The reading for today was Mark 7:7-9, "In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition." He went on to say, "How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition!" Doesn't this look like it was written today? Doesn't this apply to the humanists of today who put aside all things Godly and want to focus on the world? You have to put aside the commandment of the Lord to allow the murder of innocent babies and have the audacity to call it abortion. You have to put aside the Lord's commandment when you describe the United States as a non-Christian nation. You have to put aside the commandments of the Lord when you force additional financial burdens on a people who are already hurting so badly that they are losing hope. As we move towards the Advent season, it is a good time to reflect on where we are in our spiritual journey. Are we worshiping God with our tongue but placing human precepts above all us? Have we become money chasers? Do we measure our worth by the size of our car, house and bank account? When we think of the commandments of the Lord, do we consider them optional? Do we think we can pick the ones we want to do and forget the rest? The mission of a Christian life is to get better each day. We should be striving to be like our brother Jesus while he was on earth. As a man walking the middle east, Jesus worked to make a difference in the world. He ignored the precepts of man in favor of his Holy Father's commandments. He created new traditions for us. He chose men to work with him that were unorthodox for the times (maybe even for now). I find it is often easier to look at the lives of the apostles for the inspiration to improve my life. After all, Jesus was and is perfect. How can we ever achieve this? We can't, but we can look to the apostles, who made mistakes yet Jesus still loved them. We can be doubters and Jesus will still love us. We can deny knowing him, ask for forgiveness and Jesus will welcome us back with loving arms. We can learn to praise Him with our tongue and our actions. We can learn to keep the Lord's commandments while we put aside the precepts of man. Now that is something we can focus on as we approach the holy Christmas season.