February 10, 2026
Memorial of Saint
Scholastica, Virgin
Lectionary: 330
Reading
1
Solomon stood
before the altar of the LORD
in the presence of the whole community of Israel,
and stretching forth his hands toward heaven,
he said, “LORD, God of Israel,
there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below;
you keep your covenant of mercy with your servants
who are faithful to you with their whole heart.
“Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?
If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you,
how much less this temple which I have built!
Look kindly on the prayer and petition of your servant, O LORD, my God,
and listen to the cry of supplication which I, your servant,
utter before you this day.
May your eyes watch night and day over this temple,
the place where you have decreed you shall be honored;
may you heed the prayer which I, your servant, offer in this place.
Listen to the petitions of your servant and of your people Israel
which they offer in this place.
Listen from your heavenly dwelling and grant pardon.”
Responsorial
psalm
R. (2) How
lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
O God, behold our shield,
and look upon the face of your anointed.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Incline my heart, O God, to your decrees;
and favor me with your law.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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 with unclean hands?"
He responded,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
In vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."
He went on to say,
"How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
'If someone says to father or mother,
"Any support you might have had from me is qorban"'
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021026.cfm
Commentary on 1
Kings 8:22-23,27-30
Having asked for wisdom in governing, Solomon now prays for
himself and all the people. He begins with the covenant principle of mutual
faithfulness—God towards his people, the people towards their God. God’s
kindness to his people flows from the covenant made with Moses at Sinai, but it
is conditional on their faithfulness. This is the core of the covenant
agreement. In this passage there are two applications: Yahweh has kept his
promise by the building of the Temple; may he keep it also in preserving the
stability of the dynasty.
Solomon makes his prayer publicly in the presence of all the
people. He begins by indicating the uniqueness of the God of Israel. No other
god has acted in history as has the God of Israel, performing great miracles
and so directing the course of events so that his long-range covenant promises
are fulfilled. Yahweh has kept his promises to the people, who for their part
are faithful to him with their whole heart. Of course, the second part is not
completely true; the Old Testament is full of incidents where the people
violated their side of the covenant. In particular, Yahweh has honoured his
promises to Solomon’s father, David, and their fulfilment is seen in the
Temple, which David had been told would become a reality in Solomon’s reign
(this last statement from v24 is not in today’s reading).
Solomon then speaks in wonder at how a God, for whom the
heavens themselves are not big enough, can contain himself within the confines
of the Temple that Solomon has built in his honour:
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and
the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!
This is an idea which some of those who followed Solomon in
later times tended to forget.
The construction of the Temple and the appearance of a
visible manifestation of the presence of God within its courts could, and did
in fact, give rise to the idea that God was irreversibly and exclusively bound
to the Temple in a way that guaranteed his assistance to Israel, no matter how
the people lived. Solomon, however, had recognised that, even though God had
chosen to dwell among his people in a special and localised way, he far
transcended being contained by any created thing, however magnificent.
Solomon concludes his prayer by begging God to continue to
watch over the Temple and to listen to his prayers and those of all the people
“when they pray toward this place”. When an Israelite was unable to pray in the
Temple itself, he was to direct his prayers towards the place where God had
pledged to be present among his people.
In our churches, too, we can wonder how the God of the whole
universe can be so specially present in our tabernacles. This is a marvellous
source of comfort for us and we should use all the opportunities we can to
‘drop in’ for a visit and ask Jesus to be part of our lives, our work, our
families, our day.
At the same time, we can reflect that Jesus’ sacramental
presence in the tabernacle is a reminder of his real presence in all the people
we meet and in all the experiences we have. Every person, every place, every
experience is a sacrament of God’s loving presence. Even when we are far from
any church, Jesus is close to us. Let us be close to him.
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Commentary on Mark
7:1-13
A group of self-righteous scribes and Pharisees come to
Galilee from Jerusalem to observe Jesus. Obviously, word has reached Jerusalem
about what Jesus has been doing up in Galilee. They immediately notice that
Jesus and his disciples do not observe some of the “traditions of the elders”,
especially with regard to the washing of hands before eating. These traditions
were a body of highly detailed, but unwritten human laws, which the scribes and
Pharisees regarded as having the same binding force as the Law of Moses. Paul
admits to having been a fanatical upholder of these traditions (see Gal 1:14).
It is hard not to come to the conclusion that many of these
observances were originally based on practical experience. Eating without
washing one’s hands could be a source of sickness, although they knew nothing
about germs or bacteria. Because sometimes it could be diseased, eating pork
made some people seriously sick, so the meat was banned altogether. But in
order to ensure these hygienic requirements would be observed, they were linked
to a religious sanction. Violating them was not just bad for your health, but a
violation of God’s will. In the thinking of the Jewish leaders, to ignore them
was to disobey God.
Clearly Jesus was not against the washing of hands as such,
even as a religious observance. What he was against was the legalism by which
the mere observance of some external actions was equated with being a devout
lover of God. He quotes from the prophet Isaiah:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines. (Is 29:13)
The real commandments of God, like unconditional love of the
neighbour, are neglected in favour of what are purely human traditions. Jesus
illustrates the hypocrisy involved by showing how some supposedly devout people
got around the basic responsibility of respect for parents (which the Mosaic
law demanded) by claiming that they had consecrated all they owned to God and
the Temple, while in fact keeping it for their own use. The Corban (or Qorban in
some translations) was a way of supposedly making a gift to God by an offering
to the Temple, but in such a way that the donor could continue to use it for
himself and not give it to others, even needy parents. This is like the story
about the pastor who said, “Each week I throw all the collection up in the air
for God. What stays up, he keeps; the rest comes to me”.
We sometimes meet Catholics who confuse the essential
service of God with some religious rule. They judge people by whether they eat
fish on Friday or not. They piously go through all kinds of devotional
exercises, but their conversation is full of gossip and destructive criticism
of others.
Others get tied down by scruples (“Did I say my penance
after Confession?”) when the more important question would be, “Did I change my
behaviour?” or “How did I keep my promise not to repeat the same sins?” Some
ask: “Did I observe the full hour of fasting before Communion?” when the more
important issue would be, “Does my going to Communion bring me closer to God
and make me a more loving person with others?”
There can be a bit of the Pharisee in all of us, and that is
the real subject of the teaching today. We will be judged by the depth of our
love and nothing else.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o2053g/
Tuesday,
February 10, 2026
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father, watch over Your family and keep us safe in
Your care, for all our hope is in You. We ask this through our Lord Jesus
Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God,
forever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Mark 7: 1-13
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 with unclean hands?" He responded, "Well did
Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me
with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God's commandment but cling
to human tradition." He went on to say, "How well you have set aside
the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! For Moses said, Honor
your father and your mother, and whoever curses father or mother shall die. Yet
you say, “If someone says to father or mother, ‘Any support you might have had
from me is ‘qorban’ (meaning,
dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. You
nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And
you do many such things."
Reflection
The Gospel today speaks
about the religious traditions of that time and of the Pharisees who taught
this tradition to the people, for example, to eat without washing their hands,
as they said, “to eat with impure hands.” Many of these traditions were
separated from life and had lost their significance. But even if this was the
state of things, these traditions were kept and taught, either because of fear
or because of superstition. The Gospel presents some instructions of Jesus
concerning these traditions.
•
Mark 7: 1-2: Control of the Pharisees and
liberty of the disciples. The Pharisees and some, who had come from Jerusalem,
observed how the disciples of Jesus ate bread with impure hands. Here there are
three points which deserve to be highlighted: a) They were from Jerusalem, from
the capital city! This means that they had come to observe and to control what
Jesus did. b) The disciples do not wash their hands before eating! This means
that being with Jesus impels them to have the courage to transgress the norms
which tradition imposed on the people, but that no longer had any sense, any
meaning for life. c) The practice of washing hands, which up until now
continues to be an important norm of hygiene, had assumed for them a religious
significance which served to control and discriminate against people.
•
Mark 7: 3-4: The Tradition of the Ancients. The
Tradition of the Ancients transmitted norms which had to be observed by the
people in order to have the purity required by the Law. The observance of the
Law was a very serious matter for the people of that time. They thought that an
impure person could not receive the blessings promised by God to Abraham. The
norms on purity were taught in order to open the way to God, source of peace.
In reality, instead of being a source of peace, the norms constituted a prison,
slavery. For the poor, it was practically impossible to observe the hundreds of
norms, of traditions and of laws. For this reason, they were considered
ignorant and damned persons who did not know the Law (Jn 7: 49).
•
Mark 7: 5: The scribes and the Pharisees criticize
the behavior of Jesus’ disciples. The scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus, zWhy do
Your disciples not behave according to the tradition of the Ancients and eat
the bread with impure hands? They think that they are interested in knowing the
reason for the disciples’ behavior. In reality, they criticize Jesus because He
allows the disciples to transgress the norms of purity. The Pharisees formed a
type of confraternity, the principal concern of which was to observe all the
laws of purity. The were responsible for the doctrine. They taught the laws
relative to the observance of purity.
•
Mark 7: 6-13 Jesus criticizes the inconsistency
of the Pharisees. Jesus answers quoting Isaiah: “This people approach me only
in words, honors me only with lip service, while their hearts are far from me”
(cf. Is 29: 13). Insisting on the norms of purity, the Pharisees emptied the
content of the commandments of God’s Law. Jesus quotes a concrete example. They
said, “The person who offers his goods to the Temple cannot use these goods to
help those in greater need.” Thus, in the name of tradition they emptied the
fourth commandment of its content, which commands to love father and mother.
These people seem to be very observant, but they are only so externally. In
their heart, they remain far away from God. As the hymn says, “His name is
Jesus Christ and is hungry, and lives out on the sidewalk. And people when they
pass by, sometimes do not stop, because they are afraid to arrive late to
church!” At the time of Jesus, people in their wisdom were not in agreement
with everything they were taught. They were hoping that one day the Messiah
would come to indicate another way to attain purity. In Jesus this hope becomes
a reality.
Personal Questions
•
Do you know any religious tradition today which
does not make much sense, but which continues to be taught?
•
The Pharisees were practicing Jews, but their
faith was divided, separated from the life of the people. This is why Jesus
criticizes them. Would Jesus criticize us today? For what things?
Concluding Prayer
Our Lord, how majestic is Your name
throughout the world! I look up at Your heavens, shaped by Your fingers,
at the moon and the stars You set
firm— what are human beings that You spare a thought for them, or the child of
Adam that you care for him? (Ps 8: 1, 3-4)
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