(Homily 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. B)
The Word of God sets before us today the
distinguishing factor(s) between a true Christian and a false Christian, an
authentic Christian and a Christian-hypocrite. Drawing the issue further, it is not merely the external
manifestations of goodness that matter, but the good disposition of the heart.
Indeed, the recurrent words in today’s readings are “listen”, “put in
practice”. “Observe” and “welcome”. Indeed, these exhortations revolve around
the Word of God, his laws and commandments. To the God who speaks, there is
need of a human agent who hears, listens, welcomes and puts the Word heard into
practice. For in the verbs “to listen”,
“to practice” we find the distinguishing mark between a doer of the Word and a
deceptive hearer. Thus, the first reading invites the Israelites to an
obedient listening of God’s commands, and the Gospel in turn fortifies this
message by inviting us to rediscover the primacy of God’s Word and commands
over human traditions. Then, the second
reading takes the theme of listening to God’s Word to a radical conclusion with
an ethical dimension: Be doers of the Word and to practice Pure Religion.
In the first reading from the book of
Deuteronomy (Dt. 4:1-2.6-8), therein
Moses exhorted the chosen people with the following words: “And now Israel,
listen to the laws and customs which I am teaching you today” (v.1); “keep the commandments of Yahweh
your God just as I lay them down for you” (v.
2, 6). At this point, it will not be out of place to ask why Moses was
exhorting the people in an insistent and persuading manner, to observe the
commandments of God? The reasons are not far-fetched, for we find them in the verses
thus: First, “So that, by observing them, you may survive to enter and take
possession of the country which Yahweh, God of your ancestors, is giving you” (v.1b). Second, “keep them and put them
into practice, and other peoples will admire your wisdom and prudence” (v.6a). Third, “What great nation has
its gods as near as Yahweh our God is to us whenever we call him?” (v.7). The commandments of the Lord will be sign of the presence and closeness
of God to his people. And above all, because God is a God, who loves and
desires the good of his people, he accompanies and leads his people to
liberation.
Be that as it may, it is with this conviction
that the Word of God can be welcomed with joy and also be put into practice,
even when it requires sacrifice. This
can be done when we welcome the Word of God as an initiative of love, as a proposition
for our welfare, and not as an imposition or a mere obligation. In that
bid, we can say that in the measure in which man does not listen to the word of
God and doesn’t put it into practice, he distances himself not only from God,
but also from salvation and true life that He offers. He ends up in paths that
are not those of “wisdom and prudence”, thus deluding himself with ways
contrary to his self-realization. Above
all, in this passage, we see the prohibition to add or to subtract from the law
(Deut. 4:2), and by that it becomes obvious that this passage was chosen to lay
emphasis on the distinction between God’s commandment and the traditions of
men, which is well orchestrated in the Gospel passage.
The passage of the Gospel (Mk. 7:1-8.14-15.21-23) presents a part
of Jesus’ dispute about the “ancient traditions”. Those hypocrites came all the
way from Jerusalem to catch Jesus, unfortunately, not out of love for God, not
out of love for God’s law, but they were driven by their hatred for him. They
must have watched him closely, but they were not able to find in him any wrong.
Certainly, because Jesus was an observer of the law in words and in behavior,
not like them. So, when they could not find anything against him, they shifted
the attention to his followers, and as they looked on and watched, they caught
some who did not wash their hands before eating, then, they seized that as a
point to question them and to attack their master. They never appealed to the
law out of love for God, rather they
appealed to the law in order to litigate and win, to catch and to kill.
This is what happens when we are carried
away by hysterical tendencies, and this unfortunately deteriorates into
hypocrisy, which is capable of making any excellent law, even God’s law to
degenerate in the hands of the people to something that kills, as it was in the
case of Jesus, when he was nailed on the Cross under the pretext of observing
God’s law.
The Pharisees and the Scribes criticized the
disciples of Jesus, because they were not observing some of the legal
traditions, like the ablution rite, and Jesus responded with a warning from the
prophecy of Isaiah: “How rightly Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites in the
passage of scripture: This people honors me only with lip-service, while their
hearts are far from me” (v.6). And
again, “You put aside the commandment of God to observe human traditions” (v.8). They relegated God’s commandment to the background and observed human
traditions, especially with regards to love and justice. Afterwards Jesus
explained to the crowd the meaning of his intervention thus: “Nothing that goes
into someone from outside can make that person unclean” (v.15b), rather “it is from within, from the heart that evil intentions
emerge” (v.21) and they are the
things that contaminate man. From the intervention of Jesus we can infer three
fundamental facts: ●first, we need to liberate the Word of God from the
entanglement of human schemes and impositions, which tend to suffocate the Word
of God that liberates and helps man in his journey of faith. ●second, care must
be taken in order not to give much importance to certain traditions and
practices, ensuring that they do not obscure the substance of the Word of God,
which revolves around love and justice. ●third, there is need to purify the
heart, that is the center of our personality, from disordered affections,
thoughts, desires and intentions, such that we will be always disposed to
welcome the Word of God, always conscious of the fact that “every good gift comes
from the Father” (Jm. 1:17).
Jesus used a very strong word or language
on the Scribes and Pharisees by calling them Hypocrites. Hypocrisy is another
word for false, of a person with double face, one who says one thing and does
another, one who wants to appear differently from what he really is. Jesus did
not hesitate to rebuke them for they did not come with a sincere heart to know
the truth, rather to find a pretext for argumentation. They attached more
importance to formality, to appearance than to the substance. Hypocrisy is an
evil, a dangerous trap that can also find way into our comportment as
Christians. It is the tendency of one
who tends to appear and not to be, of one who is preoccupied about formalities
and exteriorities and not about the substance of things. One who is
satisfied with the observation of human traditions and religious practices, but
neglects the commandment of God. The danger of a Christian-hypocrite is that
his conduct scandalizes non-Christians, because there is disharmony in what he believes and what he lives out. He lacks orthopraxy: right believing and
right living. It was I guess, on the basis of this that M. Gandhi opined
that “He has great esteem and respect for Christ but not for Christians”. And in
Jesus’ parlance, what matters is not
outward purity, rather an inner purity that is manifested in outward behavior.
The second reading (Jm. 1:17-18.21-22.27) can be divided into two parts, while the
first presents God as the giver of every good gift. And that serves as a
response to the argument in the preceding verses, against the idea that
temptation comes from God, while instead it comes from the concupiscence (vv.13-16). He affirms that from God,
“the Father of light” comes “every good and perfect gift” (v.17). The second part presents the highest gift with an ethical
injunction. The highest gift that he has offered us is indeed, the “Word of
truth” (v.18), it is a living,
efficacious Word, that generated us by the power of the Holy Spirit, as
children of God. As such, the apostle recommends, “humbly welcome the Word
which has been planted in you and can save your souls” (v.21b). The motive for this lies in the following words: “but you
must do what the Word tells you and not just listen to it and deceive
yourselves” (v.22).
The Word of God therefore, as divinely
revealed is not a chain that binds or an imposition that has to be jettisoned,
but it a Word that saves and gives life, which like a fecund seed fructifies in
good works. It enables one to help the weak and the needy, to engage in works
of charity. Yes! if we desire to live an authentic and genuine religiosity, that is
not pharisaic, we have to be attentive to the needs of the poor and the weak,
like the old people, the sick, handicaps, orphans and widows, the list can go
on and on. It is frankly against this backdrop, that we can verify if we
have welcomed and are putting the Word of God into practice or we are just like
deceptive hearers. Lastly, St. James
insists on the need for an authentic religion. In Greek the word for religion
is equivalent to cultus, and in that
bid, in James’ parlance, the true cultus consists in ethical obedience of
God’s commands. The epistle reading is suggestive of cultus as a possible avenue where distinction is drawn between the
commandment of God and the traditions of men, especially where human traditions
obscure God’s will and commands.
In all, hearing those words of Jesus
addressed to the Scribes and Pharisees, it behooves us to ask ourselves, what
we ought to do, in order not to be qualified as Hypocrites? And on this the
liturgy of the Word of today is of great help: Frist, we need to purify our hearts, rectify our intensions, and extirpate
from us all that is disordered and contrary to the will of God. Second, we
need to order our life according to the commandments of God, just as Moses
teaches us in the first reading, to observe and keep the commandment of God,
which will be a manifestation of our wisdom to other peoples (cf. vv.2,6). Again, St. James invites
us in the second reading to “do what the Word tells us and not just listen to it and deceive ourselves” (v. 22). Yet,
in the Gospel of Mathew Jesus puts it succinctly in a more touching manner,
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a
sensible man who built his house on rock”, “But everyone who listens to these
words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his
house on sand” (Mt. 7: 24.26). Therefore,
may we earnestly pray and ask God for the grace to be obedient listeners of his
Word. May our actions manifest our calling and who we are as God’s children,
for “agere seguitur esse”! Amen!!
(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)
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