Now is my way clear

now is the meaning plain:
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
Thomas Becket in "Murder in the Cathedral" by T. S. Eliot

Tomorrow is the beginning of Lent: a time of many traditions and practices – some personal, some ancient.

Just as we are all ready to begin, however, we hear the following words of our Lord in today’s Gospel:

"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.

You disregard God's commandment
but cling to human tradition."

The specific traditions and practices our Lord was addressing were hand washing before meals and dedicating assets to God: ostensibly good things, but done for wrong reasons.

None of us are exempt from this warning. We may think ourselves free of ancient traditions and rubrics, and yet over the years we may have forged our own habits, rituals, and traditions on which we are now just gliding along.

What we do this Lent should be more than just a custom, even a pious custom. We need to take Lent as an opportunity to draw closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not just in our words and rituals, but in our hearts and everyday actions.