Homily For the 22nd Sunday In The Ordinary Time of The Year B, September 2, 2024
True religion is keeping the word of God and doing His Will by helping the needy, the poor and the weak in the community. Anything short of this is hypocrisy, anything added to this is ostentatious.
Sunday Readings
My Dearest Friends in Christ,
We have gathered today to search our souls and to declare our readiness to worship God in sincerity of heart devoid of any hypocrisy or lip service. The readings of today explain what true religion is. It is not simply a scrupulous, external observance of rules, laws, traditions, and rituals. It is a loving, obedient relationship with God expressed in obeying His Commandments, in worshipping and recognizing His presence in other human beings, and rendering them loving and humble service. Prayers, rituals, sacraments, and religious practices only help us to practice this true religion in our daily lives.
When I ponder on what God has done for us, and the volume of evil I see happening in society daily, I conclude that the Word and love of God are no longer in our hearts. Why are we not being transformed by the Word of God we hear daily; or are our hearts becoming more hardened? Where does the problem lie? Is it with the preachers, the commandments of God itself, or men and women in society.? We go to church yet maliciously cheat others. We go to church yet we are unfaithful in marriage and living in promiscuity. We go to church yet we kill and murder human beings in the name of God. We go to church yet embezzle public funds to enrich ourselves and our families and impoverish the people. We go to church yet we abuse our bodies transforming our genders, abusing drugs, kidnapping, defrauding people, prostituting ourselves, and abusing minors. I can go on about this endless list of evil that has darkened the souls of men and women in today’s society. There is so much hypocrisy in the world that you can hardly distinguish the saint from the devil. If God were not omnipotent, modern men and women could deceive Him into believing that they are angels. Has Christianity failed the world? Does the Word of God still make an impact in modern society? Who do we blame for all this? Thanks to the Word of God because if not for the Word of God that is preached around the world, this planet would be an uninhabitable place for humans. Thanks to men and women of goodwill who in their daily lives struggle to do the Will of God by keeping His commandments. How can we remedy this ugly situation? The first remedy is to believe in God’s commandments and strive to live by them.
The first reading explains that religion is a covenant relationship with a caring, providing, and protecting God fostered by keeping His commandments given through Moses. God gave Israel the law so that the Israelites might keep their covenant with Yahweh and thank Him for His love and fidelity to His chosen people. The Law was also intended to keep them united, holy, and intelligent as a nation, proud of their powerful and protective God.
We are so blessed that God is close to us and our nation. Yet despite His closeness, we don’t acknowledge His presence. I can imagine the kind of hurt God feels daily seeing the people He loves and died for, living as if He never existed. Forgive us oh Lord our God and have mercy!
The second remedy is to be true to our religious worship. James’ definition of the essence of true religion in the second reading (James 1:18), sounds too simple to be true to most modern Christians who have a naive understanding of what true religion entails. How God is worshipped in this modern age leaves one with the question, is God still the center of our worship, or are we worshipping ourselves? Was Karl Marx right when he said, “Religion is the opium of the people.” because religion has become a tool for brainwashing and deception, in fact mass deception.? With the volume of different doctrinal teachings spreading across the globe from different preachers and founders of churches and pseudo-churches, I am becoming more afraid that religion may in the end become the greatest instrument of division among humanity instead of uniting humanity with God. There is no unity in the message of modern preachers as we had from Christ and the Apostolic preachings and teachings. Most modern preachers are no better than the Pharisees who multiplied the commandments of God and imposed them on people as a divine injunction. Dear
preacher, preach the oracle of God, and lead men and women to God and not to yourself.
My dearest child of God, the great apostle James says it all, true religion is keeping the word of God and doing His Will by helping the needy, the poor and the weak in the community. Anything short of this is hypocrisy, anything added to this is ostentatious. Let us understand this and curtail excesses and hypocrisy. You can deceive men but not God.
In the Gospel, Jesus describes true religion as serving God and all His children with a pure and holy heart. This echoes what the apostle James said above. The Pharisees and the Sanhedrin thought they were so enlightened as to accuse Jesus’ teaching as an open volition of the tradition of elders and tag them as blasphemous. They did not know that they were blind to what constitutes true religion and worship of God. They observed that Jesus’ disciples omitted the required ritual washing before meals. Jesus seized that opportunity to teach them and all of us that:
1) Don’t teach human doctrines as dogmas of Faith. (Pastors beware.)
2) Sincerity of heart, internal disposition, purity, and holiness are more important than mere external ritual observances. (Look inward and stop looking around.)
3) Keep your heart holy as it is the source of sins, vices, and evil habits. The observance of traditions and washing rituals does not correct the internal motivations and inclinations that defile people. Think positively, live and act positively. May your intentions be pure, do not harbor sinful thoughts.
4) External piety without internal holiness is hypocrisy. Remember, God searches our innermost heart.
May our lives be pleasing to God as we offer Him sincere worship and thanksgiving. Do not let the modern world influence you negatively as James admonished us in the second reading. See also Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the Will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Be true to yourself. Strive to please God and not men.
Pray fervently
Worship God in sincerity and truth
I keep you and your family always in my prayers. ©Clem C. Aladi (2024)
