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Exploring the word

02 Sep 2018 - Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Those of a certain age remember the Ivory soap commercial that declared, without the least bit of irony intended, that its product was “ninety-nine and forty-four one-hundredths percent pure.” Wow, we thought back then: So, what’s in all the rest of the soaps we’re using? When a country-and-western singer later adopted the ad line for his love song, we were mildly amused that the suitor professed his feelings as being “ninety-nine and forty-four one-hundredths percent pure love.” We might rue the truth behind his words: that all our attempts at love are diluted with self-interest to an even greater degree than this percentage would admit. These days, purity is a quality hard to come by. We have come to expect a little genetic tinkering in our food, the battleground of pesticides that is our backyard, and the necessity for “real” politicians to manipulate us with their spin-doctors calibrating the message for public consumption. There is a bit of the synthetic woven into what we wear, the truth we hear, the appearance we project, and the roles we play. Which of us is an authentic person who can honestly say, “What you see is what you get”? Instead, we obscure the signs of age that would give us away, play the game that will advance our careers, smother our true feelings under the acceptable facade, and maybe even forget who we really are. It’s a long journey from there to who we are called to be, but how many of us will ever “get real” enough to take it? Given birth by the word of truth The writer of James at the end of the first century had his hands full. Twenty centuries before Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, he was campaigning for the “seamless garment” of faith: in his case, meaning a perfect match between the interior and exterior life of the Christian. In the debate between the necessity of faith or works, James voted for both. Christians must be hearers and doers of the word. They must first embrace the truth and then give birth to it in their choices. James was not merely a social worker concerned with earning salvation through good deeds, as some have accused. He was vitally interested in the faith of the believer and “pure religion,” but he regarded faith as a verb to be enacted, not a noun to be apprehended. A percentage of the life of faith is doubtlessly the grace of God directly infused into our lives as pure gift. But the ninety-nine and odd hundredths percent after that is given birth by our testimony, which is demonstrated in how what we believe shapes the way we live. Faith is brought to birth in what we do (caring for orphans and widows who embodied the biblical definition of helpless need) and what we refrain from doing (remaining undefiled by worldly priorities). If our faith did not gestate and come to term in this tangible sense, then “pure religion” was no better than pure folly, a joke we were playing on God and ourselves. Inside, outside Some religious thinkers have erred in pointing the finger at Moses and calling the Hebrew law the source of the problem. Actually, Moses was quite clear that divine law was the core of what he taught, and human law could not add to or subtract from it. Mosaic law had a few well-chosen words about pure religion—serve God alone and above all else—but then moved immediately into how to do that: observe the Sabbath, honor your parents, don’t kill, don’t betray, don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t even crave. The Decalogue provides us with a blueprint of the seamless relationship between faith and works. As we honor God, so we will do God’s will. It is impossible to imagine one without the other. By the time of Jesus, it was the ritually observant Pharisees who seem to have lost the necessary connection between faith and what it intends. They obsessed over the exterior performance of religion and were consumed by the pursuit of purity, yet their hearts were far from pure. Though it all looked good on the outside, the largest percentage of what was crucial was already defiled from within, and the Pharisees were blind to this. How could they even speak about the purification of outward things like cups and jugs and kettles and beds, when their hearts were full of unchastity, malice, greed, and arrogance? Like children, they straightened up their room by pushing everything under a neatly made bed. This never fooled mom, and it would hardly suffice to deceive God. Applying the Word Honor God with the lips and the heart We all continue to be tempted by the sin of the Pharisees because it looks so good. Jesus pointed out that we think our marital bed is neatly made when we do not actually commit adultery. Still we view others as objects to be possessed and betray our loved ones a thousand times over by tiny acts of disloyalty and callous disregard. In the same way, we may not go out and kill our neighbor, yet we speak archly of her or treat him with prejudice and contempt. The poison in our hearts is revealed by these acts, and the fact that we haven’t broken a commandment in half by no means implies that we’ve kept it. Pure lovers are those who continually seek to purge their hearts of the cobwebs of spite and selfishness that gather in shadowy, unfrequented corners. They do not allow bitterness to remain unexamined or unforgiveness to gain a foothold in their thinking. They know that thoughts and attitudes lead to behaviors, so the time to challenge an idea is the moment it first occurs to us. Holiness is not a garment that can be put on; it must emerge from a life authentically lived, rooted in love. If our motivation is not yet 100 percent pure love, we still have work to do. Related scripture links Faith without works is dead: James 2:14-18 Paul on faith working through love: Gal. 5:6 Jesus on hypocrisy in religion: Matt: 6:1-8, 16-21; 7:1-5 Jesus on the commandments: Matt. 5:17-48 Catechism links Word as revelation and truth: CCC 203-217; 456-463 Teaching and law: CCC 425-429; 1961-1974; 2173

Authors Alice Camille

Purity pharisees

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Quotes

02 Sep 2018 - Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

What goes into a person can defile a person. Ask a drug addict or an alcoholic. But Jesus’ diagnosis is that there’s a deeper problem that comes from within. Spiritual impurity or moral defilement starts on the inside. It arises from the heart. —Heidi Husted, The Christian Century From a controversy on the clean and unclean, on good and evil, on tradition and newness, Jesus leads us into an altogether different perspective: that of an examination of one’s life and of conversion of the heart. . . . In the name of this reality, we must attempt to track down our hidden hypocrisies, this ever-renewed need to cheaply justify ourselves. —P. Y. Emery Knowledge is of no avail without the love of God, nor is understanding of mysteries, faith, or prophecy. Without love all are vain and profitless. Love, on the other hand, perfects a person, and one who loves God is perfect both in this world and the next, for we shall never stop loving God. —Saint Irenaeus (c. 140-200)

spiritual impurity Hypocrisy

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Exploring the word

01 Nov 2020 - Solemnity of All Saints, Cycle A

What does it take to be a saint in this world? Two miracles and a lot of good press? Martyrdom for the right cause? Canonization can be achieved on these terms, but it takes a bit more to be actually counted among the blessed. Scripture goes on at length about the holy ones, but their identification always seems to boil down to a curious factor rarely considered: the condition of the human heart. While we might look only to the "outer" criteria for sainthood—the lame casting crutches aside, the cancer patient cured through timely intercession, or the firing squad shouting, "Recant your faith or die!"—the biblical criterion is simpler: Live with a clean heart before God. That opens up a new avenue of discernment. What makes for a clean heart? Many of us grew up with the stain-of-sin metaphor impressed on us. If sin leaves a stain, then a clean heart is one free from sin. Fair enough. This idea, though, can paralyze us, because none of us is free from sin for more than minutes at a time—unless you're a far better person than I. If sainthood means being clean-hearted, and cleanliness equals sinlessness, knowledge of our sinfulness can demoralize us en route to sainthood. We're obliged to take the nearest exit and abandon that destination. In the Bible, however, the clean heart is characterized as pure or focused. That points toward purity of intention more than action: recognizing that the horse needs to be in front of the cart or we're not going to get far. The clean-hearted don't aim at keeping their hands or even their noses clean, primarily. They have bigger fish to fry than managing exterior conditions, because they know exterior conditions inevitably result from interior ones. So the pure of heart focus on orienting themselves toward God: in prayer, in love, in purpose, linking themselves hour by hour with the will of God. The habit of turning in a godly direction becomes their primary goal, not collecting good deeds like gold stars in the cause of righteousness. All too often in the Bible we see what becomes of those who are righteous in deed but loveless in heart. Their offering before God remains inert and their hearts may fall more deeply into shadow, deprived of divine light. But those who move in the direction of God are deepening their relationship to the source of love, light, and life quite naturally. Only those who grow close enough to God to know themselves as God's children will embrace this identity effortlessly. This purity is within reach of us all. Related scripture links Beatitudes: Ps. 1:1; 32:1-2; 41:1; 65:4; 84:4-5; 106:3; 112:1; 128:1; Luke 6:17-26 Children of God: Matt. 18:1-6; Luke 6:35; 18:15-17; John 12:35-36; Rom. 8:14-16; Gal. 3:26; 4:6-7; Heb. 12:4-11; 1 John 5:2, 19 A clean heart: Ps. 51:10 Holiness: Eph. 4:22-24; 1 Thess. 3:13; Heb. 12:14 The saints: Phil. 4:21

Authors Alice Camille

clean hearts purity of intention

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The inner word

01 Sep 2024 - Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Jesus has no tolerance for lip service. Pure hands are nothing compared with pure hearts in his eyes. Consider your own purity: What human traditions do you find yourself clinging to? Which ones can you justify before God? Which would be a tougher sell? In what ways are you a doer of the word? In what ways a hearer only? What keeps you from doing God’s word? Psalm 15 describes the actions of one who will live in peace because of his blameless ways. Consider the ways you know you are serving God well. These are signs of God’s devotion to you. What other signs do you see daily?

Purity

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Featured Exploring the Word

01 Sep 2024 - Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Here’s a dichotomy of readings that invites us to think: Moses presents to the people a law that ostensibly contains the mind of God. Not a thing must be added or subtracted from it. Jesus disparages the legal experts for clinging to the law, down to the last details. How can both these passages be accepted in faith? Most Christians don’t regard themselves as anti-Semites. Roman Catholicism in particular has taken great strides since the Second Vatican Council to clean up its record in response to the Jewish community. Nostra Aetate clearly states: “Jews remain very dear to God, for the sake of the patriarchs, since God does not take back the gifts he bestowed or the choice he made” (see also Romans 11:28-29). Despite these conciliatory words, however, many Christians take a stance that makes us into what theologians call “unconscious anti-Semites.” We believe that when Jesus arrived, he found the law defective and established its replacement. So: Out with the law, and in with grace. Funny how we have no problem proposing Judaism’s virtual obsolescence, meanwhile resenting it when other religions take Catholicism and do the same thing. Try as we might, we can’t blame this legacy on Paul, the great Pharisee ironically considered the founder of Christian anti-Semitism. In trying to graft Gentiles onto the stump of Jesse, he inadvertently did some damage to the original limbs—but let’s face it, Paul was not a gentle guy. Still, he never, ever renounced his Jewish identity nor did he encourage another Jew to do so. Rather, Paul seems to have glimpsed the Christian proposal so plaintively described in Mark’s gospel: “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters a man from outside can make him impure.” Jesus does not dispose of Mosaic law’s jots and tittles with this statement. Mosaic law held the purity of the nation as its central concern. Jesus honors that concern. Purity is Israel’s special commission as the people with whom God chooses to dwell. If you live with God, you are in mortal danger unless you become a proper vessel for that proximity. (Touching the Ark unworthily always led to a bad situation.) Rather than dismissing the law and its purpose, Jesus reinterprets it through the insight of Israel’s prophets. Their tradition maintains that the law is written on the heart more significantly than on tablets of stone. In the teachings of Jesus, it remains true that the pure heart will see God at last. Related scripture links Faith without works is dead: James 2:14-18 Paul on faith working through love: Gal. 5:6 Jesus on hypocrisy in religion: Matt: 6:1-8, 16-21; 7:1-5 Jesus on the commandments: Matt. 5:17-48 Catechism links Word as revelation and truth: CCC 203-217; 456-463 Teaching and law: CCC 425-429; 1961-1974; 2173 Adapted from a previously published Exploring the word.

Authors Alice Camille

Purity pure hearts

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