Fr. Eugene Lobo SJ –
Twenty Second Sunday of Ordinary Time – September 01, 2024
Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-8; James 1:17-18,21-22,27; Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23
The chief issues of our age are religious. They are about ultimate goal of life and to find true meaning of life and our final destiny. For many people who are engaged in such a search religion remains a self-search. Sometimes it leads to God and at others makes the person self-righteous. Every religion calls to a growth which is human and personal. It is strengthened in the loyalty of the person to the ultimate and is manifested in the service of our neighbors. Religion ultimately must find meaning to our life. The theme of today’s readings is the nature of true religion. Generally in a human society the laws are a necessary component. They are necessary for an ordered living and manifesting the best of relationships in society Mark in today’s Gospel shows what happens when the letter of the law is slavishly followed. The scribes and Pharisees criticize the disciples for their failure to observe the laws about washing of their hands. Jesus confronts the Scribes and Pharisees over what constitutes authentic piety and true obedience to the commandments of God. Jesus reminds us that important things are not the norms and rules but what is inside a person’s heart.
In the first Reading Moses draws the attention of the Israelites to all the good things God does for them. One such thing is the Law itself. It is not surely a burden but a gift from God offering them every advantage to remain in right relationship with God. The land was also a gift of God. From years in the desert they had learnt that the Promised Land could not be gained by mere human initiative. They were unable to get the land by conventional human means. God showed his fidelity to the covenant with them and gave them the land. They were told that if they failed in their fidelity to the Lord, they could lose the land altogether. The Israelites were told to pay attention to the statutes and ordinances so they may live, enter and occupy the Promised Land. As commanded by God, they were not to add or subtract anything from the commandments of God. This was mainly to ensure that the commandments would remain untouched from generation to generation. They were told that the rest of the nations would look at them in admiration.
In today’s Second Reading James tells the Christian community that every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above. He tells them that they are to be indebted to God for all the good things of mind and body they have received. All that is good, everything that is perfect is coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. God is totally dependable. Light is an image for the best gifts God could give. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. All good actions that we perform, we do so by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. God’s word of truth is a special gift inviting us to believe and put all our trust in him. God’s laws have not changed since the day of creation.
Almost from the beginning of Christ’s public preaching in Galilee, the Scribes and Pharisees were in opposition to him, while the multitudes of ordinary Jews followed him day in and day out. The Leaders accused him of blasphemy when he forgave the sins of the Paralytic. When the disciples ate the ears of corn from the field on Sabbath day they accused him of breaking the laws. They called him friend of tax collectors when he went to eat with Mathew the Tax Collector. In today’s Gospel the same Scribes and Pharisees accuse Jesus of breaking the custom and failing in religious duties as he permitted his disciples to eat without washing their hands. The episode began with what seems to be a deliberate violation of the purity of customs and the tradition of the elders regarding the washing of hands not observed by the disciples.
Mark in the Gospel gives an explanation of what the Jewish practice was, based on the tradition of the elders. Many commentators think that the explanation given by Mark may not have been historically accurate. The tradition of the elders perhaps had been the oral tradition. In any case for the Scribes and Pharisees this was a great opportunity to challenge Jesus and the disciples for not observing the customs of ritual purity. It is more a matter of hygiene and etiquette. The question here perhaps reflected the tensions in the early Christian community of Mark where some of the new Christians were Jews and some were Gentiles. The Gentiles did not follow Jewish customs and the Jewish Christians were upset. The purpose then was to put these Jewish customs in proper perspective. Washing hands before eating is a very sensible precaution and not to be a religious sanction.
Jesus therefore quotes from the prophet Isaiah about the people honoring God with their lips but their hearts remained far from the Divine. Their worship was useless, the doctrines they teach were mere human regulations and they put human traditions before the commandments of God. From here Jesus very assertively responded to the Scribes and Pharisees by saying that they substituted external rituals for authentic internal piety. They were caught up in their own human traditions that they lost all sight of what might be God’s actual commandments. Jesus firmly convinced that the purity laws and their related customs were created to serve human persons and not the other way round. Jesus objected the attitude of the Pharisees.
Jesus then addresses the larger crowd and reconfirms what he said to the Scribes and Pharisees. Authentic piety resulting in appropriate behaviour is not something that can be achieved from the observance of mere externals. Perfect observance of all purity laws does not make one pure. Authentic piety is first and foremost a matter of the heart. True obedience to the commandment of God must be based on one’s internal disposition. Jesus realizes that it is possible to be externally clean and look proper in every way but the same person may be internally corrupt. Jesus then speaks of the source of real uncleanness. The source of uncleanness is not any food or drink that comes from outside. Real uncleanness is in the heart. A person does not become “unclean” by eating forbidden meat or by coming in contact with blood, still less by not washing hands before eating but by “evil intentions” that arise in the depths of the heart: lust, stealing, murder, adultery, greed, maliciousness, deceit, jealousy, slanderous talk, arrogance.
This perfection of the Law consists in harmonizing the body and the soul, outward observances and interior worship. So, even if we Christians no longer observe the ordinances and customs of the old Law, we do not observe the new Law without accompanying our interior worship with outward and material practices, such as, for example, those we carry out periodically in liturgical worship. In particular, and this is something which comes directly from Jewish Tradition, we break the bread during each Eucharistic celebration, in order to express with an external sign our spiritual offering, which is united to the unique Sacrifice of Christ.It is important for us to associate interior worship and the outward practices of religion with each other: both are essential for our faith to be in perfect harmony.
We are called to be holy as our religion is holy. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father and we must say in favor of Pharisees that they insisted that God’s presence must be experienced not only in the Temple but in everyone’s everyday life and business. Since God is All-Holy, one needs to be holy to meet everyday presence. Jesus shared this insight saying that he had not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. For the Pharisees holiness included ritual cleanliness. Their intention was to extend the laws of ritual purity from priests to all Israelites who were considered a priestly people. Their difficulty was that this often had the effect of producing very legalistic type of religion.
A few years ago, a 24 year old boy seeing out from the train’s window shouted…“Dad, look the trees are going behind us!” As his Dad smiled, a young couple sitting nearby, looked at the 24 year Old’s childish behaviour with pity, when suddenly he again exclaimed…“Dad, look the clouds are running with us!” The couple couldn’t resist and said to the old man…“Why don’t you take your son to see a good doctor?” The old man smiled and said…“I did and we are just coming from the hospital, my son was blind from birth and he just got his eyes today.” Remember: Don’t judge people before you truly know them. The truth might surprise you.
A Siberian shaman asked God to show him a man that He loved. The Lord advised him to look for a certain farmer. “What do you do to make the Lord love you so much?” the shaman asked the farmer when he found him. “I say His name in the morning. I work all day and say His name before going to sleep. That’s all,” the farmer replied. I think I found the wrong man, thought the shaman. Just then the Lord appeared and said, “Fill a bowl with milk, and go to town and then return. You must do this without spilling a single drop.” The shaman did so. On his return, the Lord wanted to know how many times he had thought of Him. “How could I? I was worried not to spill the milk!” “A simple bowl made you forget me,” Lord said, “and the farmer with all his tasks, thinks of me twice a day.”