August 29, 2021

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

It’s What is Inside that Matters

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

One day a man cornered Mark Twain and said, “Before I die, I am going to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. When I arrive, I will climb Mount Sinai, and from the very top I will boldly proclaim the Ten Commandments.” Twain replied, “I have a better idea. Why don’t you stay right here at home and obey them.” There can be a great disconnect between our words and actions and what is in our hearts.

In the Gospel, the disciples come under the scrutiny of the Scribes and Pharisees who denounce them for not following the precepts of ritual washing they felt had to be scrupulously followed if they were to be considered devout Jews. Why would they disregard the law and render themselves unclean before God? These leaders demand an explanation from Our Lord.

Since the time of Moses, devout Jews observed the Law found in the first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch. It was central to the Jewish faith. Over time, the Scribes came into being. They were legal experts who wanted the laws in the Pentateuch to be “amplified, expanded, and broken down until they became thousands of detailed rules that governed every possible action and situation in life.” [William Barkley] The Pharisees and Scribes observed these scrupulously but by the time of Our Lord rather than being an authentic way to holiness, the rules became an end in themselves, and they wanted every Jew to observe them. But it was impractical for poor country-folk like the disciples to observe the detailed and rigid rules especially about ritual washing. The privileged Scribes and Pharisees, who lived in the cities, had the luxury of observing them.

Responding to his disciples’ detractors, Jesus quotes from Isaiah: “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.” Our Lord does not condemn the rituals in tradition but knows that the Scribes and Pharisees had lost sight of what was essential. They made rules and regulations the essence of religion.

Our Lord teaches that it is not what is external that matters but what lies within. In honesty we know that our words and actions may be one thing and what dwells in our hearts may be another. The Lord goes beyond appearances and looks into the heart. The truth of who we are before God is found there.

Our Lord gets very specific and points out what truly makes us unclean or defiled before God: evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly.

Today the Lord asks us to look deeply and honestly within our hearts and see what dwells there. He asks us to begin the work of matching, connecting our external words and actions to the interior dispositions of our heart. Today this might be our prayer:

Lord, for your word to grow deep roots and yield a rich harvest, it needs an open, and untroubled heart. How can your word be effective when it is received by a thorny heart, a heart perverted, a heart always restless and in turmoil? O Lord, give me a heart that welcomes the word you have planted in me and that can save my soul. Help me to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only so that I can honor you not only with my lips but with a heart that is always close to you.