Twenty-second Sunday In Ordinary Time
The first reading is from the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy. It is the fifth book or scroll of the Torah, a Hebrew word meaning “The teaching” or “The Law” of Moses, to whom tradition attributes its authorship. Christians usually refer to the Torah as “The Pentateuch,” a name derived from Greek, meaning “five scrolls.” The original language of Deuteronomy is Hebrew. It was not the custom in the Hebrew version of the Torah to assign a name to a book. A book was known by and called by its first words in Hebrew. Deuteronomy’s first words are translated into English as “These are the words.” What is the origin of the title “Deuteronomy?”
It is derived from the Greek version of Deuteronomy 17:18. The passage is as follows in English, “When the king sits on the throne of his kingdom, he must write for himself a copy of this law (deutero-nomion) into a book….” Thus deuteronomion, a combination of two Greek words meaning “second or repetition or copy,” and nomos meaning law, became the universally accepted name for this book of which the king was to make a copy.
The selection of the Lectionary for the first reading is a discourse Moses spoke to the Israelites in response to an apostasy involving idolatry of a heathen god, Baal of Peor. The apostasy occurred at Peor in the Plains of Moab, slightly NE of the Dead Sea. The Lord’s response to the idolatry was horrendous. He demanded a mass hanging of the leaders who led the idolatry and, by order of Moses, the killing of those “who yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.” The story is found in Numbers 25:1-5. A disgraced multitude was now prepared to listen to Moses’ discourse praising “the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land,” Those laws, says Moses, came from the Lord God himself. But this read-ing with its praise of the laws given to Israelites by God through Moses seems a strange choice for pairing with a gospel that denounces traditions which grew out of those laws.
The Responsorial Psalm (15) is a song of entrance into the temple liturgy, something like the Tridentine Latin Mass prayers at the foot of the altar and the Introit which follows those prayers. Psalm 15 opens with a question not included in the Responsorial. That question: “Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” The “holy hill” is Mt. Zion in Jerusalem on which the temple was built.
The answer to that question is a list of those who are worthy to enter. Those who walk blamelessly and do justice, who think the truth, do not slander others, do no harm to others. They honor those who fear (respect) the Lord, who do not accept interest for a loan, accept no bribe. Those who live like this “shall never be disturbed,” or in the words of the people’s response, “The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.” Why was this Psalm selected to follow the first reading’s praise of the laws of the Lord? All the practices, both positive and negative praised by the Psalm are extensions of the laws of the Lord.
The second reading is taken from the Letter of James. The author previously spoke to his congregation about people whose petitions are not granted by God because they waver between doubt and faith, “so they must not expect that the Lord will grant them anything.” The Lord is not like these flip-floppers. In him “there is no alteration or even a shadow of change.” James speaks of our birth by the word (revelation) planted in us. Next, some advice, sounding much like gospel material. “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” Finally a superb definition of true religion, “to care for widows and orphans in their affliction and keep oneself unstained….”
The gospels are catechisms or books of instruction. The stories the authors included in their gospels are a response to some question that was debated in Christian Communities (churches) at the time of writing. Mark writes about the year 70 A.D. The question: How much of the Torah (the laws of Moses) must still to be observed and what to do about the many traditions that the scribes (lawyers, scholars of the Scriptures) derived from the Torah laws? Mark mentions the traditions first – eating with unwashed hands, purifying themselves from ritual contamination incurred in the marketplace, washing of cups, pots, bronze dishes. Since Jesus according to Mark is going to criticize these traditions, we who are accustomed to hygienic practices will ask, “What’s wrong with these traditions?” Hygiene was not the concern. The concern was ritual contamination which kept one from participation in the rituals of worship. The multiplying of such traditions became an unbearable burden for normal life. These traditions were connected especially with the laws of “clean and unclean” foods.
Therefore the answer of the Marcan Jesus goes to the root of the problem and abolishes the Old Testament distinctions between clean and unclean foods. He accuses the scribes of teaching as divinely given commands what were merely human precepts or traditions. The catechesis continues as Jesus speaks to the crowd, or Mark to his Christian Community. “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile (make unclean) that person. It is the things that come from the inside that make one unclean. A list follows of the sins that are generated from the inside of a person. Then a judgment on all of them. “All these evils come from within and they do make a person un-clean.” Then follows Mark’s interpretation of this Jesus saying, “Thus he declared all foods clean.” Mark teaches that Christians are not bound by these traditions or the laws of clean and unclean. Unfortunately, our gospel reading omits Jesus’ criticism of the loopholes which some scribes (lawyers) contrived for themselves and their clients to avoid the obligations of the commandments of God. Jesus’ statement, “and many such things you do,” is a call for us to examine our own excuses for infringement of the commandments of God.
