Homily (Reflection) for
the Twenty-Second Sunday of the Year (B) (29th August, 2021) on the Gospel
Deut
4:1-2.6-8;
Ps
14:2-5 (R. V. 1);
Jas
1:17-18.21-22.27;
Mk 7:1-8.14-15.21-23.
One woman normally spins
bitter leaves around her head before putting them into the pot. After observing
her with keen interest for some time, her children enquired why that and she
told them that it prevents the leaves from making the soup bitter. They took that
as a dogma based on the source of the information and that it has survived many
generations. The children began to doubt the veracity of the ritual when she
refused to prepare soup with bitter leaves that were not prepared. According to
her, the ritual could only work after the leaves have been prepared at least a
little. One day however the woman as she struggled to finish cooking on time used
bitter leaves that were poorly prepared after observing the normal rituals. Unfortunately
the soup turned out to be as bitter as whatever one can think of. Her children
wondered and asked their mother why the ritual did not work. She told them that
the preparation of the bitter leaves did not meet the required standard for the
tradition work. Hum!
Topic: Traditions – God’s and the Elders.
The New Webster’s Dictionary of the
English Language (2000), defines tradition as “a cultural continuity
transmitted in the form of social attitudes, beliefs, principles and
conventions of behaviour etc deriving from past experiences and helping to
shape the present” (p. 1046). Not every tradition is bad but in some cultures
today, human traditions are generally seen as opposing to God’s commandments.
Among the Jews, tradition includes
the following:
...never eat without washing their arms
as far as the elbow; and on returning from the market place they never eat
without first sprinkling [bathing] themselves. There are also many other
observances which have been handed down to them to keep, concerning the washing
of cups and pots and bronze dishes (Mk
7:3-4, TNJB).
Could it be that Jesus is against
these – washing of arms, and bathing before eating, washing cups, pots, and
bronze dishes? In the gospel according to Saint Luke when the people were
surprised that He did not first wash His hands He said:
Now you Pharisees clean the outside of
the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You
fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for
alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you (Lk 11:39-41).
And in today’s gospel we also read: “You
abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition” (Mk 7:8). Christians ought to live
according to the commandments of God because we are new creatures in Christ,
cf. 2Cor 5:17. This implies dying to
sin, cf. Rom 6:11; 8:1. We are to be
saved by living our lives as Christians not according to the human traditions.
Saint Paul writes:
yet we know that a person is justified
not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come
to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ,
and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the
works of law. But if, in our effort to
be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ
then a servant of sin? Certainly not! (Gal
2:16-17).
Saint Paul also warns in his letter
to the Colossians: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy
and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental
spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ” (Col 2:8).
There is a story of a visitor who
“was being shown around [during Communist times] by a party official. The
visitor said, ‘Are you Catholic?’ and the official answered, ‘believing, but
not practising.’ The visitor later asked, ‘Are you a communist?’ The official
smiled and said, ‘Practising, but not believing’” (Fuller, G. (2010). Stories
for all seasons. Mumbai: St Pauls, pp. 90-91). Christians ought to
assess every human tradition with God’s and not the other way round as we see
in many communities today. Just like the party official who took the visitor
around, some Christians today believe in paganism but are not practicing it and
others practice Christianity but do not believe in it. And many more are pagans
both in belief and in practice yet they parade themselves Christians.
Like the woman in our introduction,
many never question anything that is said to have been received from the
elders. Joseph Addison rightly points out that “Tradition is an important help
to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely
on them” (The New Webster’s Dictionary
of the English Language, p. QD-92).
Every tradition must be subjected to the scrutiny of God’s commandments and
whichever one that falls short must be dropped and those who do not oppose
God’s commandments can be used as means of evangelization.
Bible
Reading: Matt 23: 1-36; Lk 11:37-52; Gal 2:11-14.
Thought
for today: What guides you – God’s or man’s traditions?
Let
us Pray: Our Father in heaven, give us your grace that will enable
us follow wholeheartedly the dictates of your commandments – Amen.
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