Homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

There’s a joke in Catholic circles that goes something like this. Question: What’s the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist? Answer: You can negotiate with a terrorist. Substitute Pharisee for liturgist and you basically understand what Jesus is on about.

Like the Catholic Church, ancient Judaism was organised by means of different types of laws. Some laws were more important than others, some laws were general and some were specific. The most important laws in ancient Judaism were the moral laws. These were the laws that governed the way man related to God interiorly. The Ten Commandments are an example of moral law that orders the human heart towards God. The moral laws like the Ten Commandmeets were supported by another set of laws, called ceremonial or ritual laws. These laws goverened the way man related to God exteriorly, namely, in formal worship and in daily life.

Let’s start with a rather blunt question. What is the difference between art that depicts the naked human body and pornography? The difference is revealed by comparing the intentions of the creators and the intentions of the consumers. The creator of art is called an artist. When an artist depicts the naked human body, he intends to reveal and extol the beauty of the human person. This is what we see in Michelangelo’s paintings in the Sistine Chapel, such as his depiction of Adam and God the Father reaching out towards each other. Adam is naked, but this nakedness helps reveal the truth about Adam; it in now way is intended to become an object of lust. The creator of pornography is called a pornographer. When a pornographer depicts the naked human body, he intends something very different from the true artist. The pornographer intends to make the human body an object of lust. The depiction of the naked body in pornography is intended to reduce the human person to an object to be used; it diminishes and degrades the full truth about the human person in general and the specific persons involved. A similar distinction can be made with regard to the consumers of art and pornography. Someone who views the naked human body in a classical painting reverences the beauty of the person and the broader message of the artwork. Someone who views the naked human body in pornography uses the human person for their own pleasure. The main difference, then, between art that depicts the naked human body and pornography is heart of the creator and the consumer of the respictive media. The creator and the consumer of art have pure hearts consumed by love of beauty; the creator and the consumer of pornography have unclean hearts consumed by lust.

In Jesus’ day, Judaism

the Jews had two different ideas about purity. On the one hand, there was ritual purity, and on the other hand, there was moral purity. Ritual purity

This example helps us understand what Jesus means when he says: “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. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge...” Ancient Judaism had a complex system of laws that could be roughly divided into two categories. On the one hand, there were the moral laws such as the Ten Commandments. These were the most important laws that cultivated interior purity, purity of heart. In addition to the moral laws, there were also ceremonial or ritual laws, such as the kosher laws that proscribed which foods could and could not be eaten. Originally, these laws were meant to make it easier to fulfil the moral laws with respect to the worship of God. Catholicism has a similar structure. Like Judaism, we have moral laws such as the Ten Commandments that are intended to cultivate purity of heart. But we also have other types of laws, including ceremonial and ritual laws, which we call rubrics. The rubrics are the laws that govern the celebration of Mass and the Sacraments. The celebrant is bound to celebrate the rituals of the Church according to these ritual laws, which we call rubrics.

The central laws were the Ten Commandments

The ancient Jews had developed two types of purity: ritual purity and moral purity. The original law of God

the chief religious crime, in a sense, was not sin but ritual uncleaness. One became ritually unclean by failing to observe the law of God. Ritual uncleanness

The difference between nude art and porn? The intentions of the creators and the consumers. The artist seeks to extol the beauty of the human person. The pornographer intends to arouse lust and reduce the human person to an object of use. The person who views nude art as art sees the full beauty of the human person. The person who views pornography uses the human person, consumes the person, only sees an object and not a person.

John Paul II had loincloths of nudes removed during restoraiton of Sistine Chapel.

Defilement

The purpose of law

Key issue of the Gospel is defilement. Defilement separates man from God. That which separates man from God is sin, namely, the willing rejection of God. Man can manifest this rejection through the use or misuse of certain physical objects or ritual processes, but they themselves are not necessarily sinful.

Defilement prevented ritual participation.

The law was meant to show us that we cannot keep ourselves clean from sin without God’s help. We need something more than a law that relies on effort; we need the grace of God. When the Israelite’s received the Law, the assumed they woul dbe able to remain in God’s friendship by their own effort alone. They were wrong. We need God’s grace before, during and after an action to persevere in holiness.

Notes on the Readings

Gospel

The Pharisees and scribes - experts in the Law

Jesus’ disciples are ‘breaking’ the law by eating with unclean hands.

“You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.”

Key question - what is the purpose of the law? The law is meant to make doing what is good easier by discincentivising that which is bad. Often, however, law devolves into a mechanism of control. Leaders use law to control their subjects for alterior, self-serving motives, rather than to enable their subjects to more easily do what is good. The law is not an end in itself. It is an instrument that serves a purpose. Like all instruments, however, they can, and often are used for purposes that they were not intended. A hammer is desgined to be used to build and construct, but it can also be used to murder. Likewise, the law is mean to make it easier for us to do what is good, however, in our own day, law is often misused to make it hard to choose what is good, easy to choose what is bad, and even to control.

We know that Jesus had only recently fed the five-thousand. Now, the apostles are upbraided for eating with unclean hands. Jesus goes on to explain that ritual impurity comes from sin, not contact with certain physical things.

First Reading

“Take notice of the laws and customs that I teach you today, and observe them, that you may have life...”

Hodie

The lockdowns are a staggering misuse and abuse of law.

There is a strong case that the Church cannot legitimately deprive people of the sacraments unless it is for a punishment. The Church deprives people of the sacraments as a punishment in excommunications or interdicts.

Jesus criticises the scribes and Pharisees because they observe the external practices of the law without interior conversion. How can it be that so many Catholics attend Mass but so few go to confession? Only because we are Pharisees.

The Law of God

The law that God gives, and that is applied in and through the Catholic Church, is the perfect law. It is truly and correctly ordered towards not just what is good for us, but what is best for us. The law of God guides and assists us to be who we were made to be and to live for eternity. As a law that is primarily concerned with our spiritual welfare, the consequences of breaking the law of God are primarily spiritual.

Sin

A breach of God’s law is called sin. The effect of breaching God’s law through sin is either a diminishment or disruption of the divine life of grace in us.