Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time – September 1, 2024
Jesus calls the Pharisees in today’s Gospel hypocrites. If we read the verses omitted from the Lectionary pericope, we see why. The Pharisees routinely took the commandment to honor one’s father and mother and distorted it to justify a custom that did the opposite. They touted this as adherence to God’s law even though the financial practice it promoted nullified the law’s intent. Jesus was right: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Perhaps this is why Moses and so much of Deuteronomy repeatedly instructs the Israelites to hear, take heed, and hand on to their children the commandments of God, which established right relationship with God and with one another.
Let us always discern between what fulfills God’s desire for all humankind and what satisfies our own. That discernment is not always easy, but it is always necessary.
The Pharisees prioritized their interpretation of the law over God’s justice intended by that law and were more concerned with tradition than with doing what “harms not his fellow man,” as today’s psalm teaches. Ensuring that the laws we uphold today center those most vulnerable and in need is a good reminder on this annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation begun by Pope Francis in 2015.
In our zeal to follow the church’s teaching, let us always discern between what fulfills God’s desire for all humankind and what satisfies our own. That discernment is not always easy, but it is always necessary.
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