Check Your Heart!

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, August 29, 2021

In our first reading (Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8), Moses reminds his people of God’s commandment and urges them to observe it in order to enter the Promised Land and live a prosperous life. He also warns them not to add or subtract from it. Disappointedly, Moses’ warning was ignored, because the Pharisees multiplied the Ten Commandments to six hundred and thirteen (613) legal codes. With these many laws and norms, the Pharisees made life practically and extremely hard for the people of God. They believed in self-salvation, convinced themselves and their followers that one can save oneself through heroic moral effort, that is, by the strict observance of the law. When Jesus presents himself as the hand that the Father stretches out to sinners and to those who are lost, the Pharisees resisted him in every step of the way, and plotted to kill him. Several times Jesus warns the Pharisees and scribes about their behavior and attitude. In one of those times, Jesus launches a blistering attack on them and said to them “woe to you.” He also calls them hypocrites, blind guides, blind fools, blind ones, children of Gehenna etc.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is surrounded by the Pharisees and some scribes who came from Jerusalem to Galilee. Jerusalem is a long way from Galilee, but these men were willing to make the journey just to tell Jesus that he was not doing the right thing. They came to Jesus with no intention of listening, with no expectation of changing their lives, and no hope of surrendering to him. They came to watch and to find fault and then latch unto the fault they find and use it to discredit Jesus and his mission. As soon as they noticed that some of Jesus’ disciples ate their meals with unwashed hands, they pushed through the crowds, stood in the frontline up-close to Jesus and asked, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” Their criticism is a very serious one for what they were alleging is that Jesus is not even a Hebrew. Their question was meant to delegitimize Jesus, make him a foreigner who is bent on destroying their religion, customs and traditions, and then use their allegation to turn people away from him. 

What did Jesus do in response to the Pharisees’ question? He pushes back forcefully, and repeats Isaiah’s prophesy many centuries ago that accurately depicts their attitude: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.” Jesus accuses them of disregarding God’s commands and clinging to human tradition. After that, Jesus turns to the crowd and says, “Hear me, all of you and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” The things that can defile us according to our Lord is not the food we eat or what we drink. If the food or drink is poisoned, it can harm us but not defile us spiritually. What defiles are evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly. Each of them come from within us and can defile us and ruin us now and eternally.  

Mosaic Law required priests to perform ritual washings before they celebrate Temple liturgies. But since all God’s people are commanded to “be holy” (Leviticus 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7 etc.), that requirement was extended to everyone. However, with the passage of time, people forgot that the call to holiness means careful and continuous change. Religious leaders fell into the habit of operating as if their rules could replace God’s commandments. So, Jesus calls them hypocrites because even though they talk for God and talk about God, but inside of them they are “filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.” They say one thing and do another. They are preachers of the word only and never its doers. After rendering his judgment on the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus turns to the crowd and urges them to pay more attention to the content of their hearts. For biblical people, the heart also includes the mind. Whenever you come across the word “heart” in the bible, it is not talking about emotion, although emotion is part of it. It is also talking about the mind. The heart means a person’s whole being. Therefore, pay attention to the contents of your heart and mind. Pay attention to your behaviors, actions, and attitudes. 

Apostle James invites us in our second reading to “Be doers of the word and not hearers only…” Of course, the best way to accomplish this is to allow authentic Christianity find expressions in the way we live, move, love and treat one another. Once again, check the contents of your heart before they wreak you and those around you. Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). Although the human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, as prophet Jeremiah (17:9) says, but it can be redeemed. If we surrender our hearts to Jesus, he can mend our hearts, and make them more like his. He can soften the hardness that lies within. Only Jesus can save us!