Eleventh Sunday of Autumn

Gospel Reading

The Scribes and Pharisees asked him: Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? Because they don't wash their hands when they eat bread. And he said to them, Why do you transgress God's commandment by your tradition? For God has said: Honor your father and your mother; and: Whoever curses his father or mother, shall die the death. But you, you say: whoever says to his father or mother: whatever I offer to God is useful to you, whoever does not honor his father or mother, and you destroy God's commandment by your tradition. Hypocrites, Isaiah prophesied well of you, saying: this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me and vain, and their worship of me teaches doctrines and human ordinances;
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Then, addressing the people, Ieshu said to them: Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth. Then his disciples came to him and said: Do you know that your words have scandalized the Pharisees? But he said to them, Leave them alone; they are blind leading the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, they will both fall into the pit.

'The Parable of the Blind' by Sebastiaen Vrancx, 17th century.