In today's Gospel reading (Mk.7:1-8), we see Jesus responding to the charges leveled against the disciples by the Pharisees concerning the ceremorial washing of hands. Jesus took up the wider perspective of obedience to God's will and focused on it in sharp contrast with the blind obedience of the externals and legalistic approach to life. Even in the practice of Corban (semitic word which means an offering or a gift made to God), the Pharisees used it as a subtle way of nullifying God's commandments.

For Jesus, laws, customs and practices have only one purpose: they are meant for the well-being of the people. He tells us that we are to observe traditions only if they embody gospel values such as justice, equality and love. We must not allow human traditions to supersede the divine law of love. We need to attain interior 'purity' so as to be Christ's true followers. It is then that we can be like King Solomon as revealed in his prayer before God as in the first reading.