God created the world with all kinds of living creatures and blessed them. Then God made us in his image and gave us dominion over his creation. Giving a body, soul and spirit, God created us to have a loving relationship with him and each other. There was no evil, only beauty, in the world that God made. Then sin entered into the human heart. Throughout history many laws and traditions were added to make people obey God and live right with each other. Sadly in the process the love relationship between God and people was lost. In the Gospel proclamation, Jesus rejects the Pharisaic tradition surrounding the law’s observance and warns against substituting human teachings for divine commandments and using the law as a way to escape from one’s obligations. We can perform rituals and externally observe the traditions and laws of the Church while our hearts are cold internally. If we have lost our way, let us pray that the loving relationship between God and us and between each other would be restored.

Prayer: Abba Father, incline my heart to your divine law, to love you and love others. Amen.