True Purity. Unclean Hands

8. Then the scribes and Pharisees who had come to Jerusalem approached Jesus and said to him, “Why do your disciples violate the tradition of the ancients, for they do not wash their hands when they eat their meals?”

But Jesus responded to them, “Why do you yourselves  violate the commandment of God in order to follow your tradition? Although God gave this commandment: Honor your father and mother; and this one: He who speaks outrageous words to his father or mother is to be put to death, you have said: Anyone who has said to his father or mother, ‘Every offering  that I make to God is useful to you and fulfills the law,’ even if afterward he neither honors nor helps his father or mother. Thus, you have made God’s commandment useless for the sake of your tradition.

“Hypocrites!  Isaiah rightly prophesied  about you  when he said, ‘These people honor me with their lips but their hearts remain far from me. And it is in vain that they honor me by teaching maxims and ordinances that come from men.’”

Then, having called the people, he said to them, “Hear and understand this well: It is not what enters the mouth that defiles the man, but what comes out of the mouth of the man. What comes out of the mouth  proceeds from the heart and is what makes the man unclean, for it is from the heart that evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, robberies, perjuries, blasphemies and slanders proceed. The things that make the man unclean are there; but eating without having washed one’s hands does not make a man unclean.”

Then his disciples approached and said to him, “Did you know that when the Pharisees heard what you just said, they were offended  by it?” But he answered them, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Leave them; they are the blind who lead the blind. If one blind man leads another, both fall into the pit.” (Mt. 15:1-20)

9. While he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him if he would dine with him in his home. And Jesus went there and took his place at the table. The Pharisee then began to say to himself, “Why did he not wash his hands before dinner?” But the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees take great care in washing the outside of the cup and plate. However, the inside of your heart is full of greed and iniquity. How  foolish you are! Did not he who made the outside also make  the inside?” (Lk.  11:37-40)