Vol. 36 No. 48                                                                                                    (Cycle B) 22nd SUNDAY OF THE YEAR You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition. ENTRANCE ANTIPHON (Ps 85:3,5) I call to you all day long, have mercy on me, O Lord. You are good and forgiving, full of love for all who call to you. PENITENTIAL RITE Today the Lord asks us to reflect on our lives to check whether we are really honouring him with our hearts or only with our lips. Is our participation in the Eucharist only a fulfilment of a ritual and an obligation, or is it a sign of our love for God and his people? What has been the effect of the Lord’s word in our lives? Have we really been doers of the word, or merely hearers? Let us be sorry for our failings and humbly ask the Lord to purify us from all that defile us. I confess... Glory to God... OPENING PRAYER Let us pray: Almighty God, every good thing comes from you. Fill our hearts with love for you, increase our faith, and by your constant care protect the good you have given us. We ask this… FIRST READING (Moses exhorts us to be “a wise and understanding people” and reminds us to “give heed to the statutes and the ordinances” that we may gain the right to “take possession of the land” God has promised us.) A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy (4:1-2; 6-8) Moses said to the people, “O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say: ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?” This is the Word of the Lord PSALM (14) Response: Lord, who shall be admitted to your tent? Lord, who shall dwell on your holy mountain? He who walks without fault; he who acts with justice and speaks the truth from his heart. R./ He who does no wrong to his brother, who casts no slur on his neighbour, who holds the godless in disdain, but honours those who fear the Lord. R./ He who keeps his pledge, come what may; who takes no interest on a loan and accepts no bribes against the innocent. Such a man will stand firm for ever. R./ SECOND READING (St James reminds us that God can be loved and served only through our love for our fellow human beings, especially the poor, the needy, the widows and the orphans.) A reading from the Letter of St James (1:17-18, 21-22; 27) Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation of shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. This is the Word of the Lord ACCLAMATION (Jn 6:51) Alleluia! Alleluia! I am the living bread which came down from heaven, says the Lord; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever. Alleluia! GOSPEL (Jesus urges us to see clearly and distinguish between what is right and wrong, good and bad, sacred and profane.) A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Mark (7:1-8; 14-15) When the Pharisees gathered together to Jesus, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders; and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.” And he called the people to him again, and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand; there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.” This is the Gospel of the Lord I believe in God,/the Father almighty,/ Creator of heaven and earth./ I believe in Jesus Christ,/his only Son, our Lord./ He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit/ and born of the Virgin Mary./He suffered under Pontius Pilate,/was crucified, died, and was buried./He descended to the dead./On the third day he rose again./He ascended into heaven,/and is seated at the right hand of the Father./He will come again to judge the living and the dead./I believe in the Holy Spirit,/the holy catholic Church,/the communion of saints,/the forgiveness of sins,/the resurrection of the body,/and the life everlasting./ Amen.   PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL Cel: Dear brothers and sisters, today’s scripture readings challenge us not to conform to the ways of the world. God has called us in Christ to be different, to be Christ-like and this call demands nothing less than the total gift of ourselves. Let us pray for the faith to understand this challenge and live a life worthy of the call we have received. Response: Father, grant us the grace to worship you in truth and love. 1. That our Pope Benedict the XVI, bishops, priests and religious may pattern their lives on the generosity and selfless love of Christ and strive to live a life worthy of their call. R./   2. That all those who are entrusted with the mission of bringing alive the word of God may not be afraid of insults and persecutions but commit themselves to share God’s unconditional love with his people. R./   3. That those who make rules and regulations for the Church and its institutions may be compassionate and generous and possess a Christ-like attitude in their lives so that the ones who follow those rules and regulations may experience God in their lives. R./   4. That all of us may become listeners of the word and live it in our lives, so that we may all become God’s dwelling places here on earth and manifest God’s love to others. R./   5. That we may honour and worship God with clean lips and pure heart; may the power of the Eucharist set us free from our sinful nature and help us to keep ourselves undefiled. R./ (Pray for local and personal needs) Cel: God our loving Father, you created us to serve you and your people. Convert our hearts and transform our lives to your ways. Enable us to worship you with our lives. We ask this... PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS Lord, may this holy offering bring us your blessing and accomplish within us its promise of salvation. Grant this… PREFACE (P 35) Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks. So great was your love that you gave us your Son as our redeemer. You sent him as one like ourselves, though free from sin, that you might see and love in us what you see and love in Christ. Your gifts of grace, lost by disobedience, are now restored by the obedience of your Son. We praise you, Lord, with all the angels and saints in their song of glory: All: Holy, holy, holy... COMMUNION ANTIPHON O Lord, how great is the depth of the kindness which you have shown to those who love you. PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION Lord, you renew us at your table with the bread of life. May this food strengthen us in love and help us to serve you in each other. We ask this…   LITURGY AND LIFE   Customs, traditions and practices form part of every one’s life. Some of them have been handed down to the people and are in practice since many generations. People practice these unwritten laws in their lives and society without perhaps ever asking why they practise them at all. We may not be able to dismiss these practices as meaningless or useless as these can be meaningful and significant in one culture or other. People of every age, we see, are even prepared to die for certain traditions and hold a fundamentalist attitude that do not allow any growth or change in such traditions. Any law or tradition that is not interpreted from time to time to make it meaningful and valuable becomes a block to change and transformation. This is very true of religious rituals as it can sometimes hinder the people from experiencing God from such practices. Jesus rebukes all those practices that are thrust into the lives of the people quoting Isaiah, “This people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts”. It is important for us to associate interior worship and the outward practices of religion with each other: both are essential for our faith to be in perfect harmony. It is not uncommon, nowadays, to meet people who claim to be Catholics and believers, but who do not want to go to church to worship the Lord in community. These Christians perhaps do want to go to heaven one day, if they ever think about it at all, but to appear in public and to pray with others is something they do not want: truly, that disturbs them! Today more than ever, everyone seems to know how to get to heaven! The ways the Scriptures are interpreted, customs and traditions are passed on and the insistence of holding on to the teachings of the forefathers seem to suggest such a situation. For such people anything “new” is threatening and they are afraid of “changes” in their lives. Adherence to what is old keeps them secure and allows them to remain in their own comfort zones. Jewish law and tradition understood religious purity in ritual terms – washing hands, purifying pots, etc. Purity before God flows from a heart turned to God and a life lived in observance of God’s law. It is not the ritual that makes a person clean or unclean. The cleanliness or purity that Jesus is speaking about is not a fruit or result of washing hands, or observing a few rituals but realized through a personal relationship with God. Jesus wants us to go beyond all these and obtain the internal purity that allows us to experience the presence of God in our lives. Keeping the law is not an end in itself; God’s laws are always directed to witnessing to our unique relationship with God. St Paul reminds us that our bodies are the temples of God. If that is so, then we need to obtain that purity which God alone can give to us. Jesus, our Saviour and Lord, is inviting us to have a conversion of heart that alone will lead us to have a God-experience in our lives. Let not our lives be lived to hear from Jesus that “this people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me” rather let us hear from him that ‘you are unstained by the world and this generation is truly wise and intelligent people’. Let Jesus form part of our daily lives and let us not confine him to mere human traditions and rituals. — Fr Johnson Vattakkunnel, ssp   Aug/Sept 2009 READINGS OF THE WEEK Psalter Week 2 31 Mon (G) 1 Thes 4:13-18; Ps 95:1&3,4-5,11-13ab,13cd; Lk 4:16-30 1 Tue (G) 1 Thes 5:1-6,9-11; Ps 26:1,4,13-14; Lk 4:31-37 2 Wed (G) Col 1:1-8; Ps 51:10,11; Lk 4:38-44 3 Thu (W) St Gregory the Great, Pp dr (mem) Col 1:9-14; Ps 97:2-3ab,3cd,4,5-6; Lk 5:1-11 4 Fri (G) Col 1:15-20; Ps 99:1-2,3-4,5; Lk 5:33-39 5 Sat (G) Col 1:21-23; Ps 53:3-4,6&8; Lk 6:1-5