Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings

• First Reading Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8
• Responsorial Psalm Psalm 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5
• Second Reading James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27
• Gospel Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Open the Mass Readings on USCCB.org →

Step Into the Story

Deuteronomy, Greek for “second law,” gives Moses’ last instructions before the crossing, with a warning against tampering: add nothing, subtract nothing. What great nation, it boasts, has statutes as just as these? The Letter of James is credited to James, probably the “brother of the Lord,” who led the Jerusalem church until he was stoned around 62 A.D., as Josephus reports. His pure religion is pure Deuteronomy: care for orphans and widows.

1. 63 B.C.Pompey takes Jerusalem
2. 4 B.C.Antipas rules Galilee
3. 14 A.D.Tiberius becomes emperor
4. c. 20 A.D.Antipas founds Tiberias
5. This week’s scene: c. 29 A.D.The dispute over washing

Join Jesus and His disciples at a meal in the plain of Gennesaret, in Galilee, probably in 29 A.D. There the sick have been brought to Him on mats from every village. Sit on the ground with the disciples. Your hands are still dusty from the road. Tear a piece of bread. No one has gone to wash; they are hungry.

Then notice the visitors watching: Pharisees and scribes come up from Jerusalem. The Pharisees, a lay movement Josephus put at more than six thousand, carry priestly purity into the ordinary kitchen, with ritual washing of hands, cups, jugs and kettles. Pious households keep stone water jars, prized because stone, unlike pottery, was thought unable to become unclean. Hear the question: why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders? Put down your bread, and look to Jesus.

Encounter the Lord

Watch the Pharisees watching the disciples eat. Their eyes are on the hands. Jesus’ eyes are on the heart. He quotes Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

It is possible to do all the right religious things and still keep God at a distance. Jesus is not against tradition or ritual; He is against using them as a substitute for a converted heart. The real source of evil is not outside us but within. That is humbling, but also hopeful: what comes from the heart can be healed by grace. James gives a simple test: be a doer of the word, care for the widow and orphan, and keep yourself unstained by the world.

Before Mass this week, ask yourself: is my heart here, or only my lips? Then choose one concrete act of care for someone who is alone.

Know Your Faith

Christ and the Law

Jesus did not abolish the Law but fulfilled it, giving it its ultimate interpretation (CCC 577-582). He declared all foods clean, showing that what defiles comes from within (CCC 582).

The Old Law and the New

The Old Law is the first stage of revealed law; it prepares for the Gospel. The New Law, the law of the Gospel, is the grace of the Holy Spirit given through faith in Christ (CCC 1961-1966). It fulfills and refines the Old Law (CCC 1967-1968).

Evil from the Heart

The heart is the seat of moral personality: “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication” (CCC 1853, 2517).

Doers of the Word

The natural law, written in the heart, states the first precepts that govern the moral life (CCC 1954-1956). Faith without works is dead (CCC 1815).