GOING BACK TO THE VOICE OF GOD

HOMILY FOR THE 22^ND SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

The law that comes from God comes with the purpose of love to help humans live well with fellow humans and to aid them to be close to the untainted intention of God for mankind -that mankind will come back to him after the life here on earth. This law of the Lord is always perfect and aims at the goodness of mankind. However, many times, this law suffers from mutilation, misinterpretation, and undue exaggeration in the hands of human beings. Since the laws are meant for us human beings, some of us claim that we have to adapt them according to the way they soothe us, while others claim that these laws have become anachronistic and ought to be discarded, while others still believe in a strict adherence to the dictates of the law. And sometimes, we do feel that the God who gave the law ought to be present to give us an interpretation that is ad rem to His initial intention. But few of the times, we come to discover that God did not leave the laws for us to interpret them the way we want but to simply make sincere effort to apply them for our good. These laws of God are founded in love to help man to live freely in the society.

There was a call by Moses in the First Reading (Deut. 4:1-2, 6-8) on the Israelites to the importance of obedience to the law of the Lord. The law demands obedience. If the people refuses to obey the law, then the law is meaningless. The law is respected when it is obeyed, and the obedience to the law is an obedience to the giver of the law. Moses as the lawyer calls the people to simply and carefully observe the commands of God without adding or subtracting from them. This is the problem of mankind. We tend to add or subtract from the reality of how things actually are. Think about the great harm done to the society by some media homes who add or subtract from their news relayed to the world. Think about the tension created by the social media where additions or subtraction to real life experiences and happenings are replete. Think about the rift created in relationships when there are unnecessary additions or subtractions regarding what has been said or done. And if we may ask; what could be the major cause of this inclination of man not to present reality as it is? Surely, the causes may be very diverse, but it starts from somewhere.

The situation whereby man tries to take the place of God is the foundation of the cause. When a man does not make effort in humility to read and understand the laws of God well for proper application, and goes ahead to believe that whatever explanation he/she offers to it would become acceptable to others, he certainly starts to breed a confused society. He sets others towards the pathway of missing the target; and this is the real meaning of sin -missing the target God sets for us. The consequence of this is that mankind moves from the misinterpretation of God’s laws to making of his own laws while still hiding under the cloaks of the divine law. At this juncture, mankind’s law becomes more exalted than God’s law. And in fact, anyone acquainted with the new movements of our post-modern society would see an epoch that has completely disregarded God’s law and had taken man’s law to be their God. This is why the world would continue to experience great tensions and pressures. We have added and subtracted from the law of God. Moses’ warning is a proof that he was aware that men’s addition or subtraction to the commands of God will lead to tensions and problems in the human society.

This is the type of tension we meet in the Gospel of today (Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23). This is a situation where mankind has missed the mark of proper interpretation to God’s law and has taken her tradition to become the law of God. The Jews had a tradition of ritual cleansing. We must spell it out from the onset that a people’s tradition can only be termed sacred if it aligns with the intent and dictates of the law of God. The problem of the scribes and Pharisees who were the interpreters of the law for the Jews was that they became so confused at what point their tradition was trying to replace God’s law.And at that point, such a practice becomes superficial and hypocritical. No wonder Jesus called them hypocrites. The Pharisees substituted human ingenuity for the law of God. As good as such a ritual cleansing may appear to the Jew, it cannot be regarded as the law of God. So, Jesus had to correct them in this occasion. But what was the actual problem of this tradition which Jesus tries to correct?

Without delving into the complicated nature of this ceremonial cleanness, one thing stands out clear about it. They saw spiritual uncleanness as the consequence of physical uncleanness. They took physical cleansing as a sign of spiritual cleansing. This tradition mattered to the Pharisees and the scribes so much to an extent of taking them as religion. Soon, it was such ritual, ceremonial and regulations like that which they considered to be the essence of the service of God. To observe them was to please God; to break them was to sin. This tradition was what Jesus was against. Those ritual, ceremonial, rules and regulations were not what constitutes religion. Religion is constituted by the love of God and fellow men. True religion can never be the products of man’s philosophies and thought patterns. It must always come from simple listening to and accepting the voice of God. And what is this voice of God? According to St. James in the Second Reading (1:17-18, 21b-22, 27), the religion that is pure and undefiled before God is to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world. This is what practical relevance of listening to the voice of God.

By this interrogation with the Pharisees, Jesus condemns some excesses in religion which may also be applicable to us today. Jesus condemns the religion that places tradition over human needs. For the Pharisees, the disciples of Jesus broke the rule of washing the hands before eating a meal. Thus, in their eyes, the disciples were unclean in the sight of God. If Jesus were a true Rabbi, he shouldn’t have allowed such deviation from his disciples, they must have thought. Here, we see how the interrogators of Jesus placed their tradition above the human needs of the disciples. Therefore, if religion desires to purify itself, human spiritual and physical needs must take precedence over the traditions which guide her. Jesus condemns the religion that places deceit over authenticity. The consequence is that there is more ostentation and lip-service than genuineness. If any religion desires to be purified, she must remember always the words of Jesus concerning hypocrisy, and learn not to merely honour God with lip service, but also to have their hearts in God, and at same time knowing that it is the thing that comes out of a person that defiles him/her.

Jesus condemns the religion that places doctrine over discipline. If any religion desires to purify herself, she must constantly grow in the consciousness that her teachings should not be mere rules taught by men, but rules given by God and lived by men. Jesus condemns the religion that places man-made commands over God’s command. The consequence of teaching merely the tradition of men is to loose focus of God’s norms. So, is any religion desires purity, she must place first and regard the highest the commands of God, such that the man-made ones flow directly from the god-made rules. And lastly, Jesus condemns the religion that places self-image over contrition. Self-image is important, but a contrite heart is what is needed in religion. It is expected that it the development and enhancement of a contrite spirit (a heart that does not harbour evil) which diffuses out to the world and then can it give the real image which every religion should seek. When self-image is regarded as more important than a contrite heart, religion looses its purity. It is from within that our self-image can be built and made stable. And this is what it means to go back to the voice of God; the God who continues to reveal Himself to us. May our response to his revelation have its take-off point from the heart and not from our human brains. Amen. Happy new week. God bless you.