Unspoken Faith:
www.johnpredmoresj.compredmoresj@yahoo.comThe Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024
September 1, 2024
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Deuteronomy 4:1-8; Psalm 15; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-23
Moses is putting before the people the choice between actual faith and idolatry. For a Jew, the Law gives life and makes the people into wise and intelligent people. He points out that what is important is our actions. Actions are the proof of faith. Words that profess belief are meaningless unless they are followed up by actions. The Psalm punctuates this thought; Those who do justice are proof of one’s faith. This is the point of the Gospel passage when Jesus teaches the scribes and the Pharisees about faith.
The Pharisees and religious leaders turned the Jewish faith into a practice rather than an expression of one’s dependence upon God. It became identity politics in which one’s attire and actions spoke about one’s beliefs. Their religion has turned into idolatry an ideology, and we have the same practices today when we tend to focus upon religious clothing or devotional practices. Jesus scolds the religious leaders and reminds them they have moved away from the faith in the name of religion. They have religion but not faith.
Jesus wants the faithful to focus on their attitudes and thoughts rather than their outward practices. One’s attitudes determines one’s worldview. A person of faith does not harbor ill will or terrible thoughts about one’s neighbor. Evil comes from our thoughts, which then form our attitudes, and our attitudes propel us to act. A person of faith is a just person who suspends and puts aside quick attitudes and rash judgments. This person seeks to learn from God how to be in right relations with others. Justice, wisdom, and intelligence is the mark of the faithful one. The person of faith is slow to speak because she does not want to make incorrect or hasty judgments.
Some theologians claim that we are in a crisis within organized religion. Some see it as a crisis of faith, and we have to look at that statement more clearly. It might be rightly said that there is a crisis in faith in the church, but can we accurately say that people have lost faith in God? That is a hard statement to make. It is certain that people’s relationship with the church has changed and that many people consider themselves spiritual but not religious. For many, the church is no longer relevant. It might be a place to worship every once in a while, but overall, the church does not meet their needs. If the church does not seem welcoming, meaningful, or just, why would someone want to attend? If the church does not seem response to the needs of the laity or can read the signs of the times, why would anyone bother to attend? If society is moving forward and some of the priests want to bring the church back to the less-than-ideal 1950s, what reason would a maturing, thinking, reflective person want to step back into a past ideology?
We cannot say that the people do not have faith in God. We see their goodness and holiness through their actions. People of goodwill are working hard to make the world a better place. Their actions are just, wise, and intelligent, and their hearts are filled with the desire for goodness, beauty, and truth. Jesus would point out these people as people of faith. You just might not find them in a synagogue, mosque, or church. Faith helps a person transcend religion. Faith is the mingling of God’s presence into the heart of a good person.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (1 Corinthians 2) I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling.
Tuesday: (1 Corinthians 2) The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. Among men, who knows what pertains to the man except his spirit that is within?
Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.
Wednesday: (1 Corinthians 3) I could not talk to you as spiritual people, but as fleshly people, as infants in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were unable to take it. Indeed, you are still not able, even now, for you are still of the flesh.
Thursday: (1 Corinthians 3) If anyone among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool, so as to become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God.
Friday (1 Corinthians 4) Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal.
Saturday (1 Corinthians 4) Learn from myself and Apollos not to go beyond what is written, so that none of you will be inflated with pride in favor of one person over against another.
Gospel:
Monday: (Luke 4) He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.
Tuesday: (Luke 4) Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Wednesday (Luke 4) After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her. He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.
Thursday (Luke 5) While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Friday (Luke 5) “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
Saturday (Luke 6) Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry?
Saints of the Week
September 3: Gregory the Great (540-604) was the chief magistrate in Rome and resigned to become a monk. He was the papal ambassador to Constantinople, abbot, and pope. His charity and fair justice won the hearts of many. He protected Jews and synthesized Christian wisdom. He described the duties of bishops and promoted beautiful liturgies that often incorporated chants the bear his name.
September 7: Stephen Pongracz (priest), Melchior Grodziecki (priest), and Mark Krizevcanin (canon) of the Society of Jesus were matyred in 1619 when they would not deny their faith in Slovakia. They were chaplains to Hungarian Catholic troops, which raised the ire of Calvinists who opposed the Emperor. They were brutally murdered through a lengthy process that most Calvinists and Protestants opposed.
This Week in Jesuit History
- September 1, 1907. The Buffalo Mission was dissolved, and its members were sent to the New York and Missouri Provinces and the California Mission.
- September 2, 1792. In Paris, ten ex-Jesuits were massacred for refusing to take the Constitutional oath. Also in Paris seven other fathers were put to death by the Republicans, among them Frs. Peter and Robert Guerin du Rocher.
- September 3, 1566. Queen Elizabeth visited Oxford and heard the 26-year-old Edmund Campion speak. He was to meet her again as a prisoner, brought to hear her offer of honors or death.
- September 4, 1760. At Para, Brazil, 150 men of the Society were shipped as prisoners, reaching Lisbon on December 2. They were at once exiled to Italy and landed at Civita Vecchia on January 17, 1761.
- September 5, 1758. The French Parliament issued a decree condemning Fr. Busembaum's Medulla Theologiae Moralis.
- September 6, 1666. The Great Fire of London broke out on this date. There is not much the Jesuits have not been blamed for, and this was no exception. It was said to be the work of Papists and Jesuits. King Charles II banished all the fathers from England.
- September 7, 1773. King Louis XV wrote to Clement XIV, expressing his heartfelt joy at the suppression of the Society.
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