Sunday, September 2, 2018


TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
2 SEPTEMBER 2018

          When the Pharisees and scribes criticize the disciples of Jesus for not washing their hands before eating, they are really accusing Jesus, their teacher, of having no regard for the Law of Moses.  But that criticism is not true.  Jesus understands the intent Moses words in the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy.  He accepts the Law as a gift from God to guide the people to live a holy life in communion with God.  He accuses the Pharisees of doing exactly the opposite.  They had introduced many customs intended to become a “fence” around the Law to protect it.  Instead, those fences had become rituals putting the emphasis on external piety instead of true internal holiness.  Our readings today help us understand true holiness.
            We are holy when we are aware of God’s presence in our lives. That is why Moses erected a tabernacle in a tent in the midst of the camps of the Israelites in the desert.  God was traveling with them.  God fed them with manna and water from the rock.  God would not abandon them.  God will not abandon us either, especially in these dark times.
            Saint James reminds us that a holy life is focused on God’s call to action.  He encourages us to hear God’s Word.  We hear God’s Word at every Mass, only after we have admitted at the beginning of Mass that we are sinners.  But Saint James also insists that we must be doers of God’s Word.  We are dismissed from Mass to put that Word into action.  That is why the current crisis in our Church is so shocking.  We have learned that bishops and priests who have led us in pious exercises have done horrible things that have caused so much pain.
            Once we understand the importance of acting on God’s Word, we can understand better the importance of being part of the Church.  The recent revelations of sexual misconduct on the part of the clergy have caused many people to give up on the Church.  However, we need to remain connected with one another as the Body of Christ even more in this time of crisis.  The Lord does not call us to live solitary lives in isolation from one another.  The Lord calls us to gather for the Eucharist and to trust that he continues to walk with us, even as God traveled with the Israelites through their worst times in the desert.  His presence allows us to trust that our Church is being purified so that we become more truly holy and conformed to the Lord’s love.
            Like the Pharisees, we Catholics have developed many human customs and traditions intended to draw us into closer communion with the Lord.  Before the Second Vatican Council, we observed the Church law of abstaining from meat on all Fridays.  Those who were not Catholics saw this as our identity:  we were fish eaters!  But abstaining from meat was not the heart of our identity.  Being the Body of Christ remains our true identity.  To be honest, we tended to abstain from meat more out of obligation than out of a desire to become more holy, much as the Pharisees and their scribes were more concerned about purification rituals than about turning more completely toward God.  After the Council, the law was changed to require abstinence from meat only on Fridays during Lent.  These days, I see more and more Catholics returning to this practice voluntarily, embracing the external practice as a way of doing penance on the day that the Lord died and drawing them more closely into his Passion.
            This is the challenge for our Church today.  We need external reforms to protect innocent children and address the problem of clerical privilege.  We need external reforms to purge the Church in many ways. But we also need to listen to the words of Scripture today.  The Lord remains with us.  He calls us to act on the Word we hear.  We are all sinners who are connected to one another as the Body of Christ, seeking better individual holiness.

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