by Fr. Tommy Lane
What can we do to achieve happiness? I would say quite simply, “live as friends of God.” Being friends with God is the way to achieve the happiness meant for us. One of the foundations for being friends with God is living by his commandments. They are for our good. We read in Genesis that God said Adam and Eve could eat of every tree in the garden except one (Gen 3:3). So what did they do? They ate from that one tree, and everything went downhill from there for them and all of us as a result. The commandments are like that command from God to Adam and Eve not to eat from that one tree. The commandments protect us from messing things up. Adam and Eve got into a mess when they disobeyed God. If we do not want to get into a mess, be friends with God. The foundation to be friends with God is to live the commandments.
In our first reading from Deuteronomy 4, we heard an account of a speech by Moses which was really summarizing the goodness of God’s commandments. Moses urged the people to obey God’s commandments that they may live. So if you want to have life, live the commandments. Moses said they were not to add to God’s commandments or subtract from them and observing them would show their wisdom and intelligence. Our second reading from the Letter of James assures us that everything given us by God is good and perfect (James 1:17), so the commandments are among the good and perfect gifts given us by God.
In the Gospel (Mark 7), we heard tension between Jesus and the Pharisees and some scribes. The tension was caused by some of Jesus’ disciples not undergoing the washings before eating. Those washings and a lot of other regulations for every corner of life, even the washing of cups and jugs and kettles, were not part of God’s commandments but added later by rabbis. As we read the Gospels, we see Jesus was highly critical of those additions to God’s commandments (Halakah; see Jeremias New Testament Theology pp 208-210), additions concerning purity laws and food laws as we heard in the Gospel today, and the thirty-nine laws about breaking the sabbath. In the Gospels, we see Jesus challenging these additions to God’s commandments. In today’s Gospel, Jesus challenges the Pharisees and scribes because they had become so concerned about the externals—their added regulations about washings and food laws. As they focused on the externals, their hearts were far from God. Jesus quoted some of Isaiah to challenge them, “their hearts are far from me.” What an indictment of them! Their hearts were far from God. Not only were they concerned with washings, but they were also concerned about clean and unclean food. Jesus also corrected that in today’s Gospel when he said that nothing that someone eats defiles but rather what comes out of someone’s heart. To drive home his point, Jesus gave an embarrassing list of evil things emerging from people’s hearts that defile. (Mark 7:6-7) Jesus then summed up their problem: “you disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” (Mark 7:8) As we would say, they took their eye off the ball.
We do not have their food laws so what is the point of this Gospel today for us? Jesus is drawing attention to our foundation: the commandments and having our hearts right before God, in other words, being friends with God. He complained to the Pharisees and scribes that they were disregarding God’s commandments. Jesus is making God’s commandments central again and loving God with the heart not just externally going through the motions. We see Jesus doing the same in other conversations in the Gospels. As we continue reading Mark’s Gospel this year, six weeks from now we will hear about a man who knelt before Jesus and asked what he had to do to inherit eternal life (28th Sunday). As part of his answer, Jesus listed the commandments (Mark 10:19). In a similar incident in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus responded, “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” (Matt 19:17) On another occasion (Mark 12:28-34), which we will also hear later this year (31st Sunday), a scribe asked Jesus what the greatest commandment is, and Jesus summed up the commandments in this way: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. From reading all of Jesus’ conversations in the Gospels, we see that Jesus regards the commandments as foundational for living.
Being friends with God is the way to achieve the happiness meant for us. Our foundation for being friends with God is living by his commandments. They are for our good. We read in Genesis that God said Adam and Eve could eat of every tree in the garden except one. So, what did they do? They ate from that one tree, and everything went downhill from there for them and all of us as a result. The commandments are like that command from God to Adam and Eve not to eat from that one tree. The commandments protect us from messing things up. Adam and Eve got into a mess when they disobeyed God. The foundation to be friends with God is to live the commandments, to love God and neighbor in our hearts, and not just go through the motions. If we do not want to get into a mess, be friends with God. If we are in a mess, Jesus’ forgiveness is always greater than our sin and he invites us to his love.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2021
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Twenty-Second Sunday of Year B
Jesus’ prescription for holiness and purity 2012
The commandments: God’s navigational guidance
Related Homilies: Love flows from the Heart of Jesus to us: Cor ad cor loquitur 2019
Eat what you want but love your neighbor! 2011
The ten commandments forming our conscience
stories about the commandments