Pure Religion: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
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
Today’s Gospel casts Jesus in a prophetic light as one having authority to interpret God’s law.
Jesus’ quotation from Isaiah today is ironic (see Isaiah 29:13). In observing the law, the Pharisees honor God by ensuring that nothing unclean passes their lips. In this, however, they’ve turned the law inside out, making it a matter of simply performing certain external actions.
The gift of the law, which we hear God giving to Israel in today’s First Reading, is fulfilled in Jesus’ Gospel, which shows us the law’s true meaning and purpose (see Matthew 5:17).
The law, fulfilled in the Gospel, is meant to form our hearts, to make us pure, able to live in the Lord’s presence. The law was given that we might live and enter into the inheritance promised to us—the kingdom of God, eternal life.
Israel, by its observance of the law, was meant to be an example to surrounding nations. As James tells us in today’s Epistle, the Gospel was given to us that we might have new birth by the Word of truth. By living the Word we’ve received, we’re to be examples of God’s wisdom to those around us, the “first fruits” of a new humanity.
This means we must be “doers” of the Word, not merely hearers of it. As we sing in today’s Psalm and hear again in today’s Epistle, we must work for justice, taking care of our brothers and sisters and living by the truth God has placed in our hearts.
The Word given to us is a perfect gift. We should not add to it through vain and needless devotions. Nor should we subtract from it by picking and choosing which of His laws to honor.
“Hear me,” Jesus says in today’s Gospel. Today, we’re called to examine our relationship to God’s law.
Is the practice of our religion a pure listening to Jesus, a humble welcoming of the Word planted in us and able to save our souls? Or are we only paying lip service?
“God will provide don’t worry.” “The Lord will surely send someone to right the wrong” “The Lord is close to the broken hearted, and He delivers those whose spirit has been crushed.” “Pray that the Lord will send labourers into His harvest.” “He tends his flock like a shepherd, He gathers the lambs in his arms, carries them close to his heart, and gently leads the mother sheep.” “He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.”
What if the Lord sends you in His stead? To provide for the poor, to defend the innocent, to deliver those whose spirit has been crushed and to comfort His people. What if you are the labourer He has sent into His harvest? To tend to His flock like a shepherd to love and care for them. To bring His healing grace to the broken hearted, to tend to the sick and bind the wounds of the wounded. Yes indeed He has sent you and me! For He has already given us all that we need and He will make up for all that we lack. What will we say to Him when He returns? How will we account for all that we have done for His Kingdom and all that we have failed to do? Can we hope to hear our Lord say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.”
Let us pray…. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.
St Augustine pray for us…
First reading
1 Thessalonians 4:9-11 ·
You have learnt from God how to love one another
As for loving our brothers, there is no need for anyone to write to you about that, since you have learnt from God yourselves to love one another, and in fact this is what you are doing with all the brothers throughout the whole of Macedonia. However, we do urge you, brothers, to go on making even greater progress and to make a point of living quietly, attending to your own business and earning your living, just as we told you to.
Gospel
Matthew 25:14-30
You have been faithful in small things: come and join in your master’s happiness
Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like a man on his way abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one; each in proportion to his ability. Then he set out.
‘The man who had received the five talents promptly went and traded with them and made five more. The man who had received two made two more in the same way. But the man who had received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
‘Now a long time after, the master of those servants came back and went through his accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents came forward bringing five more. “Sir,” he said “you entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made.”
‘His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.”
‘Next the man with the two talents came forward. “Sir,” he said “you entrusted me with two talents; here are two more that I have made.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.”
‘Last came forward the man who had the one talent. “Sir,” said he “I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered; so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have it back.” But his master answered him, “You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered? Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have recovered my capital with interest. So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the five talents. For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away. As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”’
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