Reading 1, Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8

¹ 'And now, Israel, listen to the laws and customs which I am teaching you today, so that, by observing them, you may survive to enter and take possession of the country which Yahweh, God of your ancestors, is giving you.

² You must add nothing to what I command you, and take nothing from it, but keep the commandments of Yahweh your God just as I lay them down for you.

⁶ Keep them, put them into practice, and other peoples will admire your wisdom and prudence. Once they know what all these laws are, they will exclaim, "No other people is as wise and prudent as this great nation!"

⁷ And indeed, what great nation has its gods as near as Yahweh our God is to us whenever we call to him?

⁸ And what great nation has laws and customs as upright as the entirety of this Law which I am laying down for you today?

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5

² Whoever lives blamelessly, who acts uprightly, who speaks the truth from the heart,

³ who keeps the tongue under control, who does not wrong a comrade, who casts no discredit on a neighbour,

⁴ who looks with scorn on the vile, but honours those who fear Yahweh, who stands by an oath at any cost,

⁵ who asks no interest on loans, who takes no bribe to harm the innocent. No one who so acts can ever be shaken.

Gospel, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

¹ The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered round him,

² and they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them.

³ For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, keep the tradition of the elders and never eat without washing their arms as far as the elbow;

⁴ and on returning from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling themselves. There are also many other observances which have been handed down to them to keep, concerning the washing of cups and pots and bronze dishes.

⁵ So the Pharisees and scribes asked him, 'Why do your disciples not respect the tradition of the elders but eat their food with unclean hands?'

⁶ He answered, 'How rightly Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites in the passage of scripture: This people honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me.

⁷ Their reverence of me is worthless; the lessons they teach are nothing but human commandments.

⁸ You put aside the commandment of God to observe human traditions.'

¹⁴ He called the people to him again and said, 'Listen to me, all of you, and understand.

¹⁵ Nothing that goes into someone from outside can make that person unclean; it is the things that come out of someone that make that person unclean.

²¹ For it is from within, from the heart, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder,

²² adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly.

²³ All these evil things come from within and make a person unclean.'

Reading 2, James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27

¹⁷ all that is good, all that is perfect, is given us from above; it comes down from the Father of all light; with him there is no such thing as alteration, no shadow caused by change.

¹⁸ By his own choice he gave birth to us by the message of the truth so that we should be a sort of first-fruits of all his creation.

²¹ so do away with all impurities and remnants of evil. Humbly welcome the Word which has been planted in you and can save your souls.

²² But you must do what the Word tells you and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves.

²⁷ Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father, is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows in their hardships, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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