In today’s world, it is easy to be overwhelmed by words or options. We have so much information at our fingertips – literally! Although this easy access to knowledge can be a gift, it can also obfuscate the call of our conscience. Today’s reflection reminds us that all the analysis in the world cannot make up for our individual assent to Love.

September 1, 2024: Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B‍

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8

Psalm 15:2-5

James 1:17, 21b-22, 27

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

An Interior Call to Love

A Reflection by Ann Marie Szpakowska

“Make Me a Channel of your Peace”

Lyrics by Sebastian Temple; hear a traditional version here

Or an amazing alternative version performed here by Sara McLachlan

Make me a channel of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.

Where there is injury, your pardon Lord.

And where there’s doubt, true faith in you.

Make me a channel of your peace.

Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope.

Where there is darkness, only light.

And where there’s sadness, ever joy.

Oh, Master, grant that I may never seek

So much to be consoled as to console,

To be understood, as to understand,

To be loved as to love with all my soul.

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Make me a channel of your peace.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

In giving of ourselves that we receive,

And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

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The readings of the Lectionary, which dictates what Catholics hear proclaimed at Mass every Sunday, were constructed so that the first reading, generally from the Hebrew Scriptures, and the gospel share some common theme. Ostensibly, this was done to assist homilists in crafting coherent remarks. This Sunday, we hear Moses exhort the Israelites to observe the Commandments, statutes, and decrees; that is, to follow the Law, which Moses sees as a source of wisdom. In the gospel, Jesus reprimands the Pharisees and Scribes’ obsession with following the purity laws which they believe makes one worthy of God’s favor. Jesus is clear: “Nothing that enters one from the outside can defile that person; But the things that come from within are what defile.”

Christians have traditionally focused on the Ten Commandments when considering the Law as written in the Hebrew Scriptures. Both Deuteronomy and Exodus contain similar but not identical listings of what scholars often call the Decalogue. What we accept as rules of conduct – both positive – “Honor your father and your mother” and negative – “You shall not kill, etc.” gets far more complicated when we read Deuteronomy, Numbers, Leviticus, and Exodus in their entirety, Together, these books offer the 613 laws in which the purity laws to which Jesus refers in the gospel are embedded. Although the thought of following 613 laws makes some Christians blanch, they pale in comparison to the 800-plus pages in most versions of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, not to mention the almost 700 additional pages in most editions of the Latin-English version of the Code of Canon Law. It appears to be human nature to add and complicate the simple directives of Psalm 15, which, in five scant verses suggests that to live in God’s presence one need only do what is right: speak the truth from their heart, not wrong their neighbor, keep their word, and be generous. Perhaps Jesus’ knowledge of this simple, yet comprehensive moral code, prompted his famous dictum against “babbling on” in our prayers (Matthew 6:7).

On another note, I have always been intrigued by what the editors of the Lectionary left out of our Sunday scripture readings. Today’s psalm has only five verses, and yet the part of verse four that says we must keep our “oath even when it hurts” is left out.  Why was that lovely reminder excluded? Was that really the phrase that would have made the reading too long?

After wrestling with these readings to write a coherent reflection, I noticed the passage from James and there I found a pearl of great price:

All good giving and every perfect gift is from above…

Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you….

Be doers of the word and not hearers only…

All today’s readings call us to live congruent spiritual lives both as individuals and in our communities. This consistency comes not from external rules but from an interior call. Written laws and dictates can help us better understand that interior call and help us shape it, but they cannot replace it. Nor need the thousands of pages of church law and teaching impede our simple, visceral “Yes,” to Love, but thy can offer ample opportunity to explain away the simple dictates offered by Scripture: tell the truth, do not go back on your word, be generous and kind, love your neighbor as yourself. We in Dignity specifically and the LGBTQIA+ community in general are called (just like the rest of our human siblings) to walk humbly, to love justice, and to speak our truth as God has revealed it in us.

Ann Marie Szpakowska has been active and in leadership of Dignity/Buffalo for nearly 40 years. She also participates in the Women's Caucus and has been an active contributor to Liturgical planning for Dignity's Conventions Conferences and on Feminist Liturgy Committees over many years. She has presented workshops both locally and at Dignity Conventions.                              

She has also been a member of St. Martin de Porres parish since 4 inner city churches merged and built a new sanctuary in 1993. St. Martin de Porres is a predominantly African American community in Buffalo New York.