Laws are good. We need them. Without them our society would descend into chaos. But laws should not become ends in themselves. Laws are for people and not vice versa. If we reduce religion simply to the observance of certain external rituals and observances, we are missing the whole point. As Jesus says today nothing going into the body can make it religiously unclean but rather what comes out in the way of hating and violent and unloving behaviour. It is stealing, murder, adultery, greed, slandering others and the like that makes a person 'unclean'.

In striking contrast to what the Pharisees and scribes were saying to Jesus, James in the Second Reading says: "Pure, unspoilt religion in the eyes of God our Father is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows when they need it, and keeping oneself uncontaminated from the world" (that is, from the spirit of the "Godless world"). This is true religion because "as often as you did or/did not do it to one of the least of my brothers and sisters you did or/did not do it to ME".