Mt 15:1-2, 10-14
1Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash [their] hands when they eat a meal.” 10He summoned the crowd and said to them, “Hear and understand. 11It is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.” 12Then his disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” 13He said in reply, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14Let them alone; they are blind guides [of the blind]. If a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a pit.”
Reflection:
Let them alone. The scribes and Pharisees always have a complaint about Jesus. They are at his back, waiting for a mistake or a wrong word they can use against him. Even the disciples are worried that the Pharisees have taken offense. And what is Jesus’ reaction? “Let them alone.”
I like that attitude. We are so burdened about what others will say, how others will take the things we do, or how we may offend the powers that be. Let them alone. I am not saying we do whatever we wish and to hell with others’ feelings. There are basic standards and common cultural ways of approaching new things. But I would rather commit a mistake doing good acts than be adamant about a wrong stance. What will remain in the end are the good deeds planted by the Lord. What he did not plant will be uprooted.
Let your kids and your family alone today.
Do not always be at their backs.