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Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

September 01, 2024

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Introit

Kyrie

Gloria

Collect

God of might, giver of every good gift,
put into our hearts the love of your name,
so that, by deepening our sense of reverence,
you may nurture in us what is good
and, by your watchful care,
keep safe what you have nurtured.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading Dt 4:1-2,6-8

Moses spoke to the people; he said: 1 “So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you. 6 “You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’ 7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? 8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?”

Responsorial Psalm Ps 15:2-3,3-4,4-5

R. The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.

Second Reading Jas 1:17-18,21b-22,27

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfilment 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. 21 Welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Alleluia Jas 1:18

Gospel Mk 7:1-8,14-15,21-23

When the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles. 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 Jesus said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ 8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” 14 Then Jesus called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile. 21 “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, 22 avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 “All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Catena Nova

The Pharisees claimed that the traditions of their elders safeguarded the law, but in fact it contravened the law Moses had given. By saying: “Your merchants mix water with the wine,” Isaiah shows that the elders mixed their watery tradition with God’s strict commandment....By their transgression they not only falsified God’s law, mixing water with the wine, but they also set against it their own law, called to this day the Pharisaic law. In this their rabbis suppress some of the commandments, add new ones, and give others their own interpretation, thus making the law serve their own purposes. Their desire to justify these traditions kept them from submitting to God’s law that taught them about the coming of Christ. Instead, they even found fault with the Lord for healing on the sabbath, which was not forbidden by the law, for in a sense the law itself healed by causing circumcision to be performed on the sabbath. On the other hand, they found no fault with themselves for breaking God’s commandment by their tradition and the Pharisaic law just mentioned, or for lacking the essence of the law, which is love for God. That this is the first and greatest commandment, the second being love of our neighbor, the Lord taught by saying that the whole of the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments....Without love all are vain and profitless. Love on the other hand perfects a person and one who loves God is perfect both in this world and the next, for we shall never stop loving God—the longer we gaze upon him the more our love for him will grow (St. Irenaeus of Lyons).

All our religion is but a false religion, and all our virtues are mere illusions and we ourselves are only hypocrites in the sight of God, if we have not that universal charity for everyone – for the good, and for the bad, for the poor and for the rich, and for all those who do us harm as much as those who do us good (St. John Vianney).

Nothing is so easy as to be religious on paper (St. John Henry Newman)

The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted: precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden (GK Chesterton).

At the Last Judgment I will not be asked whether I satisfactorily practised asceticism, nor how many bows I have made before the divine altar: I will be asked whether I fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick, and the prisoner in his jail. That is all I will be asked (St. Maria of Paris).

This power of being outwardly genial and inwardly austere, which is the real Christian temper, depends entirely upon the time set apart for personal religion. It is always achieved if courageously and faithfully sought; and there are no heights of love and holiness to which it cannot lead (Evelyn Underhill).

Put yourself for a moment in Jesus’ place when the Pharisees criticize him for letting his disciples ignore some of Israel’s many purity regulations. Today we still hear concern about washing one’s hands before eating. How would you reply? In effect, Jesus reminds his critics that purity is important only as it keeps one’s heart fixed on God and entrusts all one’s mind and heart and life to God. Yes, but isn’t that what one does in observing purity regulations? God gave them to us through our ancestors and sages and we do them, whether or not we see a deeper meaning in them, simply to obey God in every way and time and place! But, Jesus adds, you are forgetting things like justice; i.e., like treating others as you want people to treat you—respecting and caring for them and treating them fairly. Are you praying to cover up the fact you are robbing widows of the little they have to live on? You see, actually you often treat religious customs as though they were more important than justice. God has not only called you to love him with all your mind and heart and life but also to love your neighbors, and love them as God loves them. Unless your religious customs help you do this in deed and not just in thought you are not loving God but pretending to love God while you spend your time and energy on trying to build up yourself and make yourself more important socially. Do you want others to honor you or do you seek your honor from God? You seem to use a pretended honoring of God as a means to get honor from other people. We are as God sees us. What’s wrong about seeking “human respect” is that it gets us into the habit of asking, “What will others think?” and forgetting to ask, “What will God think?” We are commanded to help one another. That means helping one another put God first and showing love for one another in ways that helps them to put God first. As you observe customs of courtesy and mutual respect do you do this in ways that help all concerned recall God’s love for us and our need to love God by loving each other so that we all go steadily toward God and God’s Kingdom? (Ronald Knox)

Homily

A priest friend of mine is an official in a neighboring diocese. When his bishop sent him off to study canon law, he was heard to remark, “I hope he will be able to apply church law in a pastoral manner.” Now that usually means invoking something called epikeia: “a restrictive interpretation of positive law based on the benign will of the legislator who would not want to bind his subjects in certain circumstances” (encyclopedia.com). In other words, because human law is imperfect by its very nature, including canon law, exceptions can and should be entertained. That’s one reasons Roman law, after which church law in the West is modeled, foresees the possibility of dispensation unlike Anglo-Saxon traditions which may admit extenuating circumstances but not outright suspension of law. And I have no doubt my friend is a pastoral canonist. Still, what’s a Pharisee to do with those 623 prescriptions of the Mosaic Law they used to govern every aspect of human life?

Well, it seems Jesus too was an advocate of epikeia when it came to things he judged mere human traditions while being clear that the divine commandments were not up for grabs. But telling the difference was a bone of contention with his fellow Jews since the question of what counts, and doesn’t count, in religion can be a very touchy subject.

Like when a previous generation of Catholics with delicate consciences might have been bothered to the point of scruples like the following question from a 1946 University of Notre Dame Religious Bulletin about the formerly stringent Communion fast which did not allow even water from midnight before receiving:

Question: "Does cleaning the teeth before receiving Holy Communion break the fast? I know that some water remains in my mouth?"

Reply: "Brushing the teeth before Communion is even recommended, not only for sanitary purposes but also as part of the preparation of the body for the reception of Our Blessed Lord The fact that the flavor of the toothpaste or powder and the moisture remains after rinsing out the mouth does not break the fast. It is permitted to swallow one's saliva, and the few drops of mouth-rinse or water or some manufactured preparation, like Listerine, that remain become part of the saliva, Only when one is certain that a quantity of liquid, too great to become saliva, has been swallowed, must he remain away from Communion. If a doubt arises as to whether you swallowed enough water to break a fast, take advantage of the doubt and receive Communion."

For those interested in current preoccupations under a more relaxed canonical regime one may consult Canon Law Made Easy at the eponymous .com web address. Of course, there are indubitable matters in church law of supreme importance to the life of the church even when keeping in mind the very last canon's declaration that "the salvation of souls…must always be the supreme law in the Church." On the other hand, one might be forgiven for thinking some of the canons lend themselves all too easily to pharisaical quibbling. (I will refrain from suggesting which ones).

But even where the matter is of some importance, I would still appeal to Jesus’ argument with the Pharisees: Be careful you’re not quibbling about merely human traditions and getting all hung up on the outward observances of religion while forgetting how much more important the things that come . . . from within are. Where the really offensive stuff comes from: evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from within and they truly defile (G). (Those of of us who attend weekday Mass have been treated this past week to Jesus' even more antagonism toward the Pharisees in the 23rd Chapter of Matthew's gospel — one of my favorites.)

Of course, arguing what we must and must not do that, lest our religion be spoiled, will always have on one side a claim to tradition insisting the church will lose its footing without a clear Catholic identity, like the Law gave to the Jews, making them a great nation, renowned for their wisdom and intelligence (cf. I). And on the other side a claim to relevance or some new insight with the warning the church must keep pace with the times lest the power of religion to save wane altogether and the church ends up being little more than a museum.

Mind you, such conflicting claims between tradition and progress fuel church history down to the present time with a variety of dissenting voices arguing over a host of issues. And I often wonder what Jesus would say about the Catholic conflicts raging today. What issues he would say really matter, and what don’t. How he would separate wheat from chaff in the controversies that divide us, the ones that make us suspect the good faith of fellow believers.

Personally, I think that to Catholic pharisees – who can be found, by the way, among champions of both tradition and progress alike -- Jesus might quote the apostle James: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God . . . is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world (II). He might also remind us of a famous saying, coined long ago when Catholics were fond of excommunicating each other: “In essentials, unity, in things optional, liberty, in all things, charity.” And yes, in all things, may God be glorified through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intercessions (Joe Milner; The Sunday Website)

For the Church: that we may experience an ever deeper conversion of mind and heart as we allow God's Word to instruct and free us.

For all who hand on the faith, particularly preachers, teachers, and parents: that they may share the faith clearly and convincingly, and lead others into an experience of God’s great love.

For conversion from our hypocrisies: that we may recognize where we say one thing and live by another so that we may come to greater integrity and wholeness.

For all who have experienced the evil of human hearts: that God will heal the pain of those who have experienced abuse, discrimination, or human trafficking and fill them with hope for the future

For all who have suffered from cover-ups or neglect by church leaders: that God will comfort and guide them, help their truth to be heard, and guide us in supporting them.

For refugees and displaced persons: that God will guide them to safety, protect them on their journeys, and help them find welcome in new communities.

For greater respect for and stewardship of earth’s resources: that we may treasure the natural resources that God has given us and wisely use them for the good of the human family.

For safety in schools: that God will watch over all schools, protect students from violence, and bullying, and help all to grow in knowledge and self-awareness.

For peace: that the Spirit will renew the dedication of those working for peace and help all to work together to defeat the common enemies of disease, ignorance, and poverty.

For all who labor whether at home or in the workplace: that God will guide them as they provide healing, nourishment, safety, or resources and renew them in mind, body, and spirit for the good of all who depend upon them.

Father of light, giver of every good and perfect gift, bring to fruition the word of truth sown in our hearts by your Son, that we may rightly understand your commandments, live your law of love, and so offer you worship that is pure and undefiled. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen (ICEL; 1998)

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