22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)
September 3, 2006
by Ron Tocci
In our Gospel we heard Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders engaged in a debate about the right way to worship God, the right way to honor God…As usual, the Pharisees – who were the models of holiness in the Jewish community – had it all wrong….They were placing too much importance on the strict observance of human laws and rituals and too little importance on following God’s Law that calls His people to open their hearts to the needs of their brothers and sisters…Jesus was and is always concerned about what is in the hearts of His followers…He never said that following traditions, laws and rituals was wrong; what is wrong is doing them as an end in itself, doing them as a way to feel righteous and holy…when their real purpose is to draw us into a deeper love of God and one another…Whenever we fall into a mode of worship that is all about the externals – the words we say and actions we do – and not about the internals - what is in our hearts - then the stinging words that Jesus heaped on the Pharisees will apply to us as well: "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me...In vain do they worship me"
Now, I have to confess, there are times when my heart is far from Jesus,…when I come into the church, dip my hand in the font and make the sign of the cross out of habit with no thought of what it signifies…when I simply go through the motions … when I sit, stand, kneel, and sing at the right times,… when I voice the right responses: And also with you…Amen…Thanks be to God…We lift them up to the Lord…without really thinking about what it is I am doing and why?...I do and say all the right things at the right times, but my heart is not always where it should be.…Sound familiar? Does this sometimes happen to you?...In this Gospel, Jesus asks us to get our hearts in the right place…to come to worship NOT with empty words and gestures, but with hearts and minds that are attuned to the power and the mystery of what is happening here…Because it’s BIG, really BIG!...And we really can’t afford to miss it.
That’s why I want to consider an important question…It’s good that you are all here and believe me I’m thrilled that you are, but I want you to take a moment and answer this question: WHY AM I HERE? ...Don’t give me the answer; just answer to yourself…WHY am I here? (pause)…So, what was your answer? Was it any of these?…I’m doing my duty, fulfilling my obligation…I’m afraid I will go to hell if I don’t come…I want to give an hour a week back to God…It is important to my marriage…It is important to my children…I have no choice; I was forced to come…There is some good in all of these answers (even the last one), but none of them is adequate…None of them grasps the immensity of the spiritual opportunity God offers us every time we come to Mass…The opportunty to experience His grace and power at work, healing us, transforming us, encouraging us, showing us the way we should go....This can only happen when we come with a prepared and willing heart…with open channels into our inner life into which God’s grace can flow…Sometimes, though, we come with clogged up channels that block the flow of grace, and we leave here no different than we came in.
There's a story of 6 soldiers who had received all-night passes to leave their base camp and go into the town…When morning came, none of the 6 were present at roll call….An hour later, the 1st soldier straggled back into camp and was immediately taken to his Sargeant…and he apologized: "I'm sorry I’m late, sir, but I had a date, lost track of time and missed the last bus…I wanted to make it back on time so I took a taxi…About halfway back to camp, the cab broke down, so I went to the nearest farm and bought a horse…But as I was riding along, the horse suddenly stopped, fell to the ground and died. So I did the last 5 miles on foot, and here I am." ..The Sargeant was a bit skeptical, but he let the soldier off with just a mild lecture… After that, one by one, 15 mins apart, 4 more of the stragglers reported in, each one told the same story: had a date, lost track of the time, missed the last bus, took a cab, cab broke down, bought a horse, horse fell dead…had to walk the last 5 miles…Finally, the last soldier came walking back. …Now the Sargeant was totally exasperated, "So, what's your excuse?"…The soldier replied, "Sir, I had a date, lost track of the time, missed the last bus, hired a taxi ..." "Wait!" said the Sarg. "You're not going to tell me the cab broke down."… "No Sir," the soldier answered, "The cab was fine. But it couldn't get through; there were so many dead horses on the road."
In our Gospel, Jesus is challenged by a group of men who had clogged up the channels of God’s Grace with a herd of dead horses…specifically, hundreds of man-made religious laws and laws that made the person doing them feel righteous and holy, but did nothing to make any real connection with God…To them, worshipping God was about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, and not about God’s Amazing Grace...My friends, there can be a big difference between what happens to us when we come to MASS, and what SHOULD happen to us when we come to Mass…And it doesn’t depend on how good the music is, or how good the homily is, or how engaging the presider is…It depends on us!…It depends on whether or not we come with our own dead horses that can block the channels of God’s grace…It depends on the condition of our hearts...Are they clogged up or are they open?
Do we come with hearts ready to give thanks and praise to the God who forgives our sins bc He loves us and is filled with mercy?....Do we come ready to thank Jesus for dying on the cross so we won’t have to spend eternity separated from God?...Do we come ready to offer ourselves, our lives, to Him as our sacrifice in gratitude for the sacrifice of His Body and Blood that is made sacramentally present on the altar?...Do we come ready to have the Risen Christ strengthen and renew us by His real presence in the Eucharist?...Do we come with hearts that are open to whatever way God is trying to reach us through the words of Scripture and the words of the preacher?...Do we come with a sense that we are all in this together, all trying to live a God-centered life, doing the best we can, and that we can lean on one another when things get rough?...Do we come here ready to let God fill our spiritual tanks so we can make it through another week?
When Jesus says, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”, He’s telling us that He wants our hearts…He’s telling us that saying the words, singing the songs, reciting the Creed, mean nothing if our hearts are somewhere else…He’s telling us that He wants our faces to reflect joyful hearts as we come to receive Him in Communion: “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world; HAPPY are we who are called to His supper.” ...This is no hocus pocus magic, this is no empty ritual, this is a BIG deal…God Himself, Our Risen Lord, makes Himself present to us in this miraculous, mysterious way in the bread we eat and the wine we drink…because He wants to be close to us,…because He wants to become one with us,… because He wants us to become more like Him…But none of this will happen, none of this will happen,
if our hearts are far away Him, if there are too many dead horses in the way…
We have to come ready,,,we have to come willing…we have to come hungry. …we have to come hoping…we have to come expecting:…expecting that He will speak to us, expecting that He will change whatever needs to be changed in us…and don’t worry, He knows what needs changing….So whatever it is in our life that may be clogging the channels of God’s Grace, let’s get rid of it…Get rid of that dead horse…so we can give honor and praise and thanks to the Lord, not merely with our lips, but from the deepest part of our heart….He deserves it! AMEN.
(Comments to Ron at rjtocci@NETACC.NET )