Sept. 14, 2009
On Sunday, August 30, the Holy Father said Mass in the chapel of the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo
for the members of the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis who were winding up a three-day seminar on the topic of
'Mission in the Church'. The Vatican Press Office today released the text of the Pope's homily, delivered
Dear brothers and sisters!
In the Gospel we encounter one of the fundamental themes in the religious history of mankind: the question of man's purity before God.
When man looks to God, he realizes how 'tainted' he is, finding himself in a condition where he cannot step into the Holy. So he asks himself how he can become pure, how he can free himself of the filth which separates him from God.
That is why in different religions, there arose purification rites, ways of exterior and interior purification.
In today's Gospel, we encounter purification rites which are rooted in Old Testament tradition, but which were carried out in a very unilateral manner. Therefore they no longer served to open man up to God, nor as ways to purification and salvation.
Rather, they became elements of an autonomous system of ritual performances which, in order to be fully executed, required [the supervision of] specialists. The hearts of men were no longer touched. Those who found themselves within this system felt either enslaved or came to the arrogance of self-justification.
Liberal exegesis claims that this Gospel brings to light how Jesus had replaced worship with morality, that he had set aside worship with all its useless practices, that the relationship between man and God would henceforth be based only on morality.
If that were so, it would mean that Christianity is, in its essence, morality - that we can make ourselves pure and good through our own morality.
If we reflect more deeply on such a view, it is obvious that it cannot be Jesus's entire response to the question of purity. If we hear and understand the entire message of the Lord, then we must also heed it fully. We cannot be satisfied with a detail - we must pay attention to the entire message. Which means, to read the Gospels in full, the entire New Testament, and with it, the Old Testament.
The first reading today, taken from Deuteronomy, is an important part of the response and leads us one step forward. We hear something that is perhaps surprising to us, that Israel is invited by God himself, he is grateful for this and feels humble pride that he can know the will of God and thus be wise.
At that time in history, both in Greek and Jewish circles, wisdom was sought after, trying to understand the things that count. Science tells us a lot and so many aspects are useful to us. But wisdom is knowledge of the essential - why we are here, how we must live a correct life.
The reading from Deuteronomy refers to the fact that wisdom, in the final analysis, is identical to the Torah - the Word of God that reveals to us what is essential, namely, to what end we exist and how we ought to live.
Thus, the Law does not appear to be slavery but, as it says in Psalm 119, reason for great joy. We are no longer groping in the dark. We are no longer looking in vain for what right is. We are no longer sheep without a shepherd who do not know where the right path is. God has shown himself and shows us the way. We know what he wants, and thus, the Truth about what really matters in life.
We are told two things about God: one, that he has manifested himself and shows us the right way. The other is that he is a listening God, who is near us, who answers us and leads us. And that too tells us something about purity: his will purifies us, his nearness leads us.
I think it is worthwhile to dwell a moment on Israel's joy at being able to know the will of God, thus receiving the gift of the wisdom that heals and which we cannot find by ourselves.
Does a similar joy exist among us in the Church today over the nearness of God and the gift of his Word? Whoever shows such joy is immediately accused of triumphalism. But it is not our own work that shows us the true will of God. It is an unearned gift which makes us both joyful and humble.
When we consider the world's cluelessness before the great questions of the present and the future, then we should break out in joy all over, because God has shown us his Face and his Will although we are undeserving.
If this joy re-surfaces in us, then we can touch the hearts even of non-believers. Without such a joy, we cannot convince others. But where this joy is evident, it has missionary power, even if unintended.
Such joy inspires others to ask themselves whether this may indeed be how to find the way, whether such joy in fact leads to the footsteps of God himself.
All of this is treated more deeply in the passage taken from the Letter of St. James that the liturgy also proposes today. I love the Letter of St. James, above all, because, thanks to him, we get a glimpse into the pious devotion of Jesus's family.
This family was observant - observant even in the sense that they lived in the Deuteronomic joy of nearness to God which is given to us in his Word and Commandments.
It is an observance entirely different from what we encounter in the Pharisees of the Gospel who had made of it an externalized and enslaving system.
It is also different from the kind of observance that St. Paul had learned as a rabbi, which, as he tells us in his letters, was that of a specialist who knows all, who took pride in his knowledge and his righteousness, but who also suffered under the burden of prescriptions to the point where the Law no longer seemed to be a joyful way to God but a demand that could ultimately not be borne.
In James's letter we find the kind of observance that does not observe itself, but rather looks joyfully towards God near us, God who gifts us with his nearness and shows us the right way.
Thus James's letter speaks of the quintessential law of freedom, a new and deepened understanding of the Law that the Lord has given us. For James, the law is not an overtaxing demand that is imposed on us from outside and which we can never catch up with.
He takes the perspective that we find in Jesus's farewell discourse to his apostles: "I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father" (Jn 15,15f).
He to whom everything is revealed is part of the family - not a slave but a free man, precisely because he belongs to the family.
A similar initial introduction to God's thinking took place with Israel on Sinai, and reached its definitive and great unfolding at the Last Supper, and in general, through the life, passion and resurrection of Jesus: In him, God has told us everything and manifested himself fully.
We are no longer servants but friends. And the Law is no longer a prescription for unfree persons, but contact with the love of God - an introduction to be part of the family, an act that makes us free and 'perfect'.
It is in this sense that James said, in today's reading, that the Lord generated us through his words, that he sunk his Word into us as our very life force.
Here too is a reference to 'pure religion' which consists in love of neighbor, especially orphans and widows, all those who need us most, and in freedom from the fashions of the world which can taint us.
The Law, as a word of love, is not a contradiction to freedom but a renewal from within through friendship with God. Something similar is evident when Jesus, in his discourse on the vine, tells his disciples: "You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you" (Jn 15,3). The same thing appears in his priestly prayer: "You are consecrated in the truth" (cfr Jn 17, 17-19).
Thus we find the correct structure for the process of purification and of purity: it is not we who create what is good - that would be sheer moralism - but it the Truth that comes to us. He himself is the Truth, Truth in person.
Purity is an event of dialog. It begins with the fact that Christ comes to meet us - He who is Truth and Love - takes us by the hand, compenetrates our being.
To the degree that we allow ourselves to be touched by him, that the encounter with him becomes friendship and love, we ourselves become, drawing from his purity, pure persons who love with his love, who can introduce others to his purity and his love.
Augustine summarized this entire process in a beautiful expression:
"Da quod iubes et iube quod vis" – Grant us what you command and then, command what you will".
Let us bring this request to the Lord at this time and ask of him, "Yes, purify us in the truth. You are the Truth who makes us pure. Grant that through your friendship, we may become free and truly children of God - worthy of sitting at your table and to spread your purity and goodness in the world". Amen.