22nd.
Sunday (Year B)
(Deut.
4:1-2, 6-8; James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)
Moses was encouraging the People of Israel to enter and take possession of the land God was about to bestow upon them by giving them God’s Law whereby they might prosper in that land and give glory to Him Who had brought them thus far, through all their troubles and despite all their enemies:
What great nation is there that
has gods so close to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon
Him? Or what great nation has statutes
and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you
today?
Notice the priority given by Moses: first, the
closeness of Israel’s God whenever they
call upon Him; second, no nation has statutes and decrees so wise
and just as the law Moses is now giving Israel from their God. The relationship between God and His Chosen People
is determined first of all by the way His people relate to Him in their minds
and hearts, communing with Him and calling upon Him in all their needs;
secondly by their observance of the Law He has given them for their prosperity
and His Glory before the nations.
Let us now turn our attention to Jesus in His confrontation
with the Pharisees as we heard in the Gospel reading.
At that time the politically powerful Sadducees were, by the
grace of Rome, the authorities in charge of the internationally renowned Temple
worship in Jerusalem, but it was the Pharisees who were the popular spiritual
leaders in Israel – the Sadducees were aristocrats way above the ordinary
people, lords of all they saw and owned, while the Pharisees were much closer
to the peoples’ level, and they were most proud to be recognized as zealous for
observance of the Law of Moses rather than for the law of Rome. Nevertheless, the Law came down to them along
with a multitude of oral traditions from elders with the result that their
concern for the Law did not lead them to God so much as it made them ever, and ever
more, mindful of what their elders had said about the Law. They communed more with those elders in pride
of spirit than with God in humility of heart:
Jesus responded, “Well did Isaiah
prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honours 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
Then Jesus went on to show the absolute importance of that
inner turning to, communing with, God …. for only God, thus invited into men’s
hearts, could purify them and cleanse us:
From
within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft,
murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy,
arrogance, folly. All these evils come
from within and they defile.
The Law might regulate external behaviour, but only
communion with God in the heart could purify from inner defilement.
Even for Our Blessed Lady, who, as St. Luke (2:19) tells us:
Kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart,
that heartfelt loving communion with God had to be perfected
before she could follow her Son’s Ascension into heavenly glory: she received
the Gift of the Holy Spirit, to glorify her within and without in preparation for
her Assumption into heaven to be with her beloved Son.
And for us Catholics, obedience to the Church, regular
reception of the sacraments, will produce little where our heart is not open to
welcome and cherish the Gift of God’s Holy Spirit there. The Spirit is God’s Invisible Gift to each of
us, and only a personal, spiritual, response to His majesty and power, wisdom
and love, a response that God Himself sees and appreciates before ever it
strikes human eyes or ears, can provide a fitting return gift to God on our
part.
An ever-present -- usually secret -- sickness among not a
few Catholics who try to be worthy of the name, is a feeling of being burdened,
even suffocated, by recommendations, prescriptions, regulations, that seem to
threaten us with failings here, faults there, sins, indeed, which -- even when
small -- are considered to be significant because leading to others more
threatening and serious. It is a
sickness that results from spiritual ignorance and robs sincere religious
observance of any spontaneous joy.
Where is the freedom of which St. Paul spoke so ardently:
For freedom Christ set us free;
so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery? (Galatians 5:1)
How can it be that when the Christian life for some seems
so unfree, oppressive, that St. John can write:
No one who is begotten by God
commits sin, because God’s seed remains in him. (1 John 3:9)
Such an anomaly is due to that against which Moses warned
the People of Israel, that about which Jesus accused the precious and
proud Pharisees: it is something that for today’s more humble and sincere
Catholic sufferers might be described as ‘taking one’s eye off the ball’.
For Christians are not meant to struggle alone in their
imitation of Jesus; we are called and expected to allow the Spirit of Jesus to
guide us along the way He alone knows, even to carry us – unknown to ourselves
-- along that way. We are not
meant to be ever looking out for sins and occasions of sin: rather we are
intended to keep our minds on God who is our Father, really and truly, our
Father Who wants to show Himself as such for us. We should fix our hearts on Jesus Who died
for love us and rose in glory for us; we should set our hopes on the Holy
Spirit of Jesus, given to us, the Spirit Who will form us secretly indeed
but sublimely in an authentic likeness of Jesus for the Father.
People of God, we are not called to be rich in worldly consolations
and satisfactions: we are believers whose faith and provisional experience of
God are strong enough to fill us with a desire for that of which Jesus has
spoken and for which He has given us His promise. We are not individuals confident in our own
ability and strength: we are called to be disciples who find our comfort and
strength in the Spirit Jesus has given us and the hope which He inspires within
us. Above all we are children; children
of God who know most surely that there is a Father Who has already spoken to
us, and Who is still drawing us to Jesus; a Father Whom Jesus has assured us we
can, in Him, call ‘Our Father’, a Father Whose heavenly kingdom will be our
eternal home.
We are a people called to gratitude for God’s innumerable
blessings and gifts, not to complaisance in our own achievements; a people called
to confidence in His goodness, not to pride in our own self-sufficiency; a people
called to aspire to and hope for the supreme joy of His loving presence, not to
selfish anxiety and fear for our present freedom from trial and trouble, and the
certainty of our future eternal safety.
Dear People of God, let us learn in prayer to look for and
praise God’s wondrous beauty; re-discover and constantly remember His many
blessing to you personally over the years; and never be surprised at His
enduring and ever-erupting goodness in your lives.
