On this Labor Day weekend, with college and professional football leagues getting underway, a favorite American pastime can resume: armchair quarterbacking. This is an activity in which a spectator, watching from the comfort of his favorite chair at home, tells everyone else in the room what Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow or Josh Allen should do to march their offense down the field and into the end-zone. The armchair quarterback always thinks he knows better than the professionals who prepare and practice for hours and hours each week.

There is another favorite American pastime with a similar name: armchair psychologizing. This is an activity in which someone with no training attempts to diagnose the psychological problems of others. Whether we know it or not, our society’s collective way of thinking has been significantly shaped by the ideas and the language of modern psychology. Thus, as an example, many people throw around the acronym “OCD” — obsessive compulsive disorder. For instance, one may say: “My friend is constantly vacuuming her house. I am worried she has OCD.”

What would an armchair psychologist make of the description of the ritual practices that we heard in today’s Gospel? St. Mark tells us: “The Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.” (Mk 7:3–4) Armchair psychologists, and perhaps even some actual psychologists, may be inclined to describe this behavior as obsessive compulsive. They may say that such actions are external manifestations of interior guilt. In this case, modern psychology may confirm a reality that was already understood in bygone ages: our interior life, our thoughts, our feelings, and our consciences are often reflected in external, physical behaviors. Thus, having a sense of guilt due to sin may manifest itself in a desire to cleanse our bodies, our food, our cooking utensils, and so on.

It is important to remember, however, that many of the ritual purifications that Jews observed two thousand years ago were commanded by the Law of Moses. Scholastic theologians, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, divided the various prescriptions of that law into three categories: juridical precepts, moral precepts, and ceremonial precepts. (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I-II, Q.99) The juridical precepts regulated the relationships among the people of Israel, enumerating the duties of subjects toward rulers, children toward parents, and so forth. The moral precepts guided the ethical conduct of God’s people. The Ten Commandments are the most famous summary of these precepts. The ceremonial precepts indicated in great detail the rituals that the Jewish people had to carry out to worship God rightly. Ritual washings were part of these precepts. All the precepts of the Mosaic Law, juridical, moral, and ceremonial, were given by God for the flourishing of His chosen people. As Moses says in today’s First Reading: “What great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” (Dt 4:8) Thus, he warned the people carefully to observe all the commandments, without adding or subtracting anything.

Part of Christ’s criticism of the Pharisees was that they did not heed Moses’ warning. They added to and subtracted from the authentic precepts of the Mosaic Law. They compelled more burdensome ritual washings than those that were originally prescribed. Christ quotes the Prophet Isaiah in calling these “human precepts.” (Mk 7:7) The outward observance of these rites became the standard by which the Pharisees judged the validity of a person’s religious practice. They did not care if these rituals led those who observed them to love God more or to be sorrier for their sins. Without such interior movements of the soul, the ritual washings did not serve their authentic purpose. Moreover, even as the Pharisees promoted these empty ceremonies, they undermined the fulfilment of legitimate precepts of the law, such as the command to honor father and mother. (cf. Mk 7:10–12)

The early Church had to grapple with a question: to what extent are Christians bound to follow the precepts of the Law of Moses? Ultimately, it was determined that the moral precepts, especially as summarized in the Ten Commandments, retain all their force. The juridical and ceremonial precepts, however, are not binding upon Christians. Christ’s words in today’s Gospel helped the early Church in its discernment of this delicate issue. He says: “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.” (Mk 7:21–22) The ceremonial precepts of the Old Testament were meant to stir up sorrow within the heart for one’s transgressions and to express outwardly one’s expectation of the Messiah who would take away the sins of the world. The arrival of Christ marked the fulfillment or completion of those ceremonial precepts.

Christ’s critique of the rites of the Pharisees was not a condemnation of religious ritual in general. In fact, the life of the Church is centered around the sacraments, rituals instituted by Christ Himself that are distinct from and yet related to those observed in the Old Testament. These sacred signs cause the grace that they signify. They bring about a new spiritual reality within the souls of those who receive them. For instance, Baptism cleanses the soul from all sin and infuses divine charity. Every authentic spiritual practice in the Church flows from or returns us to the sacraments, particularly the greatest of them, the Eucharist.

The celebrant-in-chief of all the sacraments of the Church is Jesus Christ Himself. However, he chooses weak, imperfect ministers and recipients to become part of His own perfect worship. We who are privileged to be both ministers and recipients of the sacraments must be on guard against the attitude of the Pharisees that the Lord justly criticized. Outward rituals that are performed with no interior devotion become not only fruitless, but dangerous for those who perform them. Our exterior actions must instead reflect an interior love. This is especially true when we participate in Holy Mass and receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion. We must prepare ourselves well through prayer, through sorrow for our sins, and, if necessary, through sacramental confession.

In every age, the Lord provides generously for the people that He calls to be His own. Through Moses, He gave Israel the precepts that would guide them toward the Promised Land and prepare them for the coming of Christ. In our own age, He gives us the grace of the sacraments, especially of the Eucharist, to enliven our souls and keep them safe unto eternal life. May we always be grateful for these good and perfect gifts from above.

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