22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

August 30, 2009

Dt 4:1-2.6-8
Jas 1:17-18.21-22.27
Mk 7:1-8.14-15.21-23

What gets to Jesus? Emphasizing the externals. Yes, the first thing that gets to Jesus is the Pharisees’ emphasis on the externals. The Pharisee in our story is bugged when Jesus does not wash his hands before the meal. In this case, hand washing is not about cleanliness. It is about a religious ceremony, a very detailed ritual. Before you ate, you had to wash your hands a certain way, and then wash them between each course. There were regulations as to the amount of water and the exact way it was to be poured over the hands. Jesus would not do it. In fact, the whole thing led Jesus to say, “You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.” That must have put a damper on dinner conversation. But Jesus was just getting warmed up.

And there is one more: Loading on the legalism. Jesus goes after the lawyers who “load people with burdens hard to bear,” but will not lift a finger to help ease them.
The Scribes and Pharisees loaded the people of their day with a huge set of religious laws over and above what was contained in the Old Testament – something like 6,000 dos and don’ts they were supposed to keep. Rules for what to do and not to do on the Sabbath. Dietary laws. Clothing regulations. On and on it went. Endless rules and regulations were added until life became impossible for the average Jew in Jesus’ day.

And to make matters worse, the Scribes and Pharisees did not seem to care about the heavy burdens they were creating. Jesus says they would not lift a finger to help. Instead of encouraging their people, these religious leaders tended to despise ordinary men and women – the ones who found it so difficult to remember all the rules, let alone keep them.

Jesus kept going into trouble because he disregarded the rules. He healed people on the Sabbath and let his disciples pick wheat and eat it when they were hungry. He carried on conversations with women (which no rabbi was supposed to do). He ate with unwashed sinners, and invited them to trust in a God who was bigger than all the petty rules, a God Jesus called Abba: Father. To these ordinary men and women, struggling under this load of legalism, Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Mt 11:28-30)

Loading on the legalism – it really gets to Jesus. He hates it.

Might Jesus be warning you of something today? Is there something you have tried to keep hidden, something that needs to be cleaned up in you. Oh, you are very good at putting on a well-polished exterior. No one would guess what is going on inside. But the Lord knows, and he is calling you to quit covering it up and get help in dealing with it.

Perhaps you hear him challenging you to quit piddling around with trivials and get serious about following him. To hear the cries of the hungry and do something. To sponsor a child who needs you. To go on a mission trip and get your heart broken by the things that break God’s heart. To share your faith with someone who is searching. Get involved with the important issues of justice and the love of God.

May be it has something to do with legalism. Some of us work really hard at keeping all the rules, and we have a bad habit of judging others pretty harshly when we see them bending or breaking our rules. Our halos really are a little too tight.

Is our Lord speaking to us? Warning us about something that needs change – in us, or in our fellowship? If so, let us not turn away in pride and resentment. Let us listen to him, and respond in repentance and trust.

There is a tendency in every one to be a Pharisee to some degree. What the Pharisees thought was “spirituality” was actually putting on a show, or being a show-off. Jesus described their mistake by saying, “all their works they do for to be seen of men.” He says in the gospel today that the heart is the source of all evil thoughts and deeds. We recall also Jesus’ saying, “Blessed are the pure of heart.”

When we put on eyeglasses, if they are dirty, we are  not able to focus well and driving  on the freeway at night raining, it may prove disastrous. There is nothing wrong with our eyes, but the eyeglasses do not let us focus well because of the dirt. When we are pure of heart, we are able to see clearly the will of God and to follow it accordingly. When our heart is not pure, or it is polluted by sin, we are “driving on the freeway of life with dirty glasses and we are not able to see well.” That can lead to disaster and spiritual death. A great collision of wills can happen and we may end up in the ditch of life upside down. There is a poem that goes like this:

When we are spiritually able to see God face to face without shame, we are pure in heart.
When we are able to accept God’s will in our lives, we are pure in heart.
When we are able to praise him even when our world apparently has fallen apart, we are pure in heart.
When we are able to place somebody else’s needs ahead of ours, we are pure in heart.

The pure of heart can enjoy life, here on earth, because they are helping God build his kingdom of heaven. In Matthew, what is referred to as kingdom of heaven means Kingdom of God, because the writer, as a good Jew, could not write God so instead, he wrote heaven. We are the builders of the Kingdom of God and it begins here on earth. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8). How can we foster purity of heart? In a few words, by bringing the heart of Jesus everywhere we go. If Jesus can witness our actions and “be proud”, we are doing good.

Fr. Devasagayam Savariyappan, SVD
Our Lady of the Pillar  Parish
San Isidro, Abra