Homily: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 1, 2024
My dear brothers and sisters, the gospel reading of today invites us to reflect on the essence of true religion. We see in this gospel reading a sharp disagreement between Jesus on one side and the Scribes and the Pharisees on the other side. Disagreement between Jesus and the Scribes and the Pharisees is common in the gospel. For instance, in the whole of Matthew 23, Jesus gave a very strong denunciation of the Scribes and the Pharisees. He pronounced series of woes to them, for their hypocrisy, insincerity, inauthenticity, dishonesty, gross emphasis on the externals with total neglect of their internal life.
The disagreement on the gospel reading of today centered on wherein lies the essence of religion. For the Scribes and the Pharisees, religion was considered to be only about ritual and ceremonies, external observance of rules and regulations. Once one can perfectly observe these detailed rigorous human laws in the eyes of men, the person is perfect before God. The contents of one’s heart and one’s hidden actions and intentions no matter how evil they are do not matter at all for them. This thought pattern permeated all their actions.
For instance, In John 18:28, the chief priest and the Pharisees that took Jesus to Pilate for crucifixion were very careful not to enter the headquarters of Pilate who is a Gentile. This was to avoid ritual defilement, for them to be able to be clean and eat the Passover, but at the same time, they were determined to kill Jesus; a first class murder, that did not worry them. In Luke 10: 29-37, the parable of the good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite didn’t want to look at the wounded man by the roadside so as not to ritually defile themselves. The possible death of the man meant nothing to them, what was uppermost in their mind was to maintain ritual cleanliness for the Sabath. So, this emphasis in the gospel of today on handwashing and tradition of the elders stemmed from this type of mindset and had nothing to do with hygiene or health.
It is against this backdrop that Jesus came with His revolutionary teaching. Wherein lies the essence of our religion. Our Christianity is it more on our lips or on our hearts? Have we emphasized our human traditions and cultures and totally neglected the love of God and neighbor? Do we sincerely struggle to see that the good person which we show people that we are externally matches who we are internally? Indeed, living a double life leads to doom, a conflict between our internal and external life can never bring progress. For instance, on a very cold winter morning of -20ºC, when we turn on the heating system of our car to be very hot, the difference between the cold outside and the hot inside of the car will cause the windshield to fog up and make vision totally impossible. This is what happens when the inside and outside of us are always in conflict, spiritual progress becomes difficult, in fact it is a gateway to a shattered personality.
In essence, Jesus teaches that our ceremonial worship of God should be carried to our personal lives. We cannot remove our personal lives from the worship that we give to God in the Church. Jesus himself lists those things which proceed from our hearts that defile us: evil inclinations, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. As we come in the presence of God for worship, this list should consistently summon us to a sincere examination of conscience.
