Gospel according to Saint Mark 7,1-8.14-15.21-23
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. —For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. — So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. 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.”
First make peace and then, deliver your offering.
Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries
Rome, September 01, 2024 | XXII Sunday in Ordinary Time
Dt 4: 1-2.6-8; James 1: 17-18.21b-22.27; Mk 7: 1-8.14-15.21-23
Let’s start with a story. Once upon a time there was an isolated village in a valley, where its inhabitants lived happily and peacefully, with no major needs. Quite a few people had tried to get there in the hope of living in peace and quiet, but had given up because the way there was difficult and dangerous. The inhabitants of that village were happy with the monk who had come there years ago to be their spiritual guide, but he was already very old and wrote a short letter to the monastery from which he had come: I am getting very old. Please send a monk to whom I can teach all that I know. Let him be one capable of not getting lost in distractions.
The superior of the monastery read the letter to his monks and said: I would like to send four of you, who are willing? Somewhat surprised, as the letter only asked for one, four of them volunteered. The superior explained: The journey is long and there are many distractions; I am not sure if any of you will make it. Smiling and confident, they set out.
On the first day, they arrived in a village where the local priest had just died. They were received in a friendly atmosphere and offered the monks the position, which included a beautiful house, a good salary and not too much work. One of them accepted, explaining to his companions that it was important to take spiritual care of these people.
On the second day, the remaining three saw the king of the neighboring territory passing by on horseback. He kindly invited them to dinner and then asked the youngest to speak with him. He told him that he found him to be an intelligent and kind person, what he had always dreamed of for his daughter and that he could stay there, be married to her and inherit the kingdom, where he would surely do much good. The young monk accepted the offer and the other two went on their way.
On the third day they came to a place where the people were atheists and unfriendly to religion. They immediately began to argue passionately with the monks, trying to impose their views. After two days, one of them decided that these people had to be convinced that they were wrong and told the other monk that he wanted to stay there to teach the truth to everyone.
The last monk continued on his way and in two days arrived at the village where they were waiting for his arrival. He told the old monk about the journey and the old monk smiled, saying: I see that the superior understood my message. You see, young brother, the journey was not so hard, but it is full of distractions. And what to do in this place is not very complicated. As you have been able to learn during the journey, the secret is not to get lost in the distractions. And, with that, we have finished the first lesson.
—ooOoo—
Of course, the three monks who left the path would NOT CALL the situations that caused them to abandon their journey “distractions”. Rather, they would say that those events represent the divine will, much like the Pharisees and scribes who, in today’s Gospel text, cling to purifications of the body and objects, without recognizing that their hearts were attached to those traditions, which led them to separate themselves from obedience to God, who asks us for ever greater mercy than what comes from us, which is mixed with the twelve evil intentions that Jesus cites: fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, wickedness, fraud, licentiousness, envy, reviling, arrogance, folly.
Like the monks in the above story, we would not call those twelve sad fruits that come out of man’s heart “intentions”. But Christ does. This illustrates that, perhaps we do not carry out some of those bad intentions… but the reality is that they are there, coexisting with what “enters through the mouth”, that is, what the Spirit continually inspires in us and pushes us to commit actions that are alien or opposed to the kingdom of heaven.
In the case of the Pharisees, the problem is aggravated because they use God to self-justify the actions that serve as a refuge for their desires and as a comfortable substitute for the will of God. Here, ” comfortable” means that it is used to preserve their fame in the eyes of others. This is not proper only to the Pharisees, but to all of us, like the monks of our history.
One difficulty with the Pharisaic attitude is that on many occasions it fails in trying to camouflage its life before others-whitewashed sepulchers, Jesus Christ calls them (Mt 23: 27)-but it is usually most effective in the mirror, as a delusional make-up for our most selfish actions. Again, let us recall the story of the four monks: the three who left were convinced that they had found their mission in this life, but all three fit several of the twelve evil intentions enumerated by Christ.
In the previous Chapter of St. Mark, we saw how Jesus feeds the crowd in the middle of a deserted place, where there was no possibility of finding water for ritual ablutions. Now it is even clearer that what is important is mercy, above the rules which, on the other hand, Christ sought to respect and – even more so – to bring to perfection, as when He Himself washed the feet of the disciples.
Every rite, every liturgical act, must serve to remind us of and revive something essential in our lives, as Jesus asks when he exhorts us at the Lord’s Supper: Do this in memory of me. Otherwise, as He tells us, it becomes a “tradition of men”. There are famous examples of how, even outside the spiritual life, some gestures serve to give us strength and, above all, to strengthen our unity.
When we have seen at the Olympics the members of a team shouting together: Victory is ours! or giving each other an energetic embrace as they take the field, we know that this is something deeply felt and that it has a positive effect. Another example, from someone not exactly attached to the Church: Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), the famous British writer, who was actively involved in both World Wars. On one occasion, traveling on a ship back home, water had to be rationed and he sipped little by little from an old, cracked cup, trying to make it last as long as possible. It was on that voyage that he discovered he had a gift, a true calling as a writer, although he had already had some success. Years later, when Maugham was already recognized and aware that he might forget his vocation, that he might take it for granted and lose its original flavor, he would take that old cracked mug he kept in the drawer, fill it with water and sip from it, trying to relive, to remember that first time he discovered his vocation as a writer. He didn’t want to be like the man who glimpsed his true self in the mirror… and then forgot what he saw.
In reality, we can transform all our actions into an offering, into something dedicated to God, that is why the origin of the Jewish traditions of washing hands, cups or trays went beyond being a hygienic practice, but reflects the appreciation of the same inspiration that we see in Revelation: I make all things new.
With respect to the Word of God (we do not speak now immediately of the devil) there are two permanent temptations to our ego.
The first is to exalt in an exclusive way something that attracts me in the apostle’s life (two typical examples are human relationships and study…) and the second is to suppress something that demands too much effort from me. We, two thousand years later, can say that this is a fault against the Spirit of the Gospel. I end up convincing myself that I possess the authentic vision of the divine will, that I do not need to consult anyone and that there are many activities and efforts (made by my brothers) with very little or no value. I end up believing that I know what needs to be done to change the world.
Then, the words of the Old Testament can be applied to me: Even though your heart is haughty and you have said: “I am a god, I sit on the throne of the gods, in the heart of the seas”, you are but a man and not a god, though you have made your heart like the heart of a god (Ezek 28: 1).
In the spiritual life, in art, in the sciences or in the evolution of technology, change is often difficult. The most venerable traditions can easily become a refuge, an excuse to avoid the risk of approaching one’s neighbor. Christ offers us a moving example with his life, for he certainly never intended to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but rather to show all the greatness that many had not discovered or perhaps had used to their personal advantage.
Gustav Mahler, one of the leading composers of the early 20th century, who lived the tension between tradition and innovation and who tried to bridge the classical and modern genres of music, once wrote: Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.
—ooOoo—
As the Second Reading proclaims today, it is not enough to listen to and admire the Word of God, what we read in the Gospel or see in the lives of generous people. It must be transformed into deeds. But, most interestingly, James gives us a practical rule to know when we have gone astray and when we are on the way:
Pure and blameless religion in the eyes of God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their tribulations and not to stain one’s hands with this world.
In our story of the four monks, we can see how easy it is to be contaminated by the affairs of the world, which we easily transform into “law”. Without a pure gaze, without proposing to live poverty, chastity and obedience every day, I will not be able to help orphans and widows as Christ did. Reciprocally, every time I seek to be faithful to the Word and do not limit myself to repeating and understanding it, but strive to seize every opportunity, my intentions are purified from the distractions of the world and my heart remains open to the intervention of the Holy Spirit.
Christ reveals to us that the pure person is not the one who was born in a certain place or belongs to a chosen people. Nor is he pure because he keeps a distance from sinners or unbelievers, but because he puts himself at the service of others and never uses anyone as an object. No one is indifferent to him, no one is beyond his compassion, neither those who love him, nor those who at some point are his enemies.
Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering (Mt 5: 23-24).
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In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Luis CASASUS
President
