Fr. Adam Voisin's Stuff
Homily for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Pharisees get a bad rap in the Bible and they seem like they're this like group of malicious scheming boogie man and always kind of lurking about trying to trick Jesus to get on them and So we have a really kind of negative view of them a the Pharisees But perhaps we can actually come to their defense a little bit and see where they're coming from and where they actually came from The sect of the Pharisees emerged about 150 years before Jesus there are obviously Jews they're in the Holy Land Jerusalem and up until that point for like you know 700 years over that course of history many different nations surrounding Israel had come in and conquered the people of Israel and Oppressed them in many many different ways and deported them the Assyrians the Babylonians the Persians at the time of the Pharisees about 150 years before Christ it was the Greeks who were treating them badly think of the books of Maccabees You can see what was going on there and then by the time of Jesus, of course, it's the Roman Empire so They've been oppressed in so many different ways over all these hundreds of years and during that time the the prophets Would emerge and and tell everybody they'd say hey the reason for all of this catastrophe all of these Disasters that are befalling you it's because you've been disobedient to God That's why all of this is happening. You've been unfaithful to God and God's law so If that's the case that the reason all of these disasters are coming upon us because we're unfaithful What's it? What's the answer? What's the solution? Well be faithful to God right to be obedient to God Then we can get his blessings. He'll protect us we won't have all of these four nations coming in and Oppressing us so that's where the Pharisees are coming from their whole goal is okay We got to be super super super faithful to God really really obedient to his law And then God will bless us and protect us and give us peace and prosperity so so that's where the Pharisees emerged from out of that and They they thought they did this like they they promoted the obedience to God in a few different ways But at least two of them are these on the one hand they looked at Deuteronomy. So Deuteronomy is is Essentially Israel's Constitution. It's what the law that forms Israel as a people and so it's God's law This is what they have to be obedient to so they they look at God's law They're like okay, we to make it hard to break God's law. What we'll do is come up with more laws and Surround the different laws that you find in Deuteronomy kind of like creating fences or hedges around God's law So that if you're going to break one of God's laws, you have to break like four or five of these other laws to get there So that was like creating a buffer zone around God's law with these human traditions That's what is going on in the gospel and Jesus refers to the tradition of the elders He's talking about voles kinds of laws that the Pharisees came up with they're not in Deuteronomy They're not in the Bible They came up with all of these additional laws to protect God's law and make it easier for people to keep God's law The other thing they did was they looked at Deuteronomy and there's a there's a particular laws For the priests that only apply to them. So the priests would for instance like offer sacrifice So they had all of these like ritual washing Laws that they would have to do before they go into the temple and offer sacrifice So the Pharisees look at this they're like okay. Well the laws for the priests those must be like the extra holy laws Right because they're for the priest so how about this why I know everybody follow the priestly laws So that's what we're going to do everyone has to follow all of the priestly laws so All of these laws about like washing that that's going on in the gospel where the Pharisees are saying hey your disciples They're not eating with washed hands what they're talking about is this you know the Pharisees without for the priest would have to do this ritual washing The Pharisees said how about this? All of you have everyone has to do that every time you eat a meal You have to go through all of this ritual washing that the priest would do before they would have to go do a sacrifice So you can see how they're like adding up all these laws to try to be faithful to God Hey, but it's a little it's a little much right. It's a little much You know imagine if we did that in the Catholic church So priests are under different laws than everybody else like there's laws that apply to me that don't apply to you Like one of them for instance. I have to pray as a priest The liturgy of the hours So there's five times a day and there's a set of Psalms and prayers and readings and things That I have to do if I don't do it That's a sin for me for me because I have to do it and I would actually have to bring that into the sacrament of confession What if I said it and now all of you have to do that to? You have to pray the liturgy the hours and if you don't do it, it's a sin Now that's not the case right you don't have to pray the liturgy hours. I do or celibacy So I made a commitment to celibacy. What have I said? Okay? Well, I'm a priest. I do that. How about everybody does that? How's that gonna fly? Probably not so much, right? So that but that's what's going on with the Pharisees. They're like, why don't we all do the priestly laws? So so that's the setup but so you can see you can see that their their motivation is good, right? They want to be faithful to God. They want to really be obedient to God to God's law They got a little you know excessive with it, but it was probably coming from a good place But they fell in a trap they fell in a trap That I think we can all fall into So they're being really meticulous about all of these extra fussy laws the tradition of the elders and they were doing it really well They're really keeping all these laws and they started to identify Their holiness their rightness before God with how well they kept all of these fussy laws While neglecting their own hearts That's the critique that Jesus is making here It's like you guys are gonna do all that stuff, but look at your hearts There's evil within them and they should have known this they should have known not to neglect their hearts because they know Deuteronomy really really well and The one word in the book of Deuteronomy that's repeated more than any other remember Deuteronomy is a book of law What's the one word repeated more than any other the word heart? The word heart That's what all the laws about it's supposed to transform their hearts It's in Deuteronomy where we have the great Shema the great Jewish prayer that you should love the Lord your God with all of your Heart with all of your mind your soul and your strength That's what it's about loving God not just of all these fussy laws, but they forgot that So that's what's going on in the gospel here The Pharisees say to Jesus your disciples. They're not doing all that ritual washing. How why not? What does Jesus say? Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites What's a hypocrite? Hit the word hypocrite comes from the Greek and it means a stage actor So think of a stage actor. They're two-faced right because they're playing a person who's not them That's what they're doing. They're an actor That's a hypocrite and he's calling them a hypocrite because on the outside They look really good, but on the inside there's someone else. They're corrupt within So Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites as it is written. This people honors me with their lips. They're giving lip service But their hearts their hearts are far from me and vain do they worship me? Teaching human precepts as doctrines. They're more fixated on all these extra laws they came up with than what they really should be doing Is that a trap that we can fall into? You better believe it What are the Pharisees doing? They're living their faith on the surface, eh? the ritual the Superficially they're just kind of going through the routine the motions of of keeping all the law and because they do that They think they're really holy, but they're not changing inside. There's no Transformation of the heart is it possible that that could happen to us that we do our religious practice. We observe the law We come to man's we we do the different things and there's no transformation of our hearts inside. Can that happen? You have better believe it. Does it happen to me? Yes, you better believe it. Does it happen to you? Probably can happen to any one of us and we say well look I'm a good person. I went to church And then how am I the rest of the week, right? Where's my heart? What does Jesus say? It's not about the external stuff It's the internal Disposition of the heart listen to be all of you understand There's nothing outside a person that by going into files is what comes out of the heart that defiles evil intentions fordication theft murder adultery avarice wickedness deceit licentiousness envy slander pride and folly Can we find those in our heart? Yeah? Yeah, we can think of the seven deadly sins our pride are arrogance self-centeredness Our lust our greed our envy jealousy anger sloth Do we find those in our hearts? Yeah? Those are the things that have to be changing Does Jesus want us though to ignore the law? No notice in the gospel Jesus doesn't criticize the Pharisees For keeping all of that extra law. He's not saying guys stop doing all that ritual washing. He doesn't critique them on that front He's critiquing them for doing that and ignoring the heart Does Jesus want us to keep the law? Yeah, of course But he wants it to go deeper. He wants our hearts to be changing and if that's not happening then we're doing it wrong We're like we're like the hypocrites the Pharisees, eh? You know following the law and I think the Pharisees. This is the trap following the law is the easy part We think of the heart part. That's the easy part It the transformation of the heart that's the hard part What's what's harder? To go to church on Sunday people say oh, it's so hard, right? I got this like a whole hour out of my week I'm gonna go to church. It's so so difficult What's harder to go to church for an hour or? To forgive somebody who's hurt you or to love your enemy What's harder to go to church or to overcome that sin that you struggle with over and over? What's harder to go to church or to? root out the envy I experienced my jealousy my greed my lust my arrogance my self-centeredness What's what's harder to not eat a hamburger on a Friday? Then to be patient and kind with somebody who drives me crazy and irritates me That's where the transformation has to be happening the law is the easy part to go to church That's easy not eating a hamburger on a Friday. I mean you could have a lobster if you want that's fine for some reason, but You can't have a hamburger That's the easy part change of the heart. That's the heart part And that's what we got to be paying attention to That's what Jesus is saying here, right? How does that work? Well, it's the Lord who's gonna do it, eh? What did Saint James say welcome the the word who can save you welcome that into your heart the word of God? Jesus himself we need him in our lives to change us from within The only way all of this works the transformation of our heart is if I've had an encounter with Jesus Christ If I have a relationship with him Maybe you've had that encounter with him. Maybe he's changed your life Maybe you see that transformation happening within you. Maybe not maybe you maybe you haven't had an encounter with him whether or not you have can I invite you implore you beg you That's so and I'll do it too at some point Today, maybe even during mass or sometime during the week Just in a moment of prayer Just invite the Lord in invite the Lord into your heart say something very simple Like Jesus. I want an encounter with you That's it Jesus. I want an encounter with you We can say it in our own way Jesus I want an encounter with you Jesus is standing at the door of our hearts knocking, okay? But only we can open the door from the inside. He's not going to barge in. It's not the way he works He wants us to invite him in to welcome him into the into our hearts So ask him tell him tell him that's what you want. You want that encounter with him And it's only then it's only then when we've had that encounter with Jesus the transformation of the heart that all of the laws now Are doing what they're supposed to be doing helping me to? To do what to do with Jesus says to love the Lord our God with all of our heart our mind our soul our strength and Our neighbor as ourself It's only when we've had that encounter with him that all of our religious practices all the things we do in our faith Come to life and serve their true purpose [MUSIC PLAYING]