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Word To Life
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Sunday Scripture Readings, Aug. 30, 2009
By Sharon K. Perkins
Catholic News Service
August 30, Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle B Readings:
1) Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8
Psalm 15:2-5
2) James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27
3) Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Last week our three regional parishes held a Vacation Bible School which utilized the parish site's community garden as the central focus. The children loved getting close up and personal with the various vegetables, herbs and flowers, using their senses to connect in new ways with God's creative goodness -- and in the process they learned how bountifully the fresh garden produce helped to feed the hungry when given to local food pantries.
During one of those mornings, I was assigned the job of photographer. So before the children arrived, I took several close-ups of the vegetables waiting to be picked. The warm, sun-ripened cherry tomatoes proved too much for me to resist: I popped three of them into my mouth before remembering that I hadn't washed them first. It didn't matter.
Standing there with the morning dew (and the organic compost!) soaking my shoes, I praised God while savoring some of the most delicious tomatoes I had ever eaten.
Today's readings remind us that God's gifts, presented for our use and delight, are often best received and appreciated in their simplicity. In the first reading, the Law was understood as that sort of gift to God's people, best observed by not adding to or subtracting from it and thereby making it burdensome.
In the Gospel, Jesus notes that in exaggerating their traditions of food purification, the Pharisees had allowed their hearts to be dulled to the one who had provided the food. This in turn had the effect of making genuinely religious people hypocritical and less attentive to the real suffering of those around them.
Which brings us to another principle of gift-giving: The joy of God's gift is multiplied when its recipients share it with others. The psalmist calls it doing "justice" -- and it brings the giver into the "presence of the Lord." The garden of God's good and perfect gifts, when received with grateful simplicity and tended properly, provides more than enough for all to receive their fill.
QUESTIONS:
What is one gift from God that you have forgotten to simply appreciate? Recall a time when you experienced the joy of sharing one of God's gifts with another.
SCRIPTURE FOR ILLUSTRATION:
"All good giving and every perfect gift is from above" (James 1:17).
END
Copyright © 2009 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS Word To Life column may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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