22-sunday-B

22nd Sunday-B




Good morning/evening every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate God who sent His Son to us and We celebrate Christ who taught us saying, “There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile them, but the things that come out of a person are what defile them”. And every time we come to church, we promise God in Christ to keep His loving commands and thus to find Him everywhere.
ats are valued highly in some cultures, they are almost considered divine. And one day a cat died and went to heaven, an angel of the Lord welcome the cat and said, “ Is there anything that I can do for you?” The cat said, ‘though people loved me so much, I never slept well because of the hard floor, please do something”. The angel gave the cat a beautiful soft and smooth pillow. Some days later, a group of mice came to heaven and the same angel welcomed them all and said, “what can I do to make you comfortable?’ the mice said, ‘when we lived on earth, everybody chased us around and our feet are sore and painful and please do something?’ the angel gave them all skateboards with tiny little wheel” and thus they were running around in heaven. Then one day, when the angel saw the cat asked, “how are you enjoying heaven?’ the cat said, ‘everything is fabulous and I am sleeping well and by the way, the meals on wheels are so delicious”.

Dear friends in today’s gospel, we meet the Disciples of Christ who had broken the tradition and are eating with defiled hands and the Pharisees and the scribes who are so made and complaining against them to Christ our Lord and then we meet with Christ who says, “evils things come from within and they defile a person”.

1. We meet the Disciples of Christ:
Our Lord called them in a special way to follow Him. Jesus the Son of God taught them many things about the traditions, cultures and customs and the bible says that Christ Himself closely followed the traditions and customs. For example, when He went to His hometown with His disciples, as His custom, He went to the synagogue and did many things according to the traditions of the time. But Christ our Lord says that we are not for the Sabbath but all the traditions and customs should help us to get closer to God not taking us away from His love and kindness.

Once a very famous spiritual master had a beautiful cat and every time we performed or did any spiritual ceremonies or prayers, the cat always used to come around him and jump up and down or run around. It was a big distraction for him so every time he did prayers or any ceremony, he asked his disciples to tie the cat to a pole. It went on for many years and one day the spiritual master passed away and his disciples who continued the ceremony and others spiritual rituals did the same, they tied the cat to a pole and continued everything and then one day the cat died. The disciples were all confused and shocked. They didn’t know what to do so they bought a brand new cat and tied it to the pole and continued their every day ceremony and then people who came to see them, they all bought cats and tied them around their houses before their daily prayers and rituals. They were told that if any one did not have a cat tied before their daily ceremony, they commit a mortal sin. The ritual of tying a cat became so important than their actual prayers and other spiritual practices.

Dear friends when some of the disciples did not wash their hands before eating, the Pharisees and the scribes condemned them saying, they go against divine will and they are sinners and outcasts. Instead of promoting the love of God, they focused on the punishment.

2. We meet with Pharisees and the scribes

In the time of Christ, those Pharisees and the scribes were considered holy and important, because they taught people about God and His divine law. They were self- righteous people. They kept divine law and did everything according to their call. Once we see how our Lord Jesus Christ observed the actions of a self-righteous Pharisee. What he did was, he went to a synagogue and he did not even enter into the synagogue. All he did was just stood outside so that every one could see him and then top of his voice he prayed to god saying, “O Almighty father, King of the universe, thank you for creating me. I thank you day and night by keeping all the commandments. I pray five times a day, fast twice a week and go to the synagogue every day and I give even ten percent of all my income. Thank you for making me wonderful and holy. What he did was so good and wonderful but what Jesus was saying that time was, the man will go to the Father and will have endless life because of his proud heart.

And those Pharisees and the scribes were the ones who told Jesus about His disciples, those were the ones who criticized Christ for His disciples’ defiled hands.
2. We finally meet Christ our Lord

Jesus the human-divine, the master of all, He who knows all and who continues to love every one with their limitations says, “ It is not what goes in defile a person but it is what is coming out from the heart of a person. The evil intentions that destroy a person.