22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B - Observing God’s Law & “Look Beyond”
This weekend’s Gospel casts Jesus in a prophetic light as one having authority to interpret God’s law. Jesus’ quotation from Isaiah today is ironic. 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 (Deut. 4:1-8), 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 Second reading (Jm. 1:17-27), 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. 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. “Listen to me, all of you,” Jesus says in this weekend’s Gospel (Mk 7:1-23). 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? Or are we only paying lip service?
In honor of these readings, we present our latest video "Look Beyond”, a Catholic communion hymn composed by Darryl Ducote of The Dameans and based on the 'Bread of Life' discourse in John 6.
Video can be watched by clicking here or on the picture below:
