Note: I am taking the day off and will be covering breaking news tomorrow for the holiday. Enjoy this reflection on the same passages from 2021, one of my favorites.
This morning’s Gospel reading is Mark 7:1–8, 14–15, 21–23:
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. —For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.— So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal…
