22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 I James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Having had five Sundays reading the Eucharist texts from the Gospel of Saint John, we return to the Gospel of Saint Mark, the Gospel for this liturgical Year
Mark, as it were, brings us back down to earth! The crowds are again gathering around Jesus. But this crowd includes many who are hostile toward Jesus. The Scribes and the Pharisees have joined the crowd in order to test Jesus and catch him out in matters of the Law. Their questions seem very trivial to us. They were legalists and preoccupied with trivial issues. But very often these trivial issues had been added to the Law by themselves. Moses had warned them “add nothing to what I command you, and take nothing from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God as I lay them down for you”.
The incident gives Jesus the opportunity to speak about sincerity of religion and how lip-service without what comes from the heart is worthless. The scribes, who interpreted the Law handed down by Moses continually added regulations – man-made regulations added to the covenant with God – (613 regulations in all; 365 negative ones and 248 positive – the days of the year and the joints of the Body!)
What Jesus is criticising is that legalism which takes away the heart of true religion. He is certainly not doing away with the need for religious laws. The excesses or legalism, even in our own experiences, are no excuse for rushing to the other extreme of permissiveness. And the Lord is very clear about this also. The twelve evils which He mentions would be condemned by anyone with a moral conscience and decent values. There are six evils mentioned by the Lord; two are associated with what we say or do, two are internal attitudes of the heart and two try to remove God from our lives. Deceit and slander are the evil acts of behaviour and speech; avarice and envy are the internal attitudes of heart; pride makes a god of ourselves and folly refuses to accept God’s law in our lives.
Fortunately, today we begin to read from the Letter of Saint James. James, the Apostle is very down to earth. His guidance and teaching is practical and easy. In our ordinary dealings with each other James shows us the way to act. “Accept and submit to the word which has been planted in you …. Do what the word tells you and not just listen to it ….” Religion for James is a real thing: “Unspoilt religion is: coming to the help of others when they need it and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.” Surely James was influenced by his praying of the Psalms. His understanding of who would live in the presence of the Lord gives us a lead in how our living out of our religion might look. Those who will live in God’s presence are; “those who walk without fault: act with justice; do no wrong to each other; cast no slur on their neighbour; hold the godless in distain; honour those who fear the Lord” (Psalm 14:2-5)
So, our prayer today is that we may indeed ‘Listen to the word of God’ but more importantly as Saint James says, ‘Do what it tells us.’
‘Your words are spirit, Lord and they are Life: you have the message of eternal life’