22nd Sunday Year B: Homily by Fr. Isaac Chima
Theme: True vs false obedience to God’s commandments
Readings: Deut. 4:1–2,6–8; James 1:17–18,21b-22,27; Mk 7:1–8,14–15,21–23
Dearest brothers and sisters, today, the twenty-second Sunday of the ordinary time, the church invites us to rethink our obedience to the commandments of God; to re-evaluate our approach to what God commanded us to do in his commandments. It is in this regard that the readings of today direct our attentions to the best way to obey God’s commandments for our salvation and for the good of our neighbours. They call our minds to what true religion truly is. It is not simply a scrupulous, external observance of rules, laws, traditions, and rituals. It is a loving, obedient relationship with God expressed in obeying His Commandments, worshipping Him, recognizing His presence in other human beings, and rendering them loving and humble service.
All adventures (businesses, sports, education, and journeys) in this world have laws or rules that guide them. To be successful in these adventures, obedience to their laws is sacrosanct. In the same way, the first reading of today tells us that our relationship with God is also rules-based, and that progress or success in this relationship is dependent upon our obedience to these rules given by a faithful God.
In this first reading, Moses urged the people of Israel to be obedient to the commandment given to them by God. He said to them: “obey all the laws that I am teaching you, and you will live and occupy the land the Lord is giving you. Do not add anything and do not take away anything.” According to Moses, faithfulness to these laws would lead to the following consequences: First, it would help Israel to survive as a people in the land of promise; Second, it would make the people of Israel proud of their God and His Covenant; and third, it would make their neighbouring nations to marvel at the graciousness and justice of the God of Israel, at His closeness to His people, and at their closeness to Him. These nations will praise Israel as truly wise and intelligent people.
However, failure to obey the commandments of God would lead them to doom. We know how Israel suffered under great nations because of their disobedience to the commandments of God. Dear friends, we live in a world where many people are meticulous in obeying the state laws and the laws of the secular organizations they belong to, but they want a freestyle when it comes to obedience to the commandments of God. This is appalling. The church reminds us that obedience to the commandments of God should be sacrosanct in our lives, and it is, in fact, indispensable if we are to enjoy a good relationship with our God. Do we know these commandments? Have we stopped obeying some of them? Have we allowed ourselves to be deceived by those who play down on the seriousness of the commandments of God? These are questions to be answered personally.
Dear brothers and sisters, while true religion or true relationship with God requires obedience to the commandments of God, it also requires our recognition of God wherever we find Him. Whoever is in a good relationship with God should be able to recognize God’s presence in heaven, in the church and in his fellow human beings. Failure to recognize the face of God as such has led many people to false religion and false relationship with God. This was the point Saint James raised in the second reading of today.
Saint James gives us the wonderful formal definition of true religion or true relationship with God. He defined true religion as translating the love of God or stepping down obedience to God into deeds of loving kindness toward the vulnerable members of our community and putting into practice the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. More specifically, true religion means that one is to “care for orphans and widows in their afflictions and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.” Thus, dear friends, if I am in a true relationship with God, I must also see the face of God in the Poor, in the immigrants, in the sick, in the hungry, in the abandoned old people and children of our society, in my husband, in my wife, in my children and my friends. If I cannot see God in these people, it means I do not know God.
It was on this account that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees in the gospel of today. The Pharisees are the teachers of the laws and commandments of God, but what they regarded as true observance of the laws of God was obedience to the external laws and rituals. They concentrated on the letters of the law and never cared about the spirit of the law. Consequently, they were blind to the needs of the poor, the hungry, the afflicted, the widows and orphans in their midst. For them, true religion only meant being present in the synagogue every sabbath (just like attending Holy Masses everyday only), reciting their prayers in the synagogues and on the street corners, respecting the dietary laws (as we saw in the gospel of today), and other external religious observances. While these acts of piety are good, they are not enough. They must be combined with charity and sensitivity towards other people, especially to the needy.
Jesus, then, used the opportunity to teach us what should be in the heart of those who have a true relationship with God. The heart of true worshippers of God should be the dwelling place of God and charity towards fellow human beings. But Jesus noticed that the hearts of many people who claim to be in a good relationship with God have instead turned into a dwelling place for impurity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us cast these evils away from our hearts and then let us re-enthrone God and charity towards others in our hearts. This is true religion; this is true relationship with God.
Fr. Isaac Chinemerem Chima