22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024 - The remedy for pharisaical externalizing

 Having completed five weeks of readings from the Eucharistic Discourse of chapter 6 of St.  John’s Gospel, we return this Sunday to the Year B continuous reading of the Gospel of Mark.

The last time we read from Mark’s Gospel was back in July, when we read from chapter 6 of Mark, how the Lord had sent the apostles on a missionary journey of healing and preaching, and afterwards, he invited them to a deserted place to pray and rest. So, St. Mark told us how Jesus and the apostles went off to  deserted place, but all these people from the town followed him, and his heart was moved with pity because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Now in chapter 7, this week, the Lord has left the deserted place and has gone back to work when he encounters a team of Pharisees and Scribes—these men who claimed to be the shepherds of Israel. And these guys were more like wolves-in-sheep’s clothing. 

Unlike John the Baptist who humbly pointed out the Son of God to the people, the scribes and pharisees were basically doing the opposite. They were so blinded by their pride and their greed that they were acting as obstacles to God, rather than helping people prepare the way for Him. 

And so, the Lord is going to has some pretty challenging words for these guys. He calls them hypocrites—sinners who refused to acknowledge their sins and their need for God. And there’s a big difference in the Gospel, isn’t there, between sinners who repent and those who refuse to repent. Sinners who come to Jesus and beg for mercy are shown mercy. But the pharisees and scribes, these guys, were sinners who refused to acknowledge their need for Christ.

Often, we find the Lord berating the Scribes and Pharisees for worrying so much about appearances, about externals, rather than dealing with the glaring issues in their souls. 

Psychologists call this ‘exteriorization’…it’s when things are not well inside, so you spend your energy—inordinate amounts of energy— trying to control the things around you. I sometimes see this in my ministry in people who are grieving the loss of a loved one. Every little thing about the funeral has to be controlled and planned and perfect—every flower petal, every funeral song, every family member has to be standing in the right spot. So many of our addictions (to technology, shopping, substances) come from that same impulse to externalize.

But what’s needed in times of grief, chaos, and confusion, aren’t all these attempts to control external realities, what is needed is the opening of the mind and heart to God—who is the only real source of healing and peace. He’s the only one who can calm the inner storm—the pain and the sadness from wounds of loss. 

When externalization becomes a habit, or a lifestyle, it causes real problems for individuals and families. When those unresolved inner conflicts are allowed to fester, they can turn into real emotional disorders that can sap the joy from life and turn into rage or depression. Wounds from our childhoods, wounds of rejection or jealousy that we don’t bring to Lord for healing, can cause us to rot from the inside out. Some people are not happy unless they are controlling other people, and that is a real soul sickness.

And that is the very soul sickness the Lord has diagnosed in the Pharisees and Scribes, and this is why the pharisees and scribes were failures as religious shepherds—out of pride they refused to acknowledge their moral disorders and their need for God to heal them, and spent all this time and effort worrying about and enforcing human traditions.  Not that human traditions are bad—but it’s foolish to worry about these things when our souls are in danger of hell. 

Today’s Gospel is an important Gospel because in it the Lord is stressing the importance of getting your priorities straight. No matter what you are going through, you need to make sure that your soul is right with God. God is waiting to relieve our guilt. But we have to acknowledge our sins and bring them to God.

This is done primarily in the Sacrament of Confession, the great unutilized Sacrament these days. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, if it has been more than a few months since your last confession, make a good thorough examination of conscience and get in the box. I have guides printed out back by the confessional for this purpose containing a list of sins that should be confessed, just like the list of sins Jesus offered in the Gospel today: “unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance”

Unconfessed serious sins are not only an obstacle for grace, not only do they jeopardize our eternal salvation, but they damage to our minds, bodies, and souls and relationships. They impact our relationship with God, and so they impact every other relationship. 

The Lord takes sin seriously because he loves us so deeply. He died to save us from them, not just sin in general, but the very sins we commit in this life. And so we should welcome any opportunity to overcome sin that we are given. 

Like the bronze serpent in the desert, God has given us the sacrament of Confession to relieve our guilt, and to experience the transforming love of Christ for sinners. Confessions are available here at St. Ignatius from 3:30 to 4:30 every Saturday, and Sunday morning after the 9am mass. Pope Francis said recently that the Sacrament of Confession is a sacrament of joy because through it you are able to encounter the Father’s love, “as children who run to receive the Father's embrace. And the Father lifts us up in every situation”

But even outside of the confessional, we do well to bring our resentments, fears, failings, challenges, stresses to God every day in prayer, so that our hearts may remain open to the help that can only come from him.

May the Lord deliver us from our pharisaical tendencies and lead us to the fountain of grace and mercy where he wishes to restore our souls, bring healing to our minds and bodies, and grant us peace and the fullness of joy for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

21st Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Tuesday - Have I been Pharisaical?

 

In the style of the Old Testament prophets like Amos, Isaiah, and Micah, the Lord Jesus, in the Gospel today has launched into a full-scale public denunciation of the religious leaders of Jerusalem for their hypocrisy and failures in religious leadership. He literally calls them “hypocrites” and “blind guides”. 

How do we read through these types of passages? How do we read any passage of Scripture?

What lesson is there, in the Lord’s criticism and condemnation of the Pharisees, for my growth of soul? The Lord’s indictment of the Pharisees should lead us, especially those involved in Christian leadership, to a sober examination of conscience. Where have I acted like a Pharisee?

In Chapter 23 of Matthew’s Gospel, the Lord issues 7 of these criticism—7 “woes”. “Woe to you” for doing THIS---this action—this hypocritical behavior.

And so if we are reading through these criticisms looking for a spiritual lesson for ourselves, then these 7 woes are like 7 questions for self-examination.

Do I practice what I preach? Do I perform ‘religious actions’ to impress others or to truly honor God? 

In today’s passage we hear of two criticisms. First, the Lord says,  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity.” The Mosaic law ordered tithing of the produce of the land, and the scribes taught that such tithing extended even to the smallest herbs of your garden.

The Lord here is criticizing the preoccupation with matters of little importance while neglecting justice, mercy, and fidelity. 

Have I neglected mercy because I was too caught up with a minor detail? The Christian life is to be filled with acts of justice and mercy. Have I become preoccupied with the trivial and neglected what matters most in the Christian life?

The second criticism in today’s passage: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence” has to do with what? The Pharisees we know were obsessive about ritual purity, while neglecting the more important matter of interior, moral purity. Purity of the heart. 

Am I really doing the hard work of seeking interior conversion of my faults and vices? How much of my time and effort is dedicated to self-indulgence? We can become very very skilled at justifying self-indulgence if we aren’t careful: I deserve those three hours on the couch every day. I can tell you, self-indulgent consumerism is keeping a lot of Christians from the simplicity and works of charity God wants us to be engaging in.

I encourage you to go back and read through Matthew 23. Those seven woes, are very helpful in identifying the sorts of faults all of us Christians can develop. If you can’t deal honestly with these questions…you’re in trouble. There is some resistance to grace. But the good news is, spiritual growth is possible—through prayer, regular confession, honesty and humility. May we seek the life and spiritual growth God wants for each of us wholeheartedly, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the flourishing of spiritual gifts in the Church and in our parish; and for the grace during this month of August to practice the virtue of humility in all of our relationships and interactions. 

For our young people preparing to return to school, and for their teachers: that the Word of God might be cherished, studied, and practiced in every classroom and home. 

That politicians and government officials may protect religious freedom, promote virtue, and look to the law of Christ to guide their work for the good of nations and all peoples. 

For those beset with any sort of trial, illness, or burden: that the Lord will build up his strength within them and assist them in their needs. 

That those who have died may share in the joy of life-everlasting with the Risen Lord, especially the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the souls in purgatory…

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

2nd Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Tuesday - Interacting with Pharisees

 
In Mark’s Gospel, the conflict with the Pharisees begins early on in the Gospel-- at the beginning of chapter 2. And throughout chapter 2 and the beginning passage of chapter 3 St. Mark details five controversies—five vignettes in which Jesus encounters opposition in the form of disapproval, suspicion, and contention on the part of the religious authorities and even some of the populace. But in each of these controversies, Jesus reveals something about his identity and mission, inviting his questioners to believe in him. 

When Jesus claims the power to heal the paralytic and forgive sins at the beginning of chapter 2, the pharisees calls him a blasphemer. When Jesus and his disciples eat at in the house of Levi, the scribes question his practice of eating with tax collectors and sinners. Next, the Lord’s piety is called into question because he does not fast like others claiming to be authoritative teachers. In today’s passage, the fourth controversy is much like the second and third, it involves food. 

The Lord and his disciples are passing through a field of grain, and while they passed through, they picked heads of grain to eat. The Pharisees condemn the Lord for doing, what in their estimation, appears to be unlawful—picking grain on the sabbath.

Notice, how the Lord neither affirms nor disputes the Pharisees’ interpretation of whether this is actually unlawful work. Rather, he gets to the heart of the matter, by redirecting the conversation to the Word of God—to the biblical story of King David and to the law that allows priests to do God’s holy work on the sabbath. Here, like in the other controversies, Jesus reveals something about himself--he equates himself with the anointed King and anointed Priest who are dispensed from the sabbath law because they are doing the work of the God of the sabbath. Jesus is the anointed Lord of the Sabbath. 

Because of their hardness of hearts, the Pharisees are going to reject this claim. They refuse to allow the possibility that what Jesus is saying is true. That cannot and will not acknowledge an authority greater than themselves. That’s what we mean when someone is acting Pharisaical. They will not acknowledge truth outside of themselves; they will refuse to listen to logical, biblically derived arguments, the wisdom of the ages, the Word of God.

We who have already acknowledged Jesus as Son of God and Lord of the Sabbath, always need to make sure, of course, that we aren’t allowing the attitude of the Pharisee to creep in—that we don’t hold onto opinions that are contrary to the word of God. But, also in our evangelizing mission, we are likely to come across a Pharisee or two. Like Jesus, we are to patiently and clearly explain the Church’s position. We might have to endure some self-righteous mockery from time to time, so be it. We might even come across those who claim to be Catholic, we have strayed from authentic Church teaching, who ridicule us for holding fast to clear Catholic teaching. Oftentimes these Pharisaical, hard-hearted Catholics are harder to convince than those growing up without faith. 

But again, like the Lord, in the face of religious controversy, ridicule, we patiently make recourse to the Word of God in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and pray for their souls, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her.

For the peoples of the world, that the Lord may preserve harmony among us.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may grant them relief and move Christians to come to the aid of the suffering.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, for all monastics and hermits, and that all Christians may seek the perfection for which they were made.

For our beloved dead, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.