I would suggest that current human tradition dictates that the law of God is obsolete and out- of- date,

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Magdalene Tyler
6 years ago
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1 1 Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. The letter of James is one of those tough scripture passages that if read, and heard, and applied to our lives, cannot help but make us pause and ponder for a moment. In the gospel, Jesus, with the help of Isaiah, presents a message no less piercing than the one found in James when He said Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God s commandment but cling to human tradition. I would suggest that current human tradition dictates that the law of God is obsolete and out- of- date, that sin is a thing of the past, that the majority of activities we engage in or don t engage in are morally neutral, and that the virtues that the Church encourages us to pursue are relics of days gone by. Thus we remain hearers of the word and not doers. Never really considering how often we turn our backs on our generous God. Generous to such a degree that He would not spare His own Son. Generous to such a degree that the fullness of His patience and mercy and compassion cannot be measured or exhausted.

2 2 Generous to such a degree that He is willing to work with us wherever He might encounter us. Many, many times I have heard the expression that God loves sinners exactly where they re at. He does. And as encouraging and uplifting as this is, it is also incomplete. His love for us is so complete that once He has encountered us, wherever that may be, His love dictates that He won t leave us where he finds us. But how often do we pass up God s generosity, depend on the world around us, and think that the world will satisfy more fully than the divine well as often as we sin. And then we start to forget Christ. We forget the reason He came into the world in the first place. Forgetting that for our sake Christ took on the sins of all humanity and was crucified so that we might be saved from sin and death and eternal damnation. Forgetting that he knows the guilt and the shame and the suffering that sin causes because it all came crashing down on top of Him at Gethsemane and Calvary. People usually don t just sweat blood. He knows the heartache of sin and despair. And He has overcome it. He knows how to overcome it. And He has done it far beyond the ability of the world Because the world can t do it. And not only can Christ do it, He wants to...

3 3 A guy s walking down the street and he falls into a hole. The walls are so steep he can t get out. Then a doctor walks by. Hey you, I m stuck down here can you help me out? The doctor, feeling sorry for our guy, writes out a prescription, throws it down in the whole, and moves on. Then a psychiatrist walks by. Hey doc, I m down in the whole, can you help me out? The psychiatrist, feeling sorry for our guy, writes out a few self- assessment and self- help exercises, throws them down in the whole, and moves on. Then a friend walks by. Hey Joe, it s me, can you help me out? And the friend jumps into the whole. Our guy says, Are you stupid? Now were both down here. And the friend says, Ya, but I ve been down here before, and I know the way out. Christ has been in the whole. He knows the heartache of sin and despair. And He has overcome it. But sometimes I wonder how much do we even recognize our own brokenness. When we fall into the holes of life, does it even register anymore? Or has Satan done his job so well that we think we are doing just fine. That what we are doing is okay. That what we are doing is enough. That going to Mass once or twice a month is enough. That going to confession every other year is enough

4 4 Why would we think that? And more to the point why would we deny ourselves these great gifts? It would be better for us to deny ourselves food and water than it would be to deny ourselves mass and confession. And yet how many of us fast from the divine and gorge ourselves on the worldly. Why are we not trying to change that? Why do we think that we are doing is good enough? Why are we being hearers and not doers? Because it s hard. Picking up the rough cross is hard. Christ has high expectations. The world has none. The world is easier. The world is comfortable. The world wants you to believe that whatever makes you happy, whatever you want to believe, whatever you want, is yours is fine. Thus we have taken the wisdom of the world and applied to the Divine. We have deluded ourselves we have done exactly what Moses warned against in the first reading In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, you shall not add to what I command you, nor subtract from it Because the law doesn t belong to us, it is for us. And God is not asking for a show of hands. We don t get to decide right and wrong, good and evil.. because we mess it up. Why do you think God kept Adam and Eve away from that tree?

5 5 The law of God is not ours to alter as we see fit, or to ignore when it proves inconvenient. The law of God is not to be perfected by the likes of an arrogant and sinful humanity. The law of God is already perfect. Fully revealed to us by Christ and broken open for us by the Holy Spirit and Divine Revelation. And you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it. Because the teachings of Christ are perfect. And when we observe what he has decreed, when we live the life he has called us to, then we too will be perfected. But the question is do we want to be perfected? Do we take our faith seriously, do we take sin seriously, do we take the eternal destination of our souls seriously? Do we honor Christ with our lips, while our hearts are far from Him? Are we just hearers of the word? I am a sinful man. I hear, but I don t do nearly enough. Throughout my life, up to and including today, I have, at some point, been guilty of almost every sin that I have ever railed against. And I hate it. I hate sin. I hate that I commit sin. I hate that I don t detest sin as much as I should. I hate that I fall into a lot of the same sins over and over and over. I hate falling into these holes.

6 6 It breaks my heart seeing the people who I love and care about falling into these holes And then a friend walks by...hey it s me can you help me out...and the friend jumps into the whole. Our guy says are you stupid now we re both down here And the friend says ya but I ve been down here before and I know the way out.

Year B 22 nd Sunday OT

Year B 22 nd Sunday OT 1 Now this Gospel is often used by our non-catholic Christian brethren well-meaningly to correct our Catholic dependence on early apostolic tradition. Remember, again, that the teaching