TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
30 AUGUST 2015
When Jesus
responds to the Pharisees, he also responds to us Catholics. In our religious observance, we resemble
these contemporaries of Jesus in many ways. They regarded the Torah as the
foundation of their faith and allowed a living tradition to guide them in
living it. We too accept the Word of God
as the foundation of all that we believe.
We also have a living Tradition that emerges from the Word and guides us
in our faith, with the teaching authority of the Church interpreting it. The Pharisees developed 613 laws to serve as
day to day practical guides. We have the
Code of Canon Law and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to
guide us in living our faith. The
Pharisees were a lay group who did not limit holiness to the priests assigned
to the Temple. Like them, we see God’s
call to holiness applying to everyone.
Their ritual practices helped them to maintain their identity. So do ours.
We bless ourselves with Holy Water when we enter the Church. We bow to the Altar. We genuflect to the Tabernacle. The ritual actions we take for granted
sometimes baffle those who are just beginning the RCIA.
Jesus does
not criticize the Pharisees for having laws and traditions. He criticizes them, because they have lost
sight of the real purpose of the Law which we heard from the Book of
Deuteronomy. Moses stressed that the Law
as a gift given by God to guide their lives toward greater holiness. Once the Pharisees lose sight of this central
purpose, their laws and traditions become so complicated that they need Scribes
to interpret them. As urban dwellers,
they can more easily follow their laws and traditions. They have better access to the water needed
for purifications. The disciples of
Jesus are country people and travelers who did not have the same access. They are fishermen who are handling dead fish
all the time and cannot perform the purifications needed to make them ritually
clean. In his criticisms, Jesus goes to
the heart of the matter. The evils that
defile us do not come from external sources.
They come from within. He calls
everyone to repent and accept the Kingdom of God to become holy.
Unlike the
Pharisees, we have accepted Jesus Christ and his call to repent and grow in
holiness. As the Letter of Saint James
explains, we must be doers of the word and not hearers only. Our living Tradition helps to be doers of the
word and adjusts religious traditions for our growth in faith. Like the Pharisees, we have traditions
regarding the use of food. There has
been a long tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays to remind us of the
Lord’s death for us on Good Friday.
However, after the Second Vatican Council, the Bishops, the living
interpreters of Tradition, noticed that Catholics tended to abstain from eating
meat only because it was the law. They
relaxed the tradition, limiting the law to Fridays in Lent. When I received my First Communion, Catholics
were required to fast from all food and drink (even water) from midnight. That tradition caused us to distinguish
regular food from the Eucharistic Food.
They relaxed the tradition to fasting for one hour before receiving
Communion, as a way of encouraging the faithful to receive the Eucharist more
frequently.
The Scriptures
today remind us of the importance of God’s Law and the role of the living
teaching authority of the Church to interpret and guide us in living it. They also remind us of the purpose of all
laws and teachings: to help us to grow
in holiness. As Pope Francis keeps
reminding us, that holiness involves care for orphans and widows – those who
live on the fringes of society. Guided
by the teaching of the Church, we recognize those evils that defile us and turn
more completely to the One who saves us in the Paschal Mystery. Our laws and traditions guide us as we imitate
that Mystery in our lives.
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