Laws and Promises

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today remind us of the Laws and Promises of God that Jesus fulfills. This theme is presented today by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews. In the Gospel from Mark, Jesus instructs the Pharisees about the behaviour of His Disciples on the Sabbath. Andy Alexander, S.J., on the Day of Prayer, in the US, for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children comments that defending unborn human life can help us be more conscious advocates for all human life after birth. Especially, the human lives of those who are not so easy to defend: murderers on death row, enemy combatants, people are on the margins of our society. Don Schwager quotes “The Lord of the Sabbath, “ by John Chrysostom, 547-407 A.D. The Word  Among Us Meditation on Mark 2:23-28 considers that like rules for a young child, the sabbath guidelines that Jesus talks about in today’s Gospel were meant to help God’s people make a habit of choosing God’s ways. They were meant to instill the practice of prayer and rest into the rhythm of life. Obeying the Law in itself wasn’t the goal. Staying close to God was the goal—loving him and giving him time and space in their lives. Friar Jude Winkler recalls the Hebrew understanding of the faithfulness of God. The doctrinal teaching in Hebrews is followed by instructions for living a moral life. Friar Jude explores the accuracy of Jesus references to history in Mark. Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces a reflection, by Evangelical Shane Claiborne who invites us to quite literally follow Jesus.Fr Richard says that we do not think ourselves into a new way of living, but we live ourselves into a new way of thinking. His  life’s work, in many ways, has been trying to move heady doctrines and dogmas to the level of actual experience and lifestyles that are an alternative to our consumer culture. The Promise fulfilled by Jesus is lived in our practice not through proclamation of beliefs.

Inner Wisdom and wickedness

The commentary on the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today recognizes that Jesus directs us to an internal examination of our vices as the source of the evil we identify around us.

Mark 7:14-23
‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.’ pic.twitter.com/T6CFn07HiN

— Kalina Boulter (@KalinaBoulter) February 7, 2018

The biblical encounter of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba in the First Letter of Kings presents the ancient connection between wisdom and success evidenced in material wealth.

* [10:1–13] The sub-unit on Solomon’s wisdom contrasts with 3:16–28. There Solomon’s gifts led him to listen to the humblest of his subjects; he accomplished justice and was revered by all his people. Here the emphasis is on his clever speech to a foreign monarch. She is duly impressed by the glory of his court, but it is she, not Solomon, who recalls the monarch’s duty of establishing justice (v. 9). The unit is interrupted briefly by a remark about Solomon’s maritime commerce (10:11–12).

In the Gospel from Mark, Jesus enumerates many vices that he positions as originating in the heart, seat of wisdom, of people.

The parable of Mk 7:14–15 in effect sets aside the law itself in respect to clean and unclean food. He thereby opens the way for unity between Jew and Gentile in the kingdom of God, intimated by Jesus’ departure for pagan territory beyond Galilee.

Colleen Chiacchere contemplates that Jesus seems to be warning us and highlighting the slippery slope of evil that can come from our heart being in the wrong place.

Perhaps one way to approach this reading might be to examine a change in our own understanding.  Is there something in our lives that resonate with this Gospel passage? Perhaps we have had an experience lately where we discover that something that we have known to be true, wise and/or common practice is surprisingly turned upside down and proven false or irrelevant?  It takes effort and energy (and grace) to handle with change well, but handling change can be even more difficult when it goes against a long standing tradition or hits us suddenly.  Sometimes, we can even begin to question what is true among our other commonly held beliefs and practices, too.

Don Schwager quotes Tertullian, 160-225 A.D. on how the cycle of bitterness is broken by forbearance.

"Let us, then, his servants, follow our Lord and patiently submit to denunciations that we may be blessed! If, with slight forbearance, I hear some bitter or evil remark directed against me, I may return it, and then I shall inevitably become bitter myself. Either that, or I shall be tormented by unexpressed resentment. If I retaliate when cursed, how shall I be found to have followed the teaching of our Lord? For his saying has been handed down that one is defiled not by unclean dishes but by the words which proceed from his mouth ( Mark 7:15)." (excerpt from ON PATIENCE 8)

Friar Jude Winkler notes the extravagant hospitality described in the meeting of Solomon and the Queen from Sheba (Yemen). When we fill our hearts, eyes, and spirit with good things there is not room for the vices that lead to evil.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM quotes John Dear who writes about the verse (Matthew 5:9) in the Sermon on the Mount that throws out thousands of years of belief in a violent god and every reference to a warmaking god in the Hebrew Scriptures. Rohr explains that the peacemaker has a pro life orientation from womb to tomb.

If you are truly a peacemaker, your very means have to be nonviolent and you have to be consistently pro-life—from womb to tomb. One of the most distressing qualities of many Christians today is that they retain the right to decide when, where, and with whom they will be pro-life peacemakers. If the other can be determined to be wrong, guilty, unworthy, or sinful, the death penalty is somehow supposed to serve justice. That entirely misses the ethical point Jesus makes: We are never the sole arbiters of life or death, because life is created by God and carries the divine image. It is a spiritual seeing, far beyond any ideology of left or right.

The slippery slope leading to evil, mentioned by Colleen Chiacchere, is evidenced in testimony today about lack of perseverance leading to conflict, our imagination of vice leading to unfortunate actions and our peacemaker ethic calling us to a respect that life is a gift from God over which we are never the sole arbiters.
References


(n.d.). 1 Kings, chapter 10 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved February 7, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/1kings/10:1


(n.d.). Mark, chapter 7 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved February 7, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/7


(n.d.). Online Ministries at Creighton University. Retrieved February 7, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/


(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved February 7, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved February 7, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/