Aug 30, 2024

22nd Sunday: Man's law vs. God's law of love

"Well did Isaiah prophesy about your hypocrites . . ."

Mark 7: 1-8; 14-15;21-23

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090124.cfm


God of might, giver of every good gift,

put into our hearts the love of your name,

so that, by deepening our sense of reverence,

you may nurture in us what is good,

and, by your watchful care,

keep safe what you have nurtured.

(Collect of Mass)

If you’ve ever had the experience of visiting a Monastic community such as we are blessed with here in Oregon at Mt. Angel Abbey, you might find the opportunity to pray with the Monks is both inspiring and somewhat off putting. The ringing of bells begins the “call to prayer,” the harmonious singing of chant, the recitation of the ancient psalms, the bowing and coordinated sitting and standing, the proper entrance of the monastic community based on seniority beginning with the Abbot, and all else lends a beauty to the rhythm of prayer. The sound of music and the ancient but new words of the psalms themselves may be a bit off putting at first along with the flow of the prayer time.  It may at first seem confusing or a bit rigid. Thus is the general routine of monastic living. Our exercise of the law can find some similarity. It provides order, balance, and freedom.

The point of all this is what we see in the Gospel this Sunday. Jesus once again finds himself at odds with the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his time among the Jews.  Their slavish demand for obedience to every “jot and title” of the law brings us to see how unrealistic, oppressive, and controlling this law had become.  The point is to discern between what is necessary and what is incidental. What is man made and what is of God.

This was one principals of the reform of liturgy during the Second Vatican Council.  Had the Mass and other liturgical rites become too cumbersome, too rigid, too weighed down by an external emphasis on rubrics and appearances that it was hiding the true purity of the Mass? Was the Mass more of a show and focus on externals rather than on a lived encounter with the Christ and a clear call to personal and communal conversion of heart?

Now let’s not be too hasty to look negatively on the value of law.  Certainly, a society without any protections, parameters and rules of safety would be chaos or extreme anarchy. These days we hear so much about abuse of power, how civic leaders are misusing their authority, and overseas we see lands ruled by thugs whose whole existence is to cause chaos.  So, we need the law to govern us.

For ancient Israel there is nothing more sacred than the Law of God.  It is their gift to the world.  The purpose of the law was to create some sense of order in our lives.  To know when we are in right balance with each other and with God.  To avoid impurity, to know what is unclean, to embrace what is clean and to find a proper place for things which would include human behavior. Ultimately, the law of God is given in order that we may be called to personal conversion of heart.

This was the concern of the Pharisees as they confronted Jesus.  That he was challenging the right order of things and encouraging his own disciples to push the envelope and to have no regard for the proper order of things.  Their behavior would have seemed dangerous and scandalous to the average Jew.  But the question which Jesus tackled was the legalistic and rigid view and application of laws that had been created and now smothered the true purpose of divine law by the weight of human traditions. As he clearly stated to the Pharisees: “You disregard God’s commandment and cling to human tradition.” (Mk 7:8)

To see our pursuit of God’s law, for example, as given not to restrict and restrain us from freedom but rather to lead us to a more peaceful and joyful life.  We Americans seem to have both a love and hate relationship with law.  On the one hand we resist it and push against it if we feel it restricts our freedom. And on the other we see it as a great value that can keep order and respect in society.  Law can be seen as opposing my inherent freedom to choose how I want to live my life, or it can be seen as teaching me to appreciate the greater good we find in one another such as the legal protection of the vulnerable and poor among us.

Their emphasis on dietary law and cleanliness as an indication of inner purity is deeply challenged by Jesus.  He doesn’t speak about the hygienic property of washing one’s hands.  That’s not the point here.  All these washing rituals which dominated the culture of Jesus time had become equated with religious purity before God and the “keeping of traditions” created a heavy legalistic culture that placed human law on a par with divine law or in some cases an indispensable element of obedience.

Jesus quotes Isaiah: “This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me . . .”

God’s law is given to us in simplicity with two demands: “To love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and to love our neighbor as ourselves.”  A life of mutual sharing of love between us and God. This demands that I look within, as Jesus comments in the Gospel about the source of “evil” or sin and recognize my need for conversion.  I could follow all the laws but still miss the point. It is not external obedience that will justify a man before God, it is the right order before God we live out from our heart of love. Jesus desired to replace the unnecessary ritual of human prescriptions with purity brought about by a living encounter with him.  Hence, in the sacramental life of the Church, particularly in the Eucharist, the living Christ is present to us and by our humble reception of grace, we are purified by Christ who is made present to us under the signs of bread and wine.

Our nature is good for God has created all things to be good. Yet, we are flawed and in need of a way out.  Christ has shown us that way through his death and resurrection.  He didn’t die and rise for our sanitation, as important as that is for the general health of all of course.  But redemption is about our spirit; our call to conversion of heart and mind so that we may be examples of Christ to others.

Jesus hits this by reminding the “holier than thou” leaders that their obsessive rituals will not bring them closer to God.  They need to look within and not on the outside.  My behavior, my values, my passions and desires, my lack of care for others unselfishly, my thoughts, my desire for wealth, power, and attention from others, and all those things related to such is what makes me impure. To see the sin within us and know that God’s Law, which comes from without us, is there to lead us to a higher level of moral and spiritual growth.  The service we offer through humility and compassion to others, motivated by our true religious principles, will indeed bring us closer to our loving God. For Christ is present in those we serve and when we encounter others in love, we find Christ himself.

As Jesus so eloquently reflected in the Beatitudes from his sermon on the mount (Mt 5), the “pure of heart, the merciful, the lowly, the poor in spirit” are the indication of true goodness and holiness.

May our Eucharist be the food we become in the daily practice of God’s law of love who is Christ himself.

 

 

 

 

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