The Gospel for this Sunday, the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, comes from an abridged version of Mark 7:1-23. The missing verses only expand on what Jesus means by observing human traditions and how the digestive tract has nothing to do with the motivations of the heart.

Jesus has been in public ministry for a while, His apostles have been chosen, and He is getting a reputation as a wonder worker. The miracle of the feeding of the 5000 has definitely attracted the attention of the ‘higher ups’, and we see some scribes and Pharisees arrive - who have specifically made the journey from Jerusalem to Galilee to find out for themselves what is going on.

Places like Capernaum would not have had the same refined manners as the more wealthy and learned residents of Jerusalem. Fishermen, shepherds and farmers aren’t going to be overly picky about personal cleanliness. Whatever the disciples have been doing (or not doing) about the ceremonial washings that are de rigueur in Jerusalem hasn’t been worthy of comment up until now.

Either these infractions of tradition got up their noses big time, or they didn’t have any better question to ask, so the scribes and Pharisees decided to pick on Jesus by bringing their (the disciples') lack of perfect hygiene up for public discussion.
Boy did they underestimate Jesus!

Jesus took their question, turned it like a mirror back on to the questioners, and then used it to springboard a major teaching to the gathered crowds. A bit like a leg spin bowler serving up a deceptive googly with an expectation of hitting the stumps and the batsman thwacks it for six.

Do not underestimate Jesus.
Do not pick on Him.
Do not pick on His disciples.
It will backfire big time.

How did these ceremonial washings of hands begin? Don’t know. But it could have been a measure introduced to stop the spread of infection within the community in bygone days.

However now it has become a bit of a yardstick to measure who takes God seriously and who doesn’t, and to pressurize people into conformity. Was it something God actually asked the people of Israel to do? No. But these Jerusalemites are enforcing it as though it was of the same importance as the Law and the Prophets.

It is much, much easier to keep your hands clean than your heart clean.

God did require cleanliness and associated preparations for public worship of Him, as is His due. He deserves the best from us, and sloppiness won’t do. But it was also as a physical reminder to ready the mind, heart and soul for worship too.

Jesus calls them hypocrites because they are more concerned with the minutiae of hand cleanliness than with honouring and reverencing God in our hearts, thoughts and feelings.

What is a hypocrite? It was a name used for an actor under an assumed character, or a dissembler, and became a term to describe the disguise (or concealment) of one's real nature, motives, or feelings behind a false appearance.

We have in these visitors from Jerusalem people who are supposed to be 'the best of the best' in putting God first in their lives, and they are more concerned with infractions of ceremonial handwashing than with the worship offered in mind, heart, and will to God.

Jesus tells us (and the big crowd that has gathered around Him) the truth:
nothing from the outside can make us unclean or defiled,
only acting on the evil thoughts and malicious desires of our hearts makes us truly unclean and truly defiled.

Jesus then goes on to make us aware of just how much He fully understands human iniquity and our capacity for evil.

(verse 21) For from within the hearts of men 
come/ discharge/proceed/project (ekporeuontai)
evil/ bad/worthless/depraved/injurious (kakoi)
thoughts/ discussion/consideration/debate (dialogismoi).
sexual immorality (porneiai)- feminine plural
theft (klopai)- feminine plural
murder (phonoi) slaughter, killing- masculine plural
adultery (moicheiai) - feminine plural

The plural is very interesting here, because it includes collectively planned evil, evil with the support and encouragement and teamwork of others.
But there’s more….

(verse 22) greed, (pleonexiai) covetousness, avarice, aggression, desire for advantage – feminine plural
wickedness, (ponēriai) iniquities, depravity, malice; plural plots, sins- feminine plural.
deceit, (dolos) guile, treachery, tricks, wiles- masculine singular
debauchery, (aselgeia) licentiousness- feminine singular.
envy, (ophthalmos) the eye; the mind's eye, by implication, vision; figuratively, envy – masculine singular.
slander, (blasphēmia) abusive or scurrilous language, blasphemy, vilification- feminine singular.
arrogance, (hyperēphania) pride, disdain, haughtiness- feminine singular.
foolishness, (aphrosynē) want of sense, impiety, wickedness, egotism; recklessness- feminine singular.

Even if we might debate how poorly the ancients considered the morality of women relative to the morality of men; this list doesn’t let anyone off the hook, male or female, alone or in groups.

It is also a stark reminder that some forms of depravity take an element of organisation and teamwork, and that we can be culpable not only as individuals but as parts of groups.

Ouch! Gulp! Oh Ohh!

Yes, the Lord Jesus is giving us an opportunity today to look deep into our hearts, and to acknowledge the depths of wickedness that linger there, to accept our own culpability,
and to ask and beg for His mercy.
For only He can truly make us clean on the inside.

May each one of us accept that loving challenge from Him. Amen.

You might like to pray this adaptation of a well-loved prayer in response:

Lord Jesus, I come before You, just as I am,
I am sorry for my sins,
the sins I am aware of, the sins I may have forgotten,
the sins I do not yet comprehend the full gravity of;
​the sins I have committed through human weakness,
the evils that I don’t yet understand as evils,
squashed my conscience about,
and yet have done them anyway.
I repent of my sins, please forgive me.
In Your Name, I forgive all others for what they have done against me.
I renounce Satan, the evil spirits and all their works.
I give You my entire self, Lord Jesus, now and forever.
I invite You into my life, Lord Jesus.
I accept You as my Lord, God and Saviour.
Heal me, change me, strengthen me in body, soul, and spirit.
Come Lord Jesus, cover me with Your Precious Blood,
and fill me with Your Holy Spirit.
I love You Lord Jesus. I praise You Jesus. I thank You Jesus.
I thank You for the enormity of Your mercy towards me.
I shall follow You every day of my life. Amen.

Mary, my Mother, Queen of Peace,
​and all the Angels and Saints,
please help me to ratify this prayer with my whole life. Amen.

The Gospel for this Sunday, the 1st Sunday of Lent Year B, comes from the first chapter of St Mark and references the testing Jesus went through during 40 days in the wilderness.

But that isn’t the part that’s striking me, instead it is verse 15 which could be paraphrased ‘everything the family of Israel has been waiting, hoping and longing for over many centuries is at hand, it’s Go time people!, if you want ‘in’ then it’s time to change your lives, take God more seriously than you ever have before, the choice is yours’.

All of the lives of the patriarchs, the judges, the prophets, the kings, have looked forward to the promised Messianic era. It has been a very long wait. Yet once the signals turn green with the baptism of Jesus, and His time in the wilderness, and John’s arrest, action time begins. Lepers get cleansed, demoniacs get freed, all kinds of illnesses get healed, and invitations to radically surrender our lives to God’s will are issued.

We’ve lost the sense of just how big a deal it was back then, and of how bold you had to be to make pronouncements like that.

It still is a big deal. The offer of eternal life with God always is.

Such a big offer requires a very big response; mediocre responses and ‘What are the minimum requirements?’ responses won’t do. 
 
Ash Wednesday, which we celebrated a little differently this year, helps underline the magnitude of the offer. In past years the ash was moistened with holy water and used to make a cross on our foreheads. Under pandemic restrictions the ash with as little moisture as possible was sprinkled on our heads instead. What a reminder of how ephemeral our lives are here on earth, and of how fleeting they are compared to eternity!

It is still Go time for us; if we want to accept the invitation. When we weigh up live on earth vs live eternal in heaven it should be sufficient motivation to re-order our lives towards the goal of heaven. Any other goal is worthless compared to that.

Lent is the graced time to make those necessary adjustments to re-order our lives.

May this Lent be one that really counts, and one that finds us responding, ‘I want in, no matter what; help me change, help me take You far more seriously’.
​
#GospelReflection

The Gospel for this Sunday, the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B, comes from the first chapter of St Mark and shows us how the public ministry of Jesus began.

Like the scribes Jesus knew the scriptures well. Unlike the scribes, He wasn’t repeating from memory what been drilled into Him by rote. Jesus wasn’t saying Ancient Rabbi 1 interpreted the passage this way, and Ancient Rabbi 2 had a different interpretation, and that the Hillel school preferred Rabbi1 and that the Sadducees preferred Rabbi 2, and the Pharisees were still on the fence as to their preferred interpretation.

That kind of thing has its place in faithfully handing down to the present the collective wisdom and insights of the past.

When Jesus read from the scriptures it was something living, beautiful and fascinating. Mostly when the scribes read from the scriptures it was with the precision of dissecting a much-revered dead animal.

When Jesus sat down to teach from the scripture passage He had just read out loud, He spoke about how God’s love, mercy and wisdom were revealed in that scripture passage. And as Jesus spoke hearts were touched by the power of God’s love.

As a learned Dominican priest once preached, authority is growth power. When authority is activated properly, people have the stability and the security necessary to try the risks that lead to growth. When that doesn’t happen people live in siege and survival mode.

When Jesus taught, hearts started growing in love for God and growing in true knowledge of God. When that happens, hearts and lives change because the desire for more of God gets activated in them, and that desire motivates the changes in life that we recognise as repentance.

Who doesn’t want hearts and minds turning back to God?
The evil one.

Whenever truth gets spoken in love, there is a counter-attack, and it is immediate. Have you ever noticed that the first comment on a well-written opinion piece, especially on religious and pro-life topics, is both nasty and negative? I have. It is actually a kind of badge of honour or extra proof of the truths expounded in the opinion piece. No one bothers to denigrate a less well-written opinion piece.

The evil one has noticed the modus operandi of Jesus, and actively seeks to derail it. Jesus wants relationship not celebrity. The evil one shouts that Jesus is the Holy One of God, something that Jesus wants people to work out for themselves and at their own pace. Immediately Jesus shows He has the power to shut evil down, and to release people from its grip.

What lessons can we take home from this?
That God can stop evil in a moment, with a word, at any time He chooses.
That God does choose when and how to confront evil and dispatch it for maximum impact.
Be prepared for counter-attacks if you are taking ground for God’s kingdom, and take them as signs that you are on the right path and not as cause for discouragement.

So let us renew our trust in Him. Amen.
​
#GospelRelection

Why do You talk to them in parables?

This is a question the disciples put to Jesus in the 13th Chapter of St Matthew’s Gospel. Many of us still ask that question.

Part of the answer is that human beings were made to love puzzles. We find in ancient cultures deep appreciation for the riddle, and in biblical cultures appreciation for teaching through use of mashal or allegory. Consider the modern equivalent, the meme, which we all like trying to decode, even if we don’t always succeed at it.

A good parable is something that you chew over, and look at from different angles, with a group of friends or relatives, sharing insights and arguing over meaning and interpretation. They are, in essence, discussion starters.

But St Matthew’s Gospel provides us with a reasonable answer to why Jesus used parables, and why after a period of public ministry without parables He started using them almost exclusively.

The beginning of Chapter 13 says, ‘that same day, Jesus left the house and sat by the lakeside, but such large crowds gathered round Him that He got into a boat and sat there. The people all stood on the shore, and He told them many things in parables’.

So what happened earlier that day?

Chapter 12 has Jesus curing a blind and dumb demoniac and then He gets accused of being Beelzebul, and then the scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign (none of the previous healings and miracles are enough for them, they want to set the conditions for a sign they will accept, God has to dance to their tune first before they will consider dancing to His), and then family members demand words with Him, so it hasn’t exactly been a good day for Jesus. For all His efforts up to this point don’t seem to be bearing the fruits of repentance He has been looking for, otherwise He would not in Chapter 11 have called down reproaches upon the Galilean towns where most of His miracles had been worked.

In order for any of us to get closer to God in our lives, something has to change. If we do the same things, how can we expect different outcomes? Yet frequently our response is, ‘I don’t want to change’, ‘I don’t need to change’, ‘there’s nothing in my life that needs changing’, ‘I am quite content as I am thanks, quit trying to upset my equilibrium’, ‘the person sitting over there needs more change than I do’. And this seems to be exactly what Jesus was facing, crowds of people happy to see miracles happen, and happy to listen to good teaching, and happy to continue doing so, (Jesus had very high entertainment value), but very few allowing that teaching to transform the way they were living.

So we see Jesus in that post lunch / siesta time go and sit by the lakeside, letting prayer and natural beauty do their work in freeing Him from the frustrations of the morning. It is a time of pause. It is a time of re-set. It is time to try a different approach to the hearts of His listeners.

The easy to understand stuff, the sermon on the mount, the miracles and healings, haven’t born the expected levels of fruit. Something different is needed, something that engages hearts and minds more, something that requires some personal effort.

As Jesus sits on the lakeside, gradually the crowd gathers behind Him, and an expectancy grows. This time when Jesus preaches, it is different. This time He begins to use parables.

The first parable, the sower and the seed, is very instructive.

What is the purpose of sowing seed? To get a good harvest. And where is that good harvest?

It isn’t in those who aren’t paying attention (seed on the path).

It isn’t in those who get excited about what Jesus is saying, and then do nothing much about it (seed on rocky ground with little depth) or fall away very quickly.

It isn’t in those who make a start, and good progress, and then give up halfway through the process (seed among thorns).

It is in those who go through the whole process of transformation, in those who wrestle with the words of Jesus until they come to understanding, and then let that understanding change the way they live.

And how do you get to that sort of harvest? By using parables.

Because those who aren’t interested won’t bother.
 
Because those who want quick and easy answers will give up without much of a struggle.

Because those who will give it a go, and attempt to come to understanding, but who fail to reach full understanding because the cost of change is beyond them, will sooner or later give up.

Because those who patiently work at understanding, and who persevere at it, until the understanding fully comes and who then change their lives accordingly, they are the kind of disciples you really want. And using parables is an efficient way of finding them. These are the ones who make mature commitment to discipleship, and the process takes time, it isn’t quick.

Parables are how you find disciples from among the crowds.

There are at least two implications for us:

Firstly, that if the word of God is not challenging us nor changing us, then we haven’t understood it properly. Jesus really wants to see fruits of repentance in us. Why? Because change is the gateway to the kingdom of God and our greatest happiness. ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand’ is what both Jesus and John the Baptist preached.

Secondly, if you issue a call to action, the ones you want aren’t in the first wave of responders, nor in the second wave of responders, the ones you really want are in the third wave of responders, on them alone can you build something that will last.