The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

"Doers of the Word"

Some years ago a visitor to Poland was being shown around by a Communist party official. The visitor said, "Are you Catholic?" and the official answered, "Believing but not practicing." The visitor later asked, "Are you a communist?" the official smiled and said, "Practicing, but believing."

The Word of God comes to us today with the most central truth of our faith—that faith is characterized not simply by outward expression but by interior conversion. However, we must be careful here not to imply that we can have one without the other. There is a lurking heresy known as "Docetism’ just waiting to rear its head once more. Docetism was an early church heresy that said that Jesus only appeared to be human and only appeared to suffer. The result is a rejection of the goodness and redeemed nature of creation and humanity. In the modern day this heresy is expresses in a profound individualism and personal interiority of religious life that rejects any involvement in the concrete suffers of human beings and the world.

Certainly people hunger for religious experience but forget that the encounter with God comes not only through private prayer but through public celebration and commitment to help improve the lot of human beings and the world. We know the other problem that rears its head as well. That is, outward religious piety more concerned with rules than with interior change and conversion of heart! This is the very situation that Jesus is grappling with in his time. Some people got caught up in the ritual rigorism of the day and failed to understand what Jesus was saying and doing. On one level we can understand their situation. Here are people living differently than we are. They are changing the rules! They are a threat to us! They are not like us! Such responses are not uncommon among people when faced with the challenge of some different. Often enough they begin to make judgments about people because of their different practices or way of life.

In his book, The War Against the Poor, Herbert Gans gets at this describes this very reaction of people:

Everyday life is, among other things, a never-ending flow of moral surveillance. We all survey each other to see if actions live up to the norms and expectations we carry in our heads, since our subsequent behavior is shaped by our surveillance. That surveillance is also moral, since we judge rather than merely observe or study the situations and people that make up everyday life.

With greater social distance, the judgments are based on imagined knowledge, which may comes from stories and preconceived ideas that accord with the values and prejudices of the judges as well as with their position in society.

Is this not the problem with those accusing Jesus and his followers of not obeying the rules! And we come to it. It is not the rules that bring us to a right relationship with God. Rather, it is a heart that is willing to be converted that brings us to God. Furthermore we are not required to pile up duty upon duty, rule upon rule and so on to win God’s favor. God has told us what is required no more no less. We are to love God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves. What church discipline does is attempt to help us understand what is required. What is the moral life that keeps us right with God? Or, in other words what is it that is required of a disciple of Jesus Christ?

The U.S. catholic bishops just published a letter entitled, Faithful Citizenship. In it they remind Catholics that faith requires action on behalf of the most vulnerable in our world and on behalf of God’s peace and justice. They remind us to be "doers of the Word" in our time as James reminded Christians in his time. Being doers of the Word is not reduced to observing ritual duties in our tradition. Being "doers of the Word" is living out the depth of their meaning in the real world with all of its joys and problems on all levels of life. Some may like the idea that Catholics speak to the issues of war, the death penalty, abortion and the like. Judgments will be made of us. But that’s okay, we know what and who we are. We can speak with confidence without being arrogant. We can be firm without forgetting compassion and even be form because of compassion.

If we be "doers of the Word" we cannot the judgment of others. Again, so what! Our only concern is faithfulness to Christ. For we know that we are called to be the "firstfruits of the new creation." We are called as Christ’s people to be obedient in faith from the heart that is concerned and dedicated to living out the Way of Jesus in the world. That is a fitting response for the Christian and essential in this Jubilee Year and all years for and authentic expression of faith.

And if this were to become so then we could re-write the story of the visitor:

I believe and I practice. I am a doer of the Word.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Created September 2, 2000