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Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 4: 1-2, 6-8
Psalm 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5
James 1:17-18, 21B-22, 27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
S
UMMARY
Simply whittle it down to the Ten Commandments, Moses told his
people, and the wisdom of God and all nations will be theirs; how-
ever, Jesus ˀ generations later ˀ still chides the Pharisees and
scribes who hypocritically pay God lip service only through their self-
imposed purification rituals, while God and his commandments are
farthest from their hearts.
R
EFLECTION
The words jumped out at me like a burning bush as we listened to the
story we fondly remembered from our adolescence. In my search to
hear them again on the audiobook, this is what I found:
ˈ˅You are killing me, fish,˅ the old man thought, ˄but you have a right
to. Never have I seen a moreˎnoble fish than you, brotherˎ˅ He took
all his pain and what was left of his strength and his long-lost pride
and he put it against the fish˅s agonyˎ Then the fish came alive with
his death in him and rose high out of the waterˎshowing his power
and beautyˎ˅Keep my head clear. Now I must do the servant work.˅ˉ
Excerpt from
The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway
Is life as simple as the Ten Commandments? Life is not, but God is.
When have I not been able to follow God˅s rulebook in my life? When