Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, B

	Deuteronomy 4: 1-2, 6-8
	Psalm 15
	James 1: 17-18, 21b-22, 27  MYM#21, Ev’ry Good and Perfect Gift
	Mark 7: 1-18, 14-15, 21-23

The Scriptures today reflect on changing the commandments of God.  In the First 
Reading, Moses addresses the people:  “You shall not add to what I command you nor 
subtract from it.”  The Gospel starts off with a group of Pharisees asking Jesus, “Why do 
your disciples not follow the tradition of our ancestors, but instead take food without 
purifying their hands?”  It is important to understand the Pharisee movement in 
Palestinian Judaism to see what the problem is.  There is no commandment in the Torah 
that says that one must “purify one’s hands” before eating.  The commandment involving 
purification of the hands comes from Exodus 30:17ff, where it is commanded of the 
priests before offering sacrifice.  The Pharisees, in their striving to have “every Israelite a 
priest, every table an altar,” added this priestly task as a part of the daily ritual of the 
devout layperson.  It symbolized the moral purity that was needed to approach God.  
Jesus does not fault the idea, but specifically states that they have elevated this sort of 
custom to a divine law.  He quotes Isaiah (29:13), “In vain do they worship me, teaching 
as doctrines the precepts of men.”  Then he attacks the custom of refusing to support 
parents (commanded in Exodus 20:12) by giving property to God’s service.  Finally, he 
tells the crowd surrounding him that true defilement (as opposed to ritual impurity) is not 
from without; it comes from the heart.

Discussing this Gospel, St. Irenaeus of Lyons writes:

“That [love of God] is the first and greatest of the commandments, the second being love 
of our neighbor, the Lord taught by saying that the whole of the law and the prophets 
depend on these two commandments.  He himself brought no greater commandment than 
this, but he renewed this same commandment by bidding his disciples love God with their 
whole heart, and their neighbor as themselves.”

Given the Gospel’s injunction, it is timely that our Second Reading is taken for the next 
five weeks from the Letter of James.  The author enjoins us to see every good gift as 
coming from “above, from the Father of lights, who has no change or shadow caused by 
change.” He makes a reference to our Baptism (“give us birth by the word of truth”), and 
then reminds us that this birth calls us to be “doers of the Word, and not hearers only.”  In 
a very strong parallel to today’s Gospel, the Second Reading uses the word “religion” 
where we might use the word “worship.”  The letter does not denounce cultic practice—it 
only insists that such worship must be tied to behavior.  If it is not, then it is dead indeed.

This hymn is based on today’s Scriptures:
All gifts good and perfect are sent from above;
The Father of lights is their source, in his love,
Who willed us to birth by the word of his truth,
That we, of creation, may be the first-fruits.

When Israel by Moses was given God's word,
They learned from God's wisdom in all that they heard.
"Add not to this teaching, and take not away--
Observe God's will fully; go never astray."

As Jesus' disciples ate, unwashed, their food,
The scribes, custom quoting, proclaimed them untrue.
Said Jesus, "God's teaching is lost in this strife;
With lips, God is honored, but not in your life."

The things from the outside cannot us defile;
The evil within causes virtue to spoil.
We are to be doers, not hearers alone--
To care for the needy lauds God on His throne!

        11.11.11.11.     
        suggested tune:  St. Denio

Propers from the Roman Gradual

Introit:  Miserere mihi, Domine (Ps. 86: 3,5,1)
Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I have called upon you all the day long.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
and plenteous in your loving-kindness toward all who call upon you.	
	Bow down your ear, O Lord, and answer me,
	for I am poor and in misery.

Offertory:  Domine, in auxilium (Ps. 40: 14b, 15ab, 14b)
O Lord, make haste to help me!
Let them be ashamed and altogether dismayed,
those who seek after my life, that they might destroy it.
O Lord, make haste to help me!

Communion:  Domine, memorabor (Ps. 71:16b,17a,18a)
O Lord, I will recall your righteousness, yours alone.
O God, you have taught me ever since I was young;
and now that I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not forsake me.

Propers from the Simple Gradual

The suite of antiphons and psalms from Ordinary Time V (BFW 259–268) —
God’s justice — is especially appropriate.

Entrance: BFW 259 (Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me) 
    or BFW 260 (Lord, you are great and do marvelous deeds . . . ) 
Response: BFW 31 (I long for the courts of the Lord) 
    or alleluia psalm BFW 406; gospel acclamation: BFW 405
Communion: BFW 391 (Happy are the peacemakers . . . )