22nd Sunday of Ordinary Times

In our first reading today, God’s people, after their escape from Egypt, are getting close to crossing the Jordan and entering the Promised Land. Moses was still with them and he knew he would die before they crossed the Jordan. So he had some last words instructing and encouraging God’s people before his departure. In essence he is telling them that God loves his people and he wants them to prosper. They will do so only if they keep God’s Laws. This passage fits well with the second reading from St. James which tells us to be doers of the word and not hearers only and it leads into the Gospel where Jesus reminds us that the essence of all law is love.

Today's Gospel addresses the question of external practices and internal faith. The Pharisees criticize Jesus and his disciples for not following the Jewish ablution rituals. But, Jesus fires back at the Pharisees and scribes and calls them hypocrites. Jesus says, “You put aside the commandments of God to cling to human traditions…”Jesus points toward examination of our inner motives. Jesus warns that it is not external observance or lack of it that determines one’s relationship with God, but a heart that is ever being transformed by divine love, which becomes visible in concrete acts. Just as St. James indicates in today’s second reading.

In some early Church writings we are told that the model Christian wears the belt of truth, the breastplate of justice, the sandals of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit God’s word. Theses practices (qualities) must come from the heart. The model Christian is a person of integrity. Maintaining integrity is a lifelong project. Our external behavior must flow from internal conviction and life if we are to be authentic. Practices that flow only from habit, tradition or law, that is, external criteria, destroy integrity. Jesus came to us, not because we’re perfect, but because we need his help to please God. He will help us if we ask him. What Jesus wants to do is to fill our hearts with his love. Out of this love he desires that we love and serve God and treat one another in a kind and loving way. Recall and experience in your life where your internal self was miles(away) from your external expression. How did you feel that time? What did your friends say? What impact did you make? In the volume of his morning homilies, Pope Francis speaks of the three sorts of hypocrites whom Jesus often reproached, “Intellectuals with insight, moralists without kindness, and museum pieces without beauty.”