Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

September 1, 2024

Cycle B

1 Reading Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-8

Moses tells the Israelites to observe the commandments that God gave them.

Psalm 15:2-3,3-4,4-5

Those who do justice will find favor with God.

2 James 1:17-18,21b-22,27James teaches that Christians should be doers of the Word.

Gospel Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23Jesus teaches that it is that which comes from our hearts that defiles us.

Their hearts are far from me

Culturally, since our ancestors, humans have associated the term "heart" with "feelings," particularly the emotion of love. All of us have experienced falling in love once in our lives, and we can notice that our feelings and focus began to change, and everything we saw was driven by amorousness. This indicates that our hearts are drawn to our crush, and we yearn to spend every moment with them; we are giving them our hearts.

From this perspective, we traverse various stages of our lives, and occasionally we allow different people or things to infiltrate our hearts. We can observe that in today's world, people tend to accumulate a multitude of meaningless items in their hearts. Our hearts stay confused, or we focus on things that are not very important and just follow society's laws or trends. We can present ourselves to others in a way that reflects our commitment to our roles and responsibilities, such as being a good parent, son, student, worker, or even a religious individual. However, the truth is that inside of us there is a very big emptiness, unhappiness, where we are trying to fill our hearts with secret addictions or false things, like false gods.

This was the situation faced by some of the followers of Jesus. The Pharisees and scribes observed that the disciples were not adhering to the law, which mandated washing hands before eating, nor were they cleaning the cups and jugs. "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but instead eat and drink with unclean hands?" they questioned Jesus. It was not a health habit; it was a religious tradition through which the Pharisees filled their hearts, their sense of live.

We cannot say that the Pharisees were bad people; they just wanted to conserve the Jewish law. However, they were unable to delve deeper into the essence of the matter; their focus was solely on ensuring compliance with the law. Despite having Jesus in front of them, they were unable to discern his teachings; instead, they continued along the same path, their hearts hardened by legalism. That is why Jesus quoted the Isaiah prophecy, “This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me […]”.

Every day, just like the pharisees, Jesus presents himself to us through various people, moments, or circumstances, and sometimes we fail to grasp his message or teaching. Because our hearts are occupied with other things, Jesus today asks us to reflect on where our hearts are. We must examine our hearts to discover what we hold dear, and consider whether our true focus is on love for others and the pursuit of God.

Sometimes, like the Pharisees, our church leaders or family leaders impose a rule about manners or faith behavior. The God's commandments are not monotonous or exhausting; they serve to maintain our closeness to God and serve as a guide for nurturing our hearts. “Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations." These words from the book of Deuteronomy help us to figure out that God cares for us through the commandments and invites us to achieve freedom through them.

Brothers and sisters, our heart can be a "trickster." At times, it can deceive us and lead us away from Jesus. Today we can be aware of our condition as sons of God, knowing that God gifted us this world to be happy and full. "Humbly welcome the world that God has planted in you, capable of saving your souls." It signifies rescuing our souls from darkness and purging our hearts of any hypocrisy.

It encourages us to apply the grace of God to the lives of others. Good or bad things can emerge from our hearts, depending on what is prevailing within us. Let us embrace the law of God like a tool that invites us to be glad and graceful; don’t stay away from God; on the contrary, stay close to him, filling our hearts with his grace; it is the unique thing that saves us and can fill our hearts.