22ND SUNDAY B
OBSERVANCE FROM THE
HEART
22nd Sunday
If we observe religious groups
around us, we will instantly notice how each one is governed by specifics of
discipline and custom. An obvious
discipline is on food. While both
Muslims and Jews shun pork, Jews have an additional list of forbidden animals
and fish. Buddhists are vegetarians and Hindus too. While Catholics are the
most hospitable to all the different food groups!
In Jesus’ time the rules were not
only about food but about how to prepare, touch and eat them and also how to
clean up after a meal. Violating
all these sets of rules made one impure.
People became scrupulous observers, not thoughtful practitioners of
their faith.
This is what Jesus sets out to
do. He castigates the man-made
“traditions” – those not originating from God but mere human inventions that
grew around and obscured the core of faith. And referring to the diet prescriptions he decreed: “Nothing
that enters a man from outside can make him impure; that which comes out of
him, and only that, constitutes impurity” (Mk. 7:15).
We all have a tendency to return
to the mentality opposed by Jesus. We are afraid of contamination if we violate
rules, if we do not follow procedures, if we do things differently from the
established norms. Look at how many
of us are paralyzed by fear of superstitions or compulsion to follow the tenets
of the “elders” or the “way it was done before.”
There is nothing wrong about
observing tenets or rituals. God
himself gave us commandments to follow so that our lives may be in accord with
his will. The first reading from
Deuteronomy (ch 4) warns us though, not to add or subtract from the words of
the Lord. They are already enough
for us, no need for superfluous addenda.
But the Lord Jesus is here
telling us that observance must come from the heart. In that case, nothing is wrong, no one is misled. The second reading from St. James (ch
1) tells us: “humbly welcome the word that has taken root in you, with its
power to save you.” We welcome God’s
word when we open our hearts to him in reverence and to our neighbor in
compassion.
Things and events become twisted
when our observance is no longer flowing from the heart, no longer guided by
the heart that receives God’s word.
We begin to focus on the externals, thinking that only these outside
forces make us either worthy or unworthy of God. The Lord Jesus so rightly illustrates: “wicked designs come
from the deep recesses of the heart: acts of fornication, theft, murder,
adulterous conduct, greed, maliciousness, deceit, sensuality, envy, blasphemy,
arrogance and an obtuse spirit” (Mk 7:18).
Faith is our treasure. Our Catholic
faith is God’s gift to enable us to receive his love and reciprocate it. Do we live our faith only in the
externals? Are we guided by mere
outward observances? Let us
endeavor to bring together the heart and our action in loving and serving the Lord
and one another.
