22nd Sunday Year B: Homily by Fr. Isaac Chima
Theme: True vs false obedience to God's commandments
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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
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