BIBLE STUDY #105


TWENTYSECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

September 2, 2012



READING 1

DEUTERONOMY 4:1-2, 6-8



Moses said to the people:

"Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees

which I am teaching you to observe,

that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land

which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God,

which I enjoin upon you,

you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.

Observe them carefully,

for thus will you give evidence

of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,

who will hear of all these statutes and say,

'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.'

For what great nation is there

that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us

whenever we call upon him?

Or what great nation has statutes and decrees

that are as just as this whole law

which I am setting before you today?"



The Word of the Lord



READING 2

JAMES 1:17-18, 21B-22, 27



Dearest brothers and sisters:

All good giving and every perfect gift is from above,

coming down from the Father of lights,

with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.

He willed to give us birth by the word of truth

that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.



Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you

and is able to save your souls.



Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.



Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this:

to care for orphans and widows in their affliction

and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

The Word of the Lord



GOSPEL MARK 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23



When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem

gathered around Jesus,

they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals

with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.

--For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,

do not eat without carefully washing their hands,

keeping the tradition of the elders.

And on coming from the marketplace

they do not eat without purifying themselves.

And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,

the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. --

So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,

"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders

but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"

He responded,

"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:

This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines human precepts.

You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."



He summoned the crowd again and said to them,

"Hear me, all of you, and understand.

Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;

but the things that come out from within are what defile.



"From within people, from their hearts,

come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,

adultery, greed, malice, deceit,

licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.

All these evils come from within and they defile."



The Gospel of the Lord



Reflection



The Torah (the first 5 books of the bible) has many statutes and decrees to follow; but for the people, these statutes and decrees are much more than a set of rules and regulations. Most laws are devised to protect people and their property; Israel's laws were designed to give them life, wisdom and intelligence. It was a living expression of God's love. God tells us how to live -shouldn't that be the best way to live? Our response to God's love is to live out this covenantal relationship every day. As Moses says in the first reading, “Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?"





Over the course of the centuries the rabbis developed laws outside of the Law of Moses called the oral tradition that was considered as binding as the written law. Part of this oral tradition or law, is contained in today’s gospel and is concerned with ritual purity.



This oral tradition or law was designed to protect the Torah like a fence around a house, but it became so lengthy and cumbersome that it was like a wall separating the people form the Torah. The average person couldn’t understand or put all these laws into practice and needed the scribes to tell them what to do. In Matthew 23:4, Jesus criticized these oral laws, calling them a “burden.”



The Pharisees and Scribes want to know why Jesus and his disciples don’t follow these oral laws (the Sadducees reject these oral laws because they aren’t a part of the Law of Moses). Jesus quotes Isaiah in his response. He is calling them hypocrites – they follow all the oral traditions but miss the big issues in God’s Law.



An analogy in today’s terms will help explain the issue at hand. Every once in a while I am approached by someone who wants to know what constitutes fulfilling their obligation to attend Mass. In other words, they want to know how late they can arrive and how early they can leave and still fulfill their obligation to attend Mass (they won’t phrase it this way, but this is what they mean). They may ask me questions like, “I know that I am supposed to arrive before the Gospel, but what if I arrive during the reading of the Gospel – does it count?”



People who ask these types of questions are usually not interested in the real purpose of attending Mass – to be fed by word and sacrament to grow in faith and to lead better Christian lives everyday, but are minimalists and more concerned with meeting obligations than growing in faith and living out their faith.



Another example: there are people who do all the pious ritual actions trying to impress people with their holiness but they ignore the weightier matters of love of God and neighbor. Better to be pious on the inside where only God sees rather than on the outside that people see.



Jesus said that people like this cling to human traditions but disregard God’s commandments. He calls them hypocrites – they are putting on a false front.



People are defiled not by ignoring ritual actions or by what they eat, but are defiled "by evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile."



But notice that Jesus is not abrogating the ritual laws: he is criticizing their misuse. He is criticizing people who only follow the ritual laws and ignore other matters of the law. Leviticus 1-18 lists laws that govern things that cause impurity, but Leviticus 19 mandates justice and charity and rejects the destructive behavior listed in today’s gospel. Similarly, in Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God and each other. It is so important that “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments (vs. 40).”



The rituals and customs we follow are meant to support us in our faith; they are not our faith. We can be a people of faith without the rituals and customs. We can’t be a person of faith if we only follow the rituals and customs.



The letter of James was written to counteract the notion that it was faith alone that saves. By accepting the gospel message, they receive a new birth and they were the first fruits of this new faith. They were to accept the gospel and live in conformity with it, which means being “doers of the word and not hearers only;” if they listen and not act, they are deluding themselves.





Fr. Phil