{"id":771,"date":"2015-08-30T12:38:02","date_gmt":"2015-08-30T17:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=771"},"modified":"2015-09-22T12:54:33","modified_gmt":"2015-09-22T17:54:33","slug":"things-that-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=771","title":{"rendered":"Things That Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

22nd<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/h3>\n

Dt 4: 1-2, 6-8; James 1: 17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mk 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23<\/h3>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h3>\n

It is human nature to try to keep it simple.\u00a0 We like it that way- the simpler, the better.\u00a0 And so, a firm set of rules- do\u2019s and don\u2019ts- that is what all of us would really like to live life by.\u00a0 We all want to know where we \u201ccross the line\u201d between right and wrong.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a defensive game the whole way.<\/p>\n

The Israelis had such a list of rules- the Mosaic Law.\u00a0 At the foundation of the Mosaic Law was \u201cThe Ten Commandments\u201d.\u00a0 These were simple and clear.\u00a0 They were intended to communicate the essence of what is right and what is wrong in each area of life.\u00a0 Do Honor the one true God, do keep holy the Sabbath, do honor your parents; do love God and your neighbor;\u00a0 Don\u2019t lie; don\u2019t kill, don\u2019t steal, and don\u2019t covet what belongs to others.<\/p>\n

Notice, though, that each of these is open to interpretation.\u00a0 For example: what does it mean to love? \u00a0\u00a0What does it mean to honor?\u00a0 And what does it mean to lie?\u00a0 Just when do we cross the line between desiring something we see and coveting it?<\/p>\n

Now Moses made it clear to the Israelis that they were to live by these statutes and decrees.\u00a0 But they were not to add or subtract from them.\u00a0 And yet, that is exactly what the Israelis did- they added and even subtracted from them. \u00a0They did that because the Israelis had to come to grips with how to define these terms.\u00a0 Rather than each person taking the spirit of these commandments into their hearts, and using their conscience as their guide, the establishment embellished the rules with hundreds of details that rounded out the Mosaic Law.<\/p>\n

This became especially obvious after a thousand years of clarifications so that at the time of Jesus, we see the kind of thing that happened in the Gospel Story.\u00a0 Somehow, in their zeal to assure that \u201cThou shalt not kill\u201d, the detailed practices for cleanliness were issued.\u00a0 One had to abide by all these practices to the letter.\u00a0 And in so doing, the Jews actually diminished the real intent of the law.\u00a0 For being kind to visitors and guests is certainly a priority of the heart;\u00a0 To do otherwise would injure a person; whereas detailed observance of the rules of cleanliness ranks a little lower on the scale of being hospitable.<\/p>\n

Now don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0 I am not criticizing the necessity to observe rules of cleanliness.\u00a0 It\u2019s just that the hypocrisy stood out in the Gospel story, and this was the point Jesus was making.\u00a0 What is evil is the intent that comes out of us from our hearts.\u00a0 The Pharisees disdained Jesus and his followers.\u00a0 They were simple folk; not educated in the fineries of their faith; and they didn\u2019t seem concerned with these rules.\u00a0 Rather they seemed interested in spreading the word that Jesus taught, in being proactive.\u00a0 And so, they practiced a different kind of morality- a morality that took into account what came from their hearts instead of a morality that just checked to see if one had crossed the line.\u00a0 Jesus says that \u201cevil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly\u201d are all things that come from within our hearts, and these are the real evils of this world.<\/p>\n

As we go through our daily lives, we are faced with a continual challenge to live our Christian faith.\u00a0 All of us want to feel that we are doing the right thing.\u00a0 But we like to keep it simple, and so, we audit ourselves against the Ten Commandments in very simple terms.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t killed anyone; \u00a0but what about gossip or avoiding people or any other ways we can hurt people.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t lied; but have we withheld, evaded, misrepresented, or exaggerated anything.\u00a0 And we haven\u2019t stolen; but we may resent folks for what they do have.\u00a0 And how about our parents and loved ones- are we neglecting relationships and duties.<\/p>\n

St. Paul has some words for us today that will help.\u00a0 He says, \u201cBe doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves\u201d.\u00a0 Yes, we need to be careful that we are not deluding ourselves.\u00a0 Our lives need to be proactive; not reactive.\u00a0 Instead of avoiding the little things that really don\u2019t matter, we should be practicing the things that do matter, like seeking out opportunities to love our neighbors in need; like being there for those who have nobody else; and like bearing hardships with dignity and grace.\u00a0 If we do that, then the little things that we do wrong won\u2019t matter because God will see that it\u2019s what\u2019s in our hearts that really matters to us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Dt 4: 1-2, 6-8; James 1: 17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mk 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Dc. Larry Brockman It is human nature to try to keep it simple.\u00a0 We like it that way- the simpler, the better.\u00a0 And so, a firm set of rules- do\u2019s and don\u2019ts- that is what all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[155],"tags":[370],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions\/772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}