Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
22nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle B)
Readings:
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8
Psalm 15:2-5
James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Abbreviations: NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), RSVCE (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The words LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, and that is why we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Church's Universal Catechism teaches that our Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: The Human Versus the Divine
Meditating on God's Law in the First Reading, Moses saw the
danger of human interpretation developing into added traditions that could
obscure the original will of God for His people. That is why God's covenant
people needed one central authority to interpret the spirit of the Law as God
intended and to maintain the authoritative voice of God in the command: "you
shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it" (Dt 4:2). Jesus
repeats the same divine command at the end of the last chapter of the last book
of the Bible where He says: "I warn everyone who hears the prophetic words
in this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described
in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words in this prophetic book,
God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city described
in this book" (Rev 22:18-19). For this reason, St. Peter wrote: At the
same time, we must recognize that the interpretation of scriptural prophecy is
never a matter for the individual (2 Pt 1:20). The authority Jesus established
to interpret the Word of God is His Kingdom of the Church.
In the Psalm Reading, the psalmist urges worshippers to repent all temptations to sin and to set right any wrongs against others before entering the presence of God in the Liturgy of Worship. Each worshiper must demonstrate the rightness of heart and conduct to separate himself from sin. A holy God deserves a holy people. The psalmist assures the faithful who repent their sins and live in harmony with others of God's forgiveness, as we affirm as a community in our response: "The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord."
In the Second Reading, St. James the Just wrote that God set the universe in motion and gave the planets and stars their celestial paths. But unlike the heavenly bodies, which alter their positions with the changing seasons and cast different shadows, there is no variation with God, who is constant and unchanging through eternity. Therefore, we can depend on Him to do what is right for us, as God calls us to demonstrate our faith in Him through obedience to His command to do right by our brothers and sisters in the human family. In his letter to the universal Church, St. James urged all Christians to live in imitation of Christ by being "doers and not just hearers of the word."
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus corrected the Pharisees on their interpretation of what makes one ritually "clean" and fit for worship or ritually "unclean" and a sinner who is unfit to enter into communion with God. The Pharisees were the most influential religious party in the first century AD, more so than the Sadducees who were mainly composed of the chief priests and the Herodian aristocracy. As the Pharisees expanded their authority over all religious matters in the first century BC, they preached that the ritual purity practices required for the priests should also apply to the covenant people. In addition, they added their own rules for religious customs to the Mosaic Law, making it more of a burden for the people and less of a tutor and a guide for holiness. Jesus chastised them for their hypocritical hard hearts and their rigid interpretation of Mosaic Law that lost the concept of God's mercy and the joyful practice of right religion that is the path to salvation.
The First Reading Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 ~ Obedience
and the Wisdom of God's Law
Moses said to the people: "1 Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching
you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the
land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 In your observance of the commandments of the
LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to which I command
you nor subtract from it. [...]. 6 Observe
them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence
to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, 'This great nation
is truly a wise and intelligent people.' 7
For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the LORD,
our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? 8 Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just
as this whole Law, which I am setting before you today?"
When Moses returned from his experience in the presence of God on Mt. Sinai, he brought back more than the two tablets of the Law engraved by the finger of God (Ex 24:18; 32:15-16; 34:28-29). He also received divine authority to teach God's commands to the covenant people. He wrote down some of what he received in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. However, other commands were not written down but passed on as an oral tradition to Aaron the High Priest and the other chief priests. At the end of the forty years in the wilderness, it was with this divinely ordained teaching authority that he addressed the new generation of the children of Israel poised to march forward to take possession of the Promised Land of Canaan in his last three discourses in the Book of Deuteronomy. Today's First Reading is from the first of his last three sermons to the new generation of the children of Israel about to take possession of the Promised Land of Canaan as God's holy warriors.
Moses's appeal, Shema Israel, "Hear Israel" (or in this case in the Hebrew, Israel Shema in 4:1) is characteristic of the beginning of a didactic address in Deuteronomy (see 4:1; 5:1; 6:4; 9:1; 20:3 and 27:9). In verse 1, the Hebrew verb "to teach" or "to instruct" appears for the first time in the Pentateuch (Weinfeld, The Book of Deuteronomy, page 200). The use of the verb "to teach/instruct" in Deuteronomy 4:1 illustrates Moses' mission as Israel's first "teacher of the Law." The lawgiver and covenant mediator are the roles for which Jewish tradition remembers Moses. In the Second Temple period (517 BC-70 AD), the teaching authority of the hierarchy of the Old Covenant Church was referred to as "the chair of Moses," just as the teaching authority of the New Covenant Church is called "the chair of Peter" (see Mt 23:2).
Moses taught the children of Israel that obedience to God's commandments was the path to life. The central theme Moses's homily is that life for Israel depends on obedience to God's commandments (also see Dt 30:15-20). English translations often render the Hebrew word torah as "law." However, from the prime root horah, "to teach," a more accurately translation is "teaching" or "instruction" (see the first use in Ex 12:49; followed by 13:9; 16:4; 24:12; Lev 6:9, 14, 28; 7:1, 7, 4; etc.; Dt 1:5; 4:8, 44; 17:11, 18, 19; 27:3, 8, 26; 28:58; 29:28; 31:9, 11, 12, 24; 32:46; etc.). God's intention was not that the commandments and prohibitions of the Law were to be only read or memorized. The covenant people were to live out the commands by putting them into practice in their lives so they could survive to enter and take possession of the country that Yahweh, God of your ancestors, is giving you (Dt 4:1). Moses repeated the command to "do" a significant seven times. In the significance of numbers in Scripture, seven is the number of fullness, completeness, and spiritual perfection (Dt 4:1, 5, 6, 13, 14; 5:1; and 6:1).
The promise that to live in obedience to God's laws brings life to the believer is the same promise for New Covenant believers. The difference is that Jesus promises us to live in obedience to the laws of the New Covenant brings eternal life and not merely God's protection in temporal blessings as under the Old Covenant (Lev 26:3-13; Dt 28:1-14). In Jesus's homily at the Last Supper, He said: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (Jn 14:15), and St. John wrote: The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his commandments. Whoever says, "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him. This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to live just as he lived (1 Jn 2:3-6).
2 In your observance
of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall
not add to which I command you nor subtract from it.
In this verse, the warning to guard the sacred Word of God
and neither add nor take away from Yahweh's commands and prohibitions is the
language of ancient Near Eastern covenant treaties. The Book of Deuteronomy was
a renewal of the covenant treaty God made with Israel at Mt. Sinai, extended to
the new generation of the children of Israel after the judgment of forty years
in the wilderness (Num 14:26-35). See the document "The Covenant Treaty in
Sacred Scripture" and "The Covenant Treaty Format of the Old and New Testaments."
The command not to add or subtract from the Sacred Word appears
in five Scripture passages:
In other words, those who profess loyalty to Yahweh in a covenant relationship cannot practice religion and worship according to their understanding.
6 Observe them
carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to
the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, 'This great nation is
truly a wise and intelligent people.' 7 For
what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God,
is to us whenever we call upon him? 8 Or
what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law
which I am setting before you today?"
In addition to life, God promises His covenant people His
blessing of wisdom if they keep His laws by putting them into practice in the
Promised Land. And, if future generations of Israelites continue to live
according to God's laws, commands, and prohibitions, they will win the
admiration of the surrounding Gentile nations for their wisdom and prudence.
Yahweh's Covenant Treaty with the children of Israel as His vassal people set them apart as His "firstborn" sons among the nations of the earth (Ex 4:22). Israel enjoyed a unique position among the Gentile nations for three reasons:
All these gifts and blessings continue to be ours in the New Covenant in Christ Jesus, so long as we remain obedient to His Kingdom of the Church, which is the vehicle Jesus established with authority to guide us on our journey to our eternal blessings in Heaven.
Responsorial Psalm 15:2-5 ~ Practicing God's Justice
Response: "The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord."
2 Whoever walks
blamelessly and does justice; who thinks the truth in his heart and slanders not
with his tongue.
Response:
3 Who harms not his
fellow man, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor; 4 by whom the reprobate is despised, while he
honors those who fear the LORD.
Response:
5 Who lends not his
money at usury and accepts no bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these
things shall never be disturbed.
Response:
The title (superscription) of Psalm 15:1 attributes it to David, king of Israel and ancestor of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus (Mt 1:1, 20; Lk 1:32-33). In verse 1, the psalmist asks the question: Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy mountain? Then, in verses 2-5, the psalmist answers his question by offering what he believes is a necessary examination of conscience at the entrance to the Temple court. The worshipper must ask what conduct he has demonstrated that makes appropriate his admission into God's holy precincts. Notice that the emphasis is on virtues relating to his love of his neighbor. Is he:
Such a person has demonstrated the rightness of heart and conduct to separate themselves from human sin and participate in worshipping the One True God by offering their life as an unblemished sacrifice. It is the same examination of conduct and conscience that St. Paul urges all Christians to practice before entering the holy inner court of the Mass and the celebration of the sacred meal of the Eucharist. Paul wrote to the Christians of Corinth: Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body (of Christ), eats and drinks judgment on himself (1 Cor 11:26-32).
The Second Reading James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27 ~ Act in Response
to God's Divine Word
My beloved brothers (and sisters): 17 all
good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father
of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change. 18 He willed to give us birth by the word of
truth that we may be a kind of Firstfruits of his creatures. [...]. 21b humbly welcome the word that has been
planted in you and is able to save your souls. 22 Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding
yourselves. [...] 27 Religion that is
pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and
widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
In verse 17, St. James the Just, the first Christian Bishop of Jerusalem, affirmed Jesus's statement in Matthew 7:11 that your heavenly Father gives "good things" to His covenant children. James compares the physical lights created by God in the cosmos (Gen 1:14-18) with the Lord God, who is the source of spiritual light and of everything beneficial. In the spiritual sense, "light" is holiness and truth, while "darkness" symbolizes what is evil and corrupt:
God created the universe and gave the planets and stars their paths and shadows that shift according to their seasonal celestial motion. But unlike the heavenly bodies, there is no variation in God. He is constant and unchanging through all eternity (Ps 118:1; Heb 13:8; Jn 1:1-5).
18 He willed to give
us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of Firstfruits of his
creatures.
The "word of truth" is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in which
God revealed His plan of salvation for humanity. That message of truth is also
the Living Word, Jesus Himself (Jn 14:6). Through Him, a faithful remnant of the
old Israel and all New Covenant Christians have been reborn into the family of
God through the Sacrament of Baptism in the death, burial, and resurrection of
Christ our Savior (CCC# 168; 684; 1214-15).
James referred to the Christians of his generation as "a kind of Firstfruits of his creatures" because 1st-century AD Jews, like St. James, who embraced Jesus as the promised Redeemer-Messiah, became the first harvest of His new creation. The other generation of Israelites called the "firstfruits" was the Exodus generation. On the night of the first Passover in Egypt, Yahweh redeemed the firstborn sons of Israel with the blood of a sacrificial lamb or goat kid (Ex Chapter 12). Thus, the Israelites of the Exodus generation were the "firstfruits" of Yahweh's covenant with Israel and the holy priesthood of the firstborn of the Old Covenant Church. In the same way, the blood of Jesus Christ redeemed the first of the Jews of His generation to come into the New Covenant, making them the "firstfruits" of the great human harvest gathered into God's great "storehouse" that is Heaven.
21b humbly welcome
the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. 22 Be doers of the word and not hearers only,
deluding yourselves.
James wrote that we are deluding ourselves if we think that only
believing in Christ is enough. He pointed out that even the demons believed
Jesus was the Son of God (i.e., Mt 4:3, 6; 8:29; Jam 2:19). Jesus asks for a living
and active faith, and James affirmed this teaching when he wrote: For just
as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead (Jam 2:26).
In St. Bede's commentary on St. James' letter, he warned Christians that the first requirement for doing what is good was to confess one's sins and turn away from evil. The Bede advised that no one upon whom sin has a hold can ever expect to be an effective conduit for the holy works of God to flow through him and out to the world. To humbly welcome the living Word, the Christian must submit himself to God by admitting poverty of spirit, by mourning his sins, and by yielding himself meekly into the hands of the Master. Doing this fulfills the first three blessings of the New Covenant Law with which Jesus began His Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (see Mt 5:1-4). Christian faith is pro-active, not static. Active faith was the theme of Jesus's discourse when he compared the Christian to light and salt in Matthew 5:13-16. Each is only good if it serves the purpose for which it was created; the same is true for a Christian. Jesus said, "In the same way your light must shine in people's sight, so that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in heaven" (Mt 5:16).
27 Religion that is
pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and
widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Our English word "religion" is from the Latin word religare,
meaning "to tie, fasten, bind, or gather up." Religion is the moral virtue by
which a person disposes himself to give God the worship, obedience, and service
He deserves. James defined the proper exercise of religion as coming to the
help of orphans and widows and living in holiness and righteousness before God.
As Christians, we are in the world but not part of the world, which means we
must avoid being influenced by the world's value system.
St. James chose widows and orphans as his example of those most in need of assistance because, in the 1st century AD, no other group of people was so utterly defenseless. The Old Testament mentions widows and orphans as deserving of special protection (Dt 27:19; Ps 68:5; 146:9), and they were the first concern of the New Covenant Church (Acts 6:1ff, in 9:39, and to St. Paul in 1 Tim 5:3ff).
Bound by the divine Blood of Christ, the Church is a family of believers, and like any family, we have the responsibility to love and care for each other. Christians are also expected to extend their love to those outside the faith community because Jesus loved and suffered for them as well as for those of us who already belong to Him. We must love as He loves, and that means to love without boundaries. Loving in this way, St. James tells the faithful, is the exercise of true religion.
The Gospel of Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 ~ The Tradition
of the Elders and the Parable of Clean and Unclean
1 When the
Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they
observed that some of his disciples ate their meals [artos/bread] with unclean,
that is, unwashed, hands. 3 For the
Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their
hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. 4
And on coming from the marketplace, they do not eat without purifying
themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally
observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. 5 So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a
meal [artos] with unclean hands?" 6 He
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.' 8 You disregard God's commandments but cling to
human tradition." [...] 14 He
summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and
understand. 15 Nothing that enters
one from outside can defile that person, but the things that come out from
within are what defile." [...] 21 From
within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft,
murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice,
deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. 23 All these evils come from within, and they
defile.
The Temple hierarchy in Jerusalem sent their representatives to examine Jesus in the same way they sent others to question John the Baptist (Jn 1:19-20). In verse 5, the "traditions of the elders" the Pharisees referred to were the religious practices they and the elders (councils or groups of leaders who served in the courts of law like the Sanhedrin) added to the written Mosaic Law of the Torah and the Oral Tradition of the priests. The Oral Tradition was the unwritten laws and practices received by Aaron. Moses was Israel's first covenant mediator and his brother, Aaron, was the first High Priest who had God's authority in liturgical matters.
2 they observed that some of his disciples ate
their meals [artos/bread] with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. 3 For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do
not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the
elders. 4 And on coming from the marketplace,
they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things
that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and
kettles and beds.
As they expanded their authority over all religious
matters in the 1st century BC, the Pharisees began to preach the
doctrine that priestly ritual purity practices should apply to all the covenant
people. They added their interpretation of religious customs to the Mosaic Law,
making it more of a burden for the people and less a tutor and a guide. Certain
traditions, which included the ritual of Temple worship, were part of a sacred Tradition
that was only passed on orally by the chief priests and Levites until the destruction
of the Temple by the Romans in AD 70. After that time, the surviving priests
recorded the oral traditions in the Jewish Mishnah circa AD 200. In
Jesus's time, the Pharisees added to the oral Tradition their interpretations
that made rigid observance of the Law more important than mercy.
5 So the
Pharisees and scribes questioned him, "Why do your disciples not follow the
tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal [artos] with unclean hands?"
The Pharisees were not charging Jesus and His disciples
with poor hygiene but with a flagrant disregard for religious observances of
the Law.
6 He 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.' 8 You disregard God's commandments but cling to
human tradition."
Jesus responded to their attack by calling them
hypocrites (a Greek word that refers to one in a Greek drama playing a part)
and quoting from Isaiah 29:13 LXX (Greek translation). In that passage, the
prophet Isaiah chastised the people of Jerusalem for ignoring God's word
delivered by His holy prophets and paying more attention to human precepts and
the letter rather than the spirit of the Law. During His last day teaching in
Jerusalem before His arrest, Jesus accused the Pharisees of manipulating the
Law to suit their interests. He condemned them as hypocrites and used even stronger
language, calling them "serpents" and "a brood of vipers" (meaning children of
Satan) in a covenant lawsuit composed of seven curse judgments (Mt 23:1-36).
14 He summoned
the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand. 15 Nothing that enters one from outside can
defile that person, but the things that come out from within are what defile."
The little Parable of Clean and Unclean in verses 14-15 is
Jesus's seventh parable in St. Mark's Gospel. By teaching this parable, Jesus did
away with the ritual purity laws associated with clean and unclean foods (Lev Chapter
11). The purpose of foods designated "clean" and "unclean" was to separate the
Israelites from their pagan neighbors and to remind the Israelites that they
were a pure and holy people dedicated to a pure and holy God (Lev 11:44-45). The
food restrictions were the first of the ritual commandments of the Sinai
Covenant that Jesus changed. The old Law defined ritual defilement as an
external condition that signified an internal state, but the New Covenant
penetrates the heart of the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit to cleanse
and govern the inward life of the believer. Jesus's teaching is the beginning
of the end of the separation between Jew and Gentile, both fully welcomed into
the New Covenant.
21 From within
people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness,
envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
In the Bible, the "heart" was the moral center of the person
and the source of every decision that manifests itself through the person's
actions. The point of Jesus's parable was that defilement comes from the
thoughts and actions of a person and not from the foods consumed. Jesus listed thirteen
actions/sins that defile a person in verses 21-22:
23 All these
evils come from within, and they defile.
Jesus said that sin begins as a thought that becomes an
action. A righteous person must turn away from temptation, banish evil thoughts,
and resist imperfect human responses. We must resist temptations to sin and replace
them with pure thoughts, the righteousness of the Word of God, and the good
deeds of those reborn into the family of a divine Father. Then, our words and
deeds will reflect our commitment to holiness in a life that will be pleasing
to God.
Catechism References (* indicates Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
James 1:17 (CCC 212, 2642);
1:27 (CCC 2208)
Mark 7:8 (CCC 581); 7:14-15 (CCC 574*); 7:21 (CCC 1764*)
Christ and the Law (CCC 577*, 578*, 579*, 580*, 581*, 582*)
The Old Law and the Gospel (CCC 1961-1962, 1963*, 1964*, 1965*, 1966, 1967*, 1968*, 1969*, 1970*, 1971*, 1972*, 1973-1974)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2015; revised 2021 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.