Reflection for Sunday – September 1, 2024
Readings: Deuteronomy 4: 1-2. 6-8; James 1: 17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Preacher: Sr. Joan Sobala
It’s that time of year when newly- minted freshmen are off for the first time to the college of their choice. Part of the excitement of moving out of their parents’ home— going out on their own—is that they are free. No more reporting to parents or abiding by their rules.
What college freshmen learn—what we all learned when we first went out on our own—is that we are never totally, completely free of law in life.
We escape one set of rules and immediately find ourselves bound by another set of norms. Housing complexes have rules. Income tax needs to be paid by April15. Roads have speed limits. Religion is viewed as laying negative, repressive prescriptions on its members. No matter what prominence, prestige or position a person may have, none of us is ever completely free in life. Laws are largely perceived as negating or diminishing any freedom that we think we have.
The word “law” has layers of meaning. We see some laws as life-giving. We pay only lip service to others and perform in a perfunctory way.
Scripture tells us that the Law, in its most profound sense, is given for the sake of life. The Law of God exists so that people can be free to live with one another and love God deeply. Human laws are at their best when they mirror the Laws of God, when they are just.
In today’s first reading, we see that the Israelites were skeptical about the depth and value of God’s Law. It took work on the part of Moses to make the Israelites grasp this. He spoke of the Ten Commandments as the Ten Words of God, like honey on their lips. Far from being oppressive, the Law of God guided them to freedom.
In some ways, we are like the Israelites. The idea of the Law as freeing, as life-giving, takes effort for us to comprehend. The closest analogy I can think of are the laws that freed slaves, including the Emancipation Proclamation that led up to Juneteenth, and the laws that allowed marchers to pass freely unharmed from Selma to Montgomery to present their grievances to Gov. George Wallace in 1965. And how about the laws in South Africa that ended apartheid and the ones that gave women the right to vote, in our country and elsewhere. These were laws that freed.
One perceptive parishioner a few years ago said she judged the power and value of a homily by how much it made her squirm. Everyone knew what she meant. None of us likes to squirm over anything, but sometimes squirming is a signal to be more attentive to what is being said. Take it in. Develop it. Abide by it.
The Jewish people in today’s Gospel had reduced their practice of the Law to the ritual washing of cups and hands, kettles and beds. These laws did not make them squirm. Neither were their hearts engaged. Jesus found both the leaders and the people wanting. Jesus told them, using the words of Isaiah, “This people honor me with the lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Mark 6b)
What does it mean to engage the heart? To transform shallow belief to belief that governs our attitudes and actions? James, in today’s second reading gives a succinct answer. He tells us to be doers of the Word, not hearers only, that, in the name of God, we should take care of the widows and orphans. In our day, that translates into the homeless, the immigrant, the elderly… anyone in need…not just wishing them well, but working, yes, working to insure they don’t fall through the cracks of our social safety net.
If we want to know what being a true believer means, if we want to taste the honey God gives, we begin with letting the cry of the poor, the lonely, the unemployed, the mentally distressed touch our being.
As a community of believers, we become other centered and are truly glad when people’s gifts are recognized and truly grieve when some of our members are lost.
Open to God’s Word, we can know this for sure. Such openness will change us. And in that change we will learn wisdom, have a new perspective how to live, and make all law the servant of life.
Then everyone will be closer to being truly free.
- Reflection for Sunday – September 1, 2024 - August 28, 2024
- Reflection for Sunday – January 28, 2024 - January 24, 2024
- Reflection for Sunday – October 8, 2023 - October 4, 2023
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