Tag: defilement

Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “How I love your law, O LORD! It is my meditation all the day. Lord, I love your commands.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (LK 4:16-30)

They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?” He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’” And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.”

As Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth, the people who watched him grow up under the care of Mary and Joseph hear him read the passage from Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. After Jesus tells them that this passage is fulfilled in their hearing, they question in amazement where he gets, as they say, “the gracious words that came from his mouth.” Then, citing examples from the Old Testament, he tells his fellow townspeople that the message of salvation is for all, not just the Israelites. The people become furious and drive him out of the town and attempt to throw him off a cliff. Taking place at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, this foreshadows the rejection he would face in proclaiming the Gospel as God’s own Son.

God, help me hear the Gospel acclamation and reflect on it in two ways: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” it reads, and “he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor.” These are the words Jesus chose to read to his own people. The Spirit of the Lord is the Holy Spirit, the love between you and your Son. Saint Paul says something similar in his letter to the Corinthians: “with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” It is also the same Spirit upon your Son, the same Spirit of power that Paul demonstrated, you also give to me through baptism and the sacraments. When I stand before others today—even ones who know me well in my ordinariness—help me through your supernatural grace step aside to allow myself to be a means of your mercy and joy. Glory to you, Lord!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“Hear me, all of you, and understand.” | Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “Whoever walks blamelessly and does justice; who thinks the truth in his heart and slanders not with his tongue. The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)

Jesus responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: 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. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”

Clinging to human tradition, we disregard God’s commandment. Mark shows us how Jesus responds to the Pharisees and scribes, who criticize the disciples for not washing their hands before a meal. “Unclean,” is their contention. Mark goes on to tell us how all Jews carefully wash their hands to keep with tradition, along with many other traditional practices of keeping clean. Addressing defilement, Jesus emphasizes the importance of inner purity over external rituals. “Hear me, all of you, and understand,” Jesus says to the crowd. “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” Saint James puts it this way: “to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world” is the way to remain pure and undefiled before God.

God, help me discern where empty ritual is and dispense with it. External, observable practices can become a trap under the guise of reverence for tradition rather than participation in the Body of Christ. In the real presence of the Eucharist—the body and blood of your Son—teach me to remain in your love. “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me,” Jesus says. “In vain do they worship me.” The sins and evil intentions that Jesus names arise out of the heart. Lead me to purity of heart, Lord, and keep me in your truth, the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ your Son.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.