1 Kings 8 : 22-23, 27-30 / Mark 7 : 1-13 (2024)
An atheist is defined as a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.
In other words, an atheist is one who does not believe in the existence of God.
A story goes that an atheist asked a Christian this : Show me where God is and I will give u a hundred dollars.
The Christian replied : Show me where He is not, and I will give you a million dollars.
Well, the atheist and the believer can argue all day long but for King Solomon in the 1st reading, the question of the existence of God is beyond argument.
For him, the existence and the presence of God is so enormous that even the heavens cannot contain God, much less the magnificent Temple that he has built.
So the presence of God is everywhere, and His commandments are valid anytime.
But human beings have this ability to manipulate God's commandments to serve their own vested interests.
In the gospel, Jesus gave a few examples of how human traditions can make God's commandments look small and restrictive.
Hence, we too need to reflect and examine our own practices and traditions.
Our practices and traditions should not make people frown and belittle our faith.
Rather, our faith practices and religious customs and traditions show others that we truly believe that God is present everywhere and loving us all the time.