August 30, 2015

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – A Reflection by Fr. Leo

 

One of my favorite TV shows, back when I used to watch TV, was Law and Order.  On Wednesday nights I’d tune in and the same intro stressing the words Law and Order began the hour.  The title, Law and Order, implies that where there is law there is order.  The stories were to ferret out the disorder and bring it to justice so that peace could be restored.  Corruption, greed, hatred, etc., were uncovered and brought into the light so Law and Order could be re-established. 

 

Our first reading from Deuteronomy expresses the belief that Law leads to order.  We hear of how religious and cultic law was to make a great nation of the Israelites.  Moses gave them the Law so they could become a strong and revered nation.  Keeping the Law, order would prevail, and God would bless his people. 

 

As Americans, we are comfortable with the Law and Order concept of society because that is the premise of our own social system.  However, when we come to the Gospel today, Jesus shows us the downside of the presumption that law always leads to justice.  The Pharisees, with all their cultic laws blended in with their religious laws, were criticizing Jesus because his disciples were not washing their hands before dinner. The law became so important that its tiniest infraction blinded them to the presence of God before them in Christ.  Here is legalism in action.  The law which is to bring order brings disorder to what is true and good.

 

Any society, any religion, must find a balance between the law and the spirit of the law.  When law becomes god, God is crowded out.  We can see that in the recent past in our church, when doing the liturgy “right” was most important.  Doing it right meant not changing the words, genuflecting many extra times and using multiple cups so one drop of precious blood wouldn’t spill.  Even the language of the prayers changed to alienate us from God and demonizing our goodness rather than recognizing our oneness with God.  Hence, more often it is the “Church” who acclaims rather than  “We” who acclaim.  The use of the word merit eighty-six times, implies our unworthiness rather than our being created in the image of God.

 

Rather, and this is where Pope Francis has been such a gift, the Eucharist is about our living the love we celebrate in the sacrifice of the mass.  This is true religion and is summed up best in the words from St. James in our second reading. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

 

Our faith is to be lived and is effective when it raises others and ourselves up.  Love brings resurrection to the broken and the downtrodden.  It heals, it respects, and it gives.  Our witness is what will make God known and draw people to the Lord, not our laws and rituals alone. It is what comes out of our hearts that matters.