Mind your own damn business

XXII Sunday “b” Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. —For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. — So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?" He responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition." He summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. "From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within, and they defile."

I think that today’s Gospel can be summarized with one thought, “Mind you’re your own business don’t be a hypocrite.” Ok, maybe two thoughts, but I think that it is pretty obvious what Jesus is trying to tell us. The pharisees who approached Jesus were always concerned about everyone else. Today they are concerned about Jesus’ disciples. They may have been right about their concerns. There probably were things that the disciples were doing that they shouldn’t have been doing and they probably neglected to do some things that were important. But that isn’t the point! What Jesus is challenging the pharisees to do, and each of us as well, is to mind our own business. Or in other words don’t think about the sins of others but think about your own sins. Don’t worry about how the other guy needs to convert but were about how you need to convert. Jesus says that what makes a person sinful isn’t what goes into them but what comes out of them. He then goes on with a list of the things that comes out of us, unchastity, theft, murder adultery, greed malice, deceit, etc. If we listen to this list and think, “Jesus is talking about them!” or, “Too bad so and so isn’t here to listen to this.” Or worse, “I am so glad that I don’t do any one of those things.” We are missing the point. We are becoming modern day pharisees. We are more worried about other’s sins rather than our own. It isn’t so much the list of sins that Jesus offers that is important is that Jesus is calling us to perfection. Jesus is calling us to be better people, more faithful followers of Jesus. If you listen to the Gospel and you think, “Boy, I have some work to do. Jesus is talking to me.” Then you are in a pretty good place. But if you listen to the gospel and you begin to think about everyone else, then you do have a lot of work to do. And Jesus will tell us, “Mind your own business and worry about yourself.” Don’t be a hypocrite! In Jesus’ language the word for a hypocrite and actor were one and the same. A hypocrite was a person who was acting. They were saying one thing, but they were doing another. Jesus is telling the pharisees, “you are good actors, you are pretending to be followers of God, but it is just a show.” Again, we don’t want to be pharisees and think of anyone else. We want to be authentic and think of ourselves! How do we have to act to be authentic Christians? Fortunately, the answer can be found in today’s second reading from the letter of James. For the next five weeks we will be reading from the letter of James. This is the letter when Martin Luther began the reformation wanted thrown out of the bible. He didn’t and so Catholic Christians and Protestant Christians all have this book in their bibles. The letter of James is a challenge to the Jewish Christians in the diaspora to live their faith. The diaspora means they no longer were in Jerusalem or were they amongst the majority of believers. They were in a context where most of the people didn’t believe in Jesus. It is interesting in our own time because even though we live in a Catholic Country most Mexicans don’t really practice their faith. So, like the Jewish Christians in the first century for us Mexican Christians in the 21st century it is also difficult to live our faith. And what does James tell us to do? “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” I love this line. “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” So, to be authentic Christian it isn’t enough to just listen to God’s word. It is enough to just put a statue of St. Jude in front of your house or put on rosary on the mirror of your car. No, we have to live our faith, not just profess it. And James makes it even clearer for us. He goes on to say what it means to do the word, “care for the orphans and the widows in their affliction.” To be a doer of the word means that we care for those in need. That is why activities like the acopios here in our parish are so important. Last year for the people in Acapulco, then the children, the migrants. Jesus is telling us that we will be judged not by how many times we went to Church or by how many rosaries we said. No, Jesus says that we will be judged by the way we care for the needy. So, let’s get to work. Let us not just act like Christians. Let us be Christians indeed, by the way that we live our lives. The truth is, if we live like Christians people will know this not be the crosses around our necks, but by the way that we live our lives.