Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8; James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
The Book of Deuteronomy is the source of this weekend’s first reading. Deuteronomy is from the Pentateuch, the collection of five books that appears as a group first in sequence in the present versions of the Bible.
The Pentateuch is special not because it is an editor’s grouping of several books, but because these books together contain the law as given by God through Moses.
In this weekend’s reading, Moses submits the law to the people, telling them that they must obey this law when they enter their new land, without altering the law or picking or choosing among the law’s pronouncements. If the law carefully is followed, harmony and accord necessarily, inevitably, will follow. So will security. The nation will survive.
Since God authors the law, nations observing the Hebrews will realize the awesomeness of the Hebrews’ god.
The Epistle to James provides the second reading.
James occurs only rarely among the readings at Mass. The author of this epistle is not known for certain, since four men with this name appear in the New Testament. Several would have had credentials in the early church — James, the son of Zebedee and brother of John; James, the son of Alphaeus, “the Less”; and James, the kinsman of Jesus. Then, the father of Judas Iscariot was James.
Regardless, important in this reading is the revelation that God wills us to live. God never wills death and disaster for us. In the broader Christian context, as after all this is from the New Testament, this means eternal life. Not only does God will that we live, but God has given us the way to life, in the earthly sense but, more importantly, in eternity.
Also important is the epistle’s reminder that by serving orphans and widows, we purify ourselves so that we can stand before God.
St. Mark’s Gospel supplies the last reading. Jesus frequently debated the Pharisees and others familiar with the Law of Moses about particulars in this law. Often, details and specifics overtook the debate.
At times, people interpreted the Lord’s responses in these discussions as demeaning, or even repudiating, the law of Moses. In reality, the words of Jesus reaffirmed the law. He did not dismiss it but rather went to the kernel of the law. The essence of the law is wholeheartedly to love God, and in this love to trust in, and to obey, God.
These exchanges revealed the identity of Jesus. Moses was merely the human instrument by which God spoke, so the Law of Moses actually was the law of God. Jesus defined and applied the law because Jesus was God and spoke as the lawgiver.
The Pharisees and other religious scholars of the time hardly overlooked the fact that Jesus spoke and acted in the place of God. As time unfolded, this identification with God by Jesus would lead to the crucifixion.
Reflection
The first reading contains a thought that humans invariably dismiss. The thought simply is that, because of human limitations and shortcomings, people often put themselves in unfortunate situations. They can doom themselves. Unwilling to accept this fact, humans make excuses and blame God for misfortunes.
God truly and lovingly rescues people, by drawing them from the quicksand but also by leading them away from the quicksand. He leads us all away from the quicksand by giving us the law, or the roadmap to life.
Obeying God’s law requires exact response. It requires action, not just good intentions, attention to the needs of others, most especially for the forgotten, dismissed and scorned, for instance, and respect for, and preservation of, the environment. This is the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, an obligation so emphasized by the church.
