September 2^nd 2018. Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL Mark 7:1-8. 14-15.21-23

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL Mark 7:1-8. 14-15.21-23

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 nave 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.”

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the Gospel, Jesus attacks the Pharisees because they seek to save themselves by means of their own actions. They do not submit themselves to the saving power of God. In our day, we too reject our incompleteness and our need for salvation by our disordered searches for beauty, power, health, and well-being. But our limits and incompleteness are the places where we encounter the love and mercy of God! Like Adam and Eve in the garden, all sin originates in the drive for egoistic completeness or fulfilment. On the contrary, when humanity accepts its fragile nature and realizes that it is loved for what it is, then we begin to behave like the disciples of Jesus who no longer enter into meaningless rituals, who are no longer obsessed with their own righteousness or beauty. Rather than constantly seeking for things to make ourselves feel better, more beautiful, healthier, this passage encourages us to allow ourselves to be visited by the Lord. That which truly contaminates man is his denial of his own fragility, his own incompleteness, his own humanity. May the Lord bless us with the grace to have simple and humble hearts that allow themselves to be loved.

Both the first reading and the Gospel highlight the dangers of becoming fixated with our own efforts to “save” ourselves,

In the Gospel for this Sunday we find a description of the rituals minutely performed by the Pharisees, who criticize the failure of Jesus’ disciples to observe the same customs and ablutions. The figure of the Pharisee is an important one in the Gospel and it gives Jesus the opportunity to deliver some important teachings. In the first reading from Deuteronomy we read of the call to observe the precepts of the Law. We hear of the entry into a beautiful way of life that is protected by these laws. But the text already warns that nothing is to be added and nothing taken away from these laws. This highlights the tendency of humanity to go through life searching for rites and laws that help make one feel at peace with one’s conscience. This tendency can become an obsession where one becomes fixated with the dots and commas of reality in order to feel righteous.

Humanity has a tendency to try to “heal” itself by seeking to make itself the basis of its own well-being, its own beauty, its own righteousness. All of this is a denial of our status as creatures of God who are incomplete in ourselves

We might look at this reading and think that this type of fixation is far distant from us. The obsession of the Pharisees was with their personal righteousness. But this preoccupation with bettering oneself has new forms today. Our world is fixated with aesthetics. People spend their whole lives trying to become more “beautiful” or to improve their well-being. They go from one therapy to another, spending a shameful amount of money on cosmetics. In every age we find humanity in a state of anguish in order to feel “better”, to be stronger, more powerful, more wise. In all of this we see a struggle to overcome one’s own insufficiencies and incompleteness. At the end of the day, this behaviour manifests an implicit hatred for these limits. To make oneself feel righteous, there is a preoccupation with never-ending rituals. In the struggle to become more beautiful, people spend their lives hating their appearance in an adolescent manner. Some people already have a health that would be the envy of most of the world’s population, but they are constantly searching for better food and more effective cures. All of this constitutes a denial of our own weakness and insufficiency.

When our hearts refuse to accept the incompleteness that is part of being a creature, we begin to commit the vilest kinds of sin. When we accept our fragility, it becomes the place where we encounter the love and mercy of God

Why did the disciples of Jesus not observe these rituals? Why did they no longer have the instinct to follow these impulses? Jesus says, “It is not what enters a man from without that contaminates him”. All the things that we seek to make of ourselves, to assimilate from without, these are things that do not really touch our fragility and weakness. When our hearts refuse to be themselves, refuse to accept the weakness that is part of being a creature - a creature that needs to be loved and forgiven - such hearts give rise to disorder. Until we discover the peace of the mercy of God, we will continue trying to find “life” by means of our works. Until we discover the love that gives us the right to exist exactly as we are, we will pass our whole lives trying to convince ourselves that we are righteous, beautiful, strong, intelligent, better. Our weakness is not something to escape from but to accept. This weakness is the perfect place to encounter the love of God. We are incomplete and God loves us as we are. He permits us to experience his mercy in this very condition. In the temptation of Adam and Eve, the rejection of their own incompleteness following the suggestion of the serpent, their effort to become like God is what produces evil. All of the evils of man – the passage speaks of fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly - all of this catalogue of horrors derives from humanity’s denial of its own weakness. On the contrary, when humanity accepts its fragile nature and realizes that it is loved for what it is, then we begin to behave like the disciples of Jesus who no longer enter into meaningless rituals, who are no longer obsessed with their own righteousness or beauty. Rather than constantly seeking for things to give ourselves, this passage encourages us to allow ourselves to be visited. That which truly contaminates man is his denial of his own fragility, his own incompleteness, his own humanity. May the Lord bless us with the grace to be simple, to have simple and humble hearts that allow themselves to be loved.