A Homily – The Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-8

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 14(15):2-5

Second Reading – James 1:17-18,21-22,27

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

Alternative Acclamation – James 1:18

The Gospel According to Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 ©     

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 God, the creator of the universe, God does not distribute lands among the people, neither does God play favorites among the tribes and nations. Our laws, as we have them, including the laws we find in various religious texts, are not the laws of God, they are the laws of human beings.

 God is not the law giver, God is not a king or emperor, God is not a God of battles, anything predicated on such notions should be rejected.

 Know this.

 God dwells in the heart of every person, and where God is present, God is present fully. At the end of all things, all of God’s children will have returned to the divine. God forgets no-one and God loves us all, each and every one of us…even the worst of us, and while a just life is its own reward, both the just and the unjust are loved by God.

 Remember.

 The quest for primacy of place should never be the impetus for an expression of faith. Love is the law of God; therefore love God with all your strength, and all your heart, and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

 This is the way.

 Serve God through the service you provide to your neighbors, your mother and father, your sisters and brothers, even the stranger among you...including your adversary.

 Love is the law.

 Consider what John has to say about Peter:

 He shares with us Peter’s thoughts, and he would have us believe that he follows Jesus because Jesus has the secret message that grants passage to its holder, to the path that leads to eternal life. John wants us to believe that this is the purpose of the gospel, acquiring the secret, and that if we acquire it and believe it---that Jesus is the “Holy One of God” we will hold the key and subsequently receive the gift of eternal life.

 John asks us to believe that God (the Father) parcels out access to Jesus (the Son), and the Spirit of truth, which leads to the reality of life everlasting, that God regulates who will and who will not be granted access, admitting some while refusing others.

 This scheme is false, it is emblematic of the con-artist’s faith, not a teacher of the way.

 This is the Gospel:

 God loves you and you are saved already. You are not saved for anything that you have done, you did not earn it; you are saved because God loves you and for no other reason.

 It is as simple as this.

 You are not saved on account of some choice you make, just as you did not choose to be born. You were born, and God loves you and you are saved because of this.

 The promise of salvation is not that you will be spared from suffering and torment in hell, or that when you are judged God will forgive you.

 God has already forgiven you, God accepted you from the moment you came into being, at that moment your status as a child of God was fixed, and your destiny certain. God has prepared you, and everyone for eternal life.

 Believe it!

 Let the goodness of the divine promise flow through you, start living this life as if it were true.

 This is the way.

 We are not called to believe in the idea that Jesus is this or that, the Holy One of God, we are called to act on the principles of his faith, to live lives of charity and service to each other.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today; it speaks to us of the challenges we face in our time, by telling us something of the challenges the Gospel writers faced in their own time. It speaks to us of a perennial problem in the Church, such as the hypocrisy of leadership.

 The hierarchy today; priests and pastors, bishops and cardinals, are often more concerned with outward expressions of piety, with measureable matters of ritual purity, with creeds and codes, canons and confessions, with the formulae of belief, rather than the living faith. This is a problem that has plagued the Church from its inception.

  Jesus cared about the living faith, he cared about the real lives of real people. Everything Jesus did in his ministry was subordinated to that…all the way to his arrest, torture, conviction and murder.

 We are called on to do the same, though not all of us are called to the same bitter end. Jesus calls us to share his perspective and approach the world with the same spirit of love.

 Remember!

 Each and every one of us is a child of God, and God is present in the heart of all of God’s children; in this way God is already present to God’s people. It may be the case that the rituals the Church has organized for purification (symbolic though they are), may have some social value. However, if they are used to teach people that without the ritual a person is unworthy of the presence of God, then these performances are merely false teachings and must be rejected by the people. 

 

First Reading – Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-8

Observe these Laws and Customs, that You May Have Life

Moses said to the people: ‘Now, Israel, take notice of the laws and customs that I teach you today, and observe them, that you may have life and may enter and take possession of the land that the Lord the God of your fathers is giving you. You must add nothing to what I command you, and take nothing from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God just as I lay them down for you. Keep them, observe them, and they will demonstrate to the peoples your wisdom and understanding. When they come to know of all these laws they will exclaim, “No other people is as wise and prudent as this great nation.” And indeed, what great nation is there that has its gods so near as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call to him? And what great nation is there that has laws and customs to match this whole Law that I put before you today?’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 14(15):2-5

Who is Worthy to Face the Lord?

Neither overcome by toil, nor to be overcome by death, this great man did not fear to die, nor was he unwilling to live.

Alleluia, alleluia!

Lord, who will live in your tent?

  Who will dwell on your holy mountain?

Whoever comes there without stain,

  acts rightly, speaks truth in his heart.

Whoever does not speak deceitfully,

  or do harm to his neighbour, or slander him.

Whoever despises the evil-doer,

  but reveres those who fear the Lord.

Whoever swears and keeps his word, come what may

 – lends his money without usury –

  takes no bribe to condemn the innocent.

Whoever lives like this

  will stand firm for ever.

Amen.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – James 1:17-18,21-22,27

Accept and Submit to the Word

It is all that is good, everything that is perfect, which is given us from above; it comes down from the Father of all light; with him there is no such thing as alteration, no shadow of a change. By his own choice he made us his children by the message of the truth so that we should be a sort of first-fruits of all that he had created.

  Accept and submit to the word which has been planted in you and can save your souls. But you must do what the word tells you, and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves.

  Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows when they need it, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63,68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – James 1:18

Alleluia, alleluia!

By his own choice the Father made us his children by the message of the truth, so that we should be a sort of first-fruits of all that he created.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 ©

You Put Aside the Commandment of God, to Cling to Human Traditions

The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus, and they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. For the Pharisees, and the Jews in general, follow the tradition of the elders and never eat without washing their arms as far as the elbow; and on returning from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling themselves. There are also many other observances which have been handed down to them concerning the washing of cups and pots and bronze dishes. So these Pharisees and scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not respect the tradition of the elders but eat their food with unclean hands?’

 He answered, ‘It was of you hypocrites that Isaiah so rightly prophesied in this passage of scripture:

This people honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me. The worship they offer me is worthless, the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.

You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.’ He called the people to him again and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.’

 

A Homily – The Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)