Sunday 22nd Ordinary Season

First Reading: Deuteronomy 4,1-2. 6-8
Psalm 14
Second Reading: James 1,17-18. 21-22. 27
Gospel: Mark 7,1-8. 14-15. 21-23

The people of Israel are a proud people and indeed, have a right to be: no other race has such wise and just laws! No other race has been able to summarise their laws in ten sentences. No other race has laws that can be defined as divine, that regulate man's relationship with God and with other men. No other race has laws of which one can perceive the intimate truth so clearly. No other race has laws that are the same for all, for the poor and the rich, servants and rulers, the young and the old! These laws give the people of Israel a superiority over other peoples: but she should not forget He who gave them to her, nor should she be content just to have them, she must live by them day by day! They must not be forgotten, nor must they invent others and in doing so become conceited, they should remain obedient, humbly obedient. Their pride for what God has done for them must become humility and kindness!

Moses wanted his people to become aware of their great role and task before all the world: all peoples were to know their God, to admire Him and desire Him! The obedience of the people is a mission towards the rest of the world, it is the act of glorifying God who has so loved the world!

This was not how the Pharisees and scribes thought and behaved when they approached Jesus. In order to be of more importance, they added rule after rule to God's commandments. All these rules and regulations make man proud of himself and not of his God, and furthermore, they make one forget the main commandments of the Lord. His commandments are wise and rich in life for those who observe them; what man adds, no matter how good his intentions are, only risks diverting his attention from the essential, or using up energy for things of little importance and above all creating confusion: these rules and regulations could be taken as God given and could lead to God being considered finicky, intrusive and inappropriate! The Pharisees have always observed rules concerning eating: they wash themselves and anything they use in a certain way even if this means offending others, even at the cost of using time necessary to their brothers and forgetting to be in touch with their own inner feelings and reactions. "Hear me all of you and understand": Jesus wishes to bring us back to the essential. Certainly when we sit down to eat together we must be clean. But which cleanliness is more important? That of one's hands or that of one's heart? Who wants to sit at table with a person who speaks badly of others, or who complains about everything, or who harbours unclean desires, or who boasts of gifts that were given to him, or who meditates ways to deceive, or who interprets everything to his own advantage, or who slanders others? Jesus makes a long list of vices and sins that are necessary to rid oneself of, rather than the little dirt we might accumulate on our hands and cutlery. It would be marvellous to be able to obey him! Whoever obeys him lives in serenity and joy.

The way to live a pure or purified life exists: St James explains. "Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls". The Word of God, kept in one's heart, loved and lived, that is the way to purification! The core of this Word is love, awareness of the needs of the weak, of the abandoned, love that does not bind us to the pagan and selfish habits of those who live around us! Man is the image of God who we must honour and serve and love! We ask for this love in prayer as it is a gift that "comes from above and descends from the Father of light"! In humility I join with my brothers in this prayer. And I ask my brothers in humility to help me by telling me clearly if they see in my attitude or thought or action anything that might contrast with the Word of Jesus!

His Word is the way of life: he gives it to us "that you may live and go in and take possession of the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers gives you". Let us also live with joy the promise of the Psalm: "He who does these things shall never be moved!"

Lord Jesus, never cease talking to my heart: your Word is the spring of life!

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