BE A TRUE WORSHIPPER OF GOD

 

Homily for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

Scriptural Texts: Deuteronomy 4:1-8, James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27, Mark 7:1-8, 14, 15, 21-23

 

We have spent the last five Sundays reading from the gospel according to John about Jesus’ discourse on the Bread of Life. From this Sunday until the end of this liturgical year, our gospel readings will be coming from the gospel according to Mark. The readings of this twenty-second Sunday show us what true religion really is.

The Jews had a lot of laws- prescriptions and prohibitions. The book of Leviticus for instance contains different prescriptions of how to deal with various issues of ritual cleanliness ranging from food, animals, purification for women after childbirth, leprosy, and bodily discharge (Leviticus chapters 11-15). As such, when in today’s gospel reading, the scribes and Pharisees indicted Jesus for allowing his disciples to eat without first washing their hands, they were in a way, acting according to the law (Mark 7:1-23). Like Jesus, they honor the law.

However, by criticizing the disciples for eating with defiled hands, the scribes and Pharisees went beyond the requirements of God’s law by trying to enforce human interpretations of the law that has been passed down to them. This is because, as times passed, these traditions and prescriptions known as the tradition of the elders hardened into a surrogate law that Jewish leaders regarded as if it were scripture. They completely lost sight of the dividing line between God’s law and human opinion. As such, their emphasis on human tradition made them neglect the underlying Torah.

By asking why some of the disciples of Jesus did not live according to the traditions of the elders (Mark 7:5), the scribes and Pharisees meant to indict Jesus of not following the law and of acting as if he is above the law. Jesus in turn rebuked them for giving so much importance to the tradition of the elders and for allowing human rituals and traditions take precedence over God-given commands. They honored God outwardly but in their hearts, they cursed (Ps. 62:4). These religious leaders were zealous to honor God through their own traditions, but ignored God’s explicit guidelines for honoring Him, through His commandments as we read in the first reading (Deut. 4:1-2, 6-8).

Jesus used the opportunity to offer us lessons about what a true worship of God entails. True worship of God means drawing near to God with one’s heart, and not simply with words of praise. St. James in the second reading reminds us also that authentic worship of God does not lie in honoring God by fulfillment of religious duties but in honoring God by right actions in relationship to other people (James 1:19-27). As Catholic-Christians, receiving the sacraments incorporates us into the Church but we become true Christians only when we allow the sacraments that we receive to transform our lives. Ceremonially defiled hands do not defile a man. It is not what goes into the body that affects the soul but what comes out of the heart. That is, the evil thoughts and feelings of our heart are what defile us (Mark 7:14-15).

Lastly, let us strive not to be hypocritical in our worship of God or in the practice of our religion. A hypocrite is one whose whole life is a piece of acting without any sincerity behind it all. A hypocrite is one to whom religion is a legal thing, anyone to whom religion means carrying out external rules and regulations, anyone to whom religion is entirely connected with the observation of a certain ritual. A hypocrite believes that he/she is a good person if he/she carries out the correct acts and practices, no matter what his/her heart and thoughts are like. May God grant us the grace to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Amen.