Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings

Reflection on Scripture

The chief priests and the scribes instructed the people to follow the law of Moses as Moses himself had instructed.  Initially, the law of the Lord was placed in the arc of the covenant because the law of Moses, the ten commandments, were a sacred and holy gift from the Lord Himself.

Over the centuries, as the Jewish people awaited the Messiah, their devotion to the law changed.  Instead of the law of the Lord being written upon their hearts, they made the law a ritual to be followed to stay in good graces with God.

In our Gospel readings, the followers of Jesus did not perform the ritual required before eating to wash their hands thoroughly so as, to remove to defilement that may have touched their lives.  When this fact of lack of washing is presented to Jesus, He explains that people are not soiled on the outside by things and people they encounter on a daily basis, but instead, they become defiled when these encounters that solicit negative thoughts and potential sinful actions.  Simply, Jesus tells the people that our sinfulness begins with our own thoughts and our sinful thoughts trigger negative actions.

All people are loved into existence by a loving God and instilled with the desire to be one with God and live with each other in justice and peace.  When the ten commandments become a formula for attaining salvation, then the spirit of the law is lost because our actions are not performed in love, but they are performed out of fear of punishment.  Evil people are not created by God.  Evil people work at being evil.  

With the upcoming national election in this country, the actions of many peoples and groups are magnified and become more transparent.  Some groups present their desire and belief for a better world where all people can live in harmony and peace through the love they have for God and one another.  Other groups, however, are called into focus as the venom of their evil thoughts and the hatred in their hearts are manifested and betrayed for all to see.  The hatred in this nation and the world as a whole is profound and is evidence of a people who are no longer in need of a God, who think themselves to be God, and desire to eliminate and annihilate anyone who does not agree with them in thought, action or desire.

We are called to be a remnant of the people of the Lord, true believers who accept the ten commandments as a means to grow in love of ourselves, others, and our God.  Because of our love for God and the determination and vision God has placed in our hearts of the resurrection and the goodness of all He has created, we may have to suffer greatly to stay the course and complete the race.

When we are hated, we do not hate in return.  We pray instead for the offender.  When our beliefs are thought to be old fashioned and we are told that we will not go back to those earlier days, we cannot hate in return and we cannot capitulate to the pressure and demand to turn away from our beliefs and become followers of a doctrine of destruction for all God’s people and all of God’s creation.  We must allow God to write the Law upon our hearts so, we observe the law out of love for our creator and humankind and not as a means to avoid punishment.

James tells us in today’s epistle:

“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.”

The day of evil may be upon us.  An evil that threatens to take away our human dignity and make us slaves to the law of men and women. Many on Good Friday thought that evil had won, and goodness was destroyed.  Today, we may be living Good Friday, but we believe in the resurrection and the victory is won.  So, we say, maranatha Lord Jesus.  Come Lord Jesus and justified your servants and bring all people to the fulness of the resurrection.  Lord Jesus, in You we trust.

Deacon Phil