September 1, 2024

22^ndSunday in Ordinary Time (B)

The Outside is Good but the Inside is what Counts

Msgr Thomas Gervasio

After five weeks of focusing on contemplating the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist in the Gospel of Saint John, we return to St. Mark’s Gospel, where Our Lord’s disciples come under the scrutiny of the Scribes and Pharisees who were experts in the Law. Over time, they managed to amplify, expand, and break down the Law into thousands of detailed rules that governed every possible situation in life. They scrupulously observed these complicated and rigid rules. To observe them was to please God, to be a devout Jew, to ignore them was to sin, to be unclean before God. Why would Jesus’ disciples disregard the Law? The Scribes and Pharisees demand an explanation from their Master.
 
He responds by quoting 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 observance of rituals. He does not devalue or scorn the Law. He rebukes his critics because they had made rules and regulations the essence of religion and lost sight of what is essential. Rituals are important and should be observed but they should not be an end in themselves. They should always be seen for what they are—a means to holiness, tools that lead us to God.
 
Externally, the Pharisees were impeccable. For them, this was enough. They had lost sight of what was within. Within they had become proud and judgmental of others.
 
Our Lord would have us avoid their dangerous spiritual dilemma. While the heart is the dwelling place of our love, Jesus warns us that it can also be the storeroom of sin. We know our words and actions may be one thing and what dwells in our hearts may be another. The truth of who we are before God is found there. Our Lord gets specific and names what makes us unclean before God: evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly. (Quite a litany!) We can assist at Mass, receive the Eucharist, pray the rosary and our favorite devotions, but it is possible to hold on to things that are contrary to the spirit of the Lord.
 
St. Giuseppe Moscati was a renowned physician of Naples, who cared for the poor. Once, when the hospital could not accommodate the sick, he brought a poor patient, a woman of questionable character to his home. His sister, with whom he lived complained vehemently. The poor patient offered to leave. Dr. Moscati replied, “My sister goes to Mass every day but she doesn’t know the Gospel.”
 
The same can befall us. We can project the illusion of virtue but be far removed from what God desires. Pope Francis describes this by saying that we can be “Christians with good manners and terrible habits.” The Pope says: “Jesus advises us: don’t look at appearances. Go right to the truth…But if you are vain, if you are ambitious, if you are a person who always boasts about yourself or you like to brag, because you think you are perfect, do a bit of almsgiving to heal your hypocrisy. This is the way of the Lord. It is worshipping God, loving God above everything, and loving our neighbor. This is so simple, but so difficult. This can only be done with grace.”
 
Let us ask for this grace so that we might not fall into the trap of being ‘Christians with good manners and terrible habits.’