would be, to prioritise arbitrary human traditions over the clearly expressed will of God. Many traditional rituals in the time of Jesus had lost touch with the core virtues taught by Moses and the prophets. We need to reexamine our legal and social traditions to better reflect what are considered genuine values today. In our personal lives we sometimes cling to traditional ways of doing things that are not really in the spirit of Jesus Christ. Norms of behaviour are always in need of reform in the light of the Gospel. We need to listen afresh to the Word of Christ and trust in His Spirit to show us the way.

The central truth is that whatever God has made is very good. Through this lens we can examine today’s first reading, about Solomon. In his new-built Temple Solomon ponders: “Can it be that God dwells among us on earth? If the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built?” In today's Gospel, Jesus opposed the harsh legalists who set aside God’s Commandment that love is the primary virtue and insisted on the observance of minute aspect of it. Solomon knew that God’s presence fills the total universe and therefore that no human sanctuary, however splendid, can really contain the divinity. In turn, Jesus declares that all the products of the world are clean because they have been created by God. If He cleared out the buyers and sellers, it was because He accepted that the Jerusalem Temple was the House of God.

May the Lord find His home in us and work in us! Amen!! Good morning, Peace be with you!!!