22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
 
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
September 1, 2024
 
My brothers and sisters in Christ, ^[1]
 
We know that in past weeks in our Sunday Masses, we have been listening to Jesus’ teaching on the Eucharist, the Bread of Life, from the Gospel of St. John. 
 
This Sunday, as we just heard, we are returning to the Gospel of St. Mark. And for the next several weeks we will follow Jesus’ ministry and listen as he instructs us in the ways of the Kingdom of God.   
 
So today, we find him in a confrontation with the Pharisees and the scribes. It is a disagreement over how God wants us to live, what God wants us to set our hearts on and give priority to.  
 
And as we heard, Jesus speaks in strong language. 
 
As we heard, Jesus calls them “hypocrites.” He quotes the prophet, Isaiah, and says: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’ …  You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” 
 
I think we have to remember that when we hear these Gospel passages of Jesus criticizing the Pharisees, he is also criticizing temptations that we all have because we are human.
 
The temptation he is talking about today is the temptation to replace true worship with our own habits and traditions.
 
He tells them: “You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
 
So today, Jesus is calling us today to worship God from the heart, from the very depths of our being.
 
Jesus speaks so strong to the Pharisees because he wants us to know that he is serious about our lives. He talks this way because he loves us, and because he does not want us to be deceived or confused about the right way to live.
 
As we know, He came down from heaven for each one of us, personally. He loves each one of us so much that he suffered and died for you on the cross. He gave everything, laid down his life, for us — for you and for me.
 
In the first reading, we hear Moses speak about the “commandments of the Lord,” and he says:
 
“Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations.”
 
Like Moses, Jesus teaches us that if we love God, we will keep his commandments.
 
All commandments come down to one word. Love. To love God with all your heart and all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.^[2]
 
So Jesus commands us to love as he has loved us, with complete love, with a love that is ready to give ourselves totally. True love proves itself in service and in sacrifice.
 
That’s what St. James is talking about in the second reading of today’s Mass.
 
St. James says, as we heard: “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
 
So what we hear today is that faith in Jesus is not about certain tasks or following certain traditions and customs. Faith in Jesus is a whole way of living. A way of love.
 
That’s what I was saying at the beginning of Mass, that that’s our call to holiness — in our daily life.
 
So following Jesus means changing our hearts, it means allowing Jesus to change us, to make us more like himself.
 
That’s also why the Eucharist is so important, my brothers and sisters. The Eucharist is the sacrament of love, it is the living memorial of our Lord’s supreme act of love on the cross.
 
And just as bread and wine are transformed into his Body and Blood, so Jesus wants to transform us by the Eucharist. He wants to make us a people who live with the new law of love written in our hearts.
 
And it is a beautiful way to live, without fear, without selfishness, confident that we are loved by God and that in him we can do all things!
 
So, as we enter into this new month, and this Labor Day weekend, and this new season of the year, let’s make a new resolution to love as Jesus loved.  
 
And in this Eucharist today, celebration of the Holy Mass, let’s open our hearts to receive the love that the Lord comes to give us.
 
Let’s ask Holy Mary, our Blessed Mother, to enlighten and inspire us. 
 
May she open our hearts to the beautiful life that her Son is calling us to. May she make us always “doers” of his Word of love.