“FIRST IMPRESSIONS”
22nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B)
September 1, 2024

Deut 4: 1-2, 6-8; Ps. 15; James 1: 17-18, 21b
-22, 27; Mk 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23

by Jude Siciliano, OP

Dear Preachers:

“Statutes and decrees“ – that is what Moses is placing before the Israelites. Isn’t that what we expect religious leaders to do, lay out the rules and regulations in order to be in good standing with God? “Just follow these rules, and God will be pleased with you.“ Clear and simple, isn’t it? Clear cut directions for holiness.

That was the thinking of the Pharisees and scribes who had gathered around to observe Jesus. Devout Jews had heard the scriptural challenge to holiness in their tradition. For example: “Be holy for I the Lord your God, am holy“ (Leviticus 19:2). Their response to the call to holiness was to develop a protective hedge of 613 precepts around the core commandments of their faith. They knew each of these precepts and observed them as carefully as possible.

For example: hand washing was not just a matter of cleanliness and good hygiene. It was a means of obtaining holiness in preparation for ritual and ceremony. The manner of hand washing was prescribed exactly. It was to be done before every meal and even between each course. (It must have taken a long time to get through a meal!) The washing required hands with fingertips pointed upward. Pure water was poured over them and flowed down to the wrists. Even the amount of water was prescribed; about a quarter of a cup. After the prescribed washing the hands were declared clean and allowed to be used for holy purposes. Precise cleansing procedures were also spelled out for washing pots, cups, and other utensils.

The Pharisees challenged Jesus because his followers failed to perform the required cleansing rituals. Can you imagine, peasant farmers, carpenters, and fishing people going through the elaborate cleansing at each meal! How would they have time to work and feed their families? Jesus confronts his opponents on their lip service and proclamations about goodness. He accuses them of being preoccupied with superficial observances, “human precepts,” while they “disregard God commandments.“

If the Pharisees thought they were pure in the ritualistic observances, Jesus draws on the teachings of their own prophet Isaiah to critique them: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me….” “You disregard God’s commandments, but cling to human tradition.” Jesus names some of the evil humans do, “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” Did Jesus leave anything out from the exhaustive list he proposes?

It may not be evil that comes from our hearts. But I bet we fall short in holiness because our life is bound by daily routine: getting up, eating breakfast, going to school or work, preparing dinner, shopping, spending time on our computer, or cell phone, then going to bed. That repetitiveness day after day can keep us in a rut. As a result, we may be going through life bored, but still comfortable with the familiar and daily predictability. We would prefer that nothing break the rhythm and routine.

Probably our prayers are also quite “proper,” the approved ones we have customarily prayed since childhood. Nothing wrong with praying the accustomed prayers from our religious tradition. But the challenge we hear from today’s gospel is Jesus’ question about whether our prayers spring from an authentic life, rooted, and animated in God, or merely one that follows routine and felt obligations.

Jesus took exception to the scribes and Pharisees because, in trying to scrupulously observe the laws and regulations they discerned to be constitutive of holiness, they missed the importance of inner transformation that flows into words and works. In sum, the tradition of the elders that the Pharisees had intended to preserve by their scrupulous laws and practices, had become a wall that kept them from getting close to God and one another in their prayers and daily lives.

In his arguments with his opponents, Jesus shows his own religious commitment to the Jewish faith. He draws on Israel’s prophetic tradition condemning the self interest of his opponents. He says their hearts are far from God. In our reading today, Jesus refers to the heart twice. He raises a question for us: where is our heart in our religious practices? The heart was considered the center of one’s will and source of a person’s decisions. A hardened heart shows in a lack of compassion for others.

So, having soiled hands at worship is not as important as a soiled heart is in damming our spiritual condition. As Jesus says, it is not what comes from the outside that the defiles a person, “but the things that come out from within are what defile.” We should then examine what is at the heart of our daily religious practices. Are they done out of habit and routine, or do they reveal a genuine love for God and compassion for others?

Click here for a link to this Sunday’s readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090124.cfm