Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Does religion make sense even though there are so many wars fought and so many division caused in the name of God? What do you think? This is the theme of today’s Gospel reading – to identify the core of human religiosity and to distinguish it from mere human misconceptions. Mark brings this conflict out through the Jesus–Pharisee conflict. In the Gospel of Mark, right from the beginning the Pharisees begin to accuse Jesus of breaking the Mosaic Laws. They object to him eating with tax collectors and sinners (2:6); They object to his disciples not fasting (2:18-22); they complained about his disciples breaking the Sabbath by picking the heads of grain (2:23-28); they accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath by healing a sick man (3:1-6); and in today’s gospel they accuse him of ignoring the rites of cleansing.

Today Jesus invites his followers today to go back to the basics, to look at the core of religion. What do the life and words of Jesus tell us about the core of religion. Let me bring it down to three points:

Jesus teaches us that at the core of religion is an intimate relationship with a personal God. On the contrary, at the core of the Pharisees’ faith is a set of laws. Jesus calls this personal God “Abba.” In return, twice - at his baptism and transfiguration the Father confesses Jesus as his “beloved Son.” This intimacy with God became the driving force for his ministry just as it became the source and summit of his prayer. His intimacy would lead him to say, “My food is to do the will of the Father.” (Jn 4:34)

Like Jesus, our Baptism too is the beginning of a relationship with the Father – the beginning of our being sons and daughters of God. Each of the Sacrament – from Baptism to Anointing of the sick, from birth until death – is an invitation to this personal God to invade every aspect of our lives. Today Christ is challenging us to look at the core of our relationship with God.

If at the core of our faith and of the practice of our religion there is anything else other than an intimate relationship with a personal God then it is possible that our faith is shallow, our religion is legalistic, and our rituals are empty of meaning. This week, let us think deeply about the core of our spiritual and religious life.

- Fr. Satish Joseph