Father Kerry Prendiville
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
The 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 1, 2024

The teaching of Jesus is something that goes directly to the heart. In fact, he’s telling his Scribes, the Pharisees, people whom he depended upon normally to teach the law, that you’ve lost the law in your heart. You’ve kept it in other ways, but you’ve laid upon people’s hearts more tradition than revelation, more duties than love. You have failed to express and to encourage in other people what God had given to them to make them so distinct from other people, so unique and so blessed. And so, he says, “Hear me all of you and understand. Nothing that enters from outside will defile that person; the things that come out from within are what defiles a man.” 

This is good human nature. This is excellent psychology. What happens in our heart, what we commit to in our mind, these are the places where sin comes from, not all the good things that God created. 

You know oftentimes we get in trouble by over consuming or overusing or over exemplifying something which is good. Too much water will drown a person, but water is absolutely necessary for life. 

This past Wednesday we celebrated the memorial of Saint Augustine, a bishop and doctor of the church. An ancient theologian. He was speaking about his own return to God in the fullness of his heart when he said, “In my unloveliness, I plunged into lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you.” 

So, he entered into all things that brought him pleasure, the pleasures of God himself had made, and yet God was not in them because Augustine was going overboard. But when he came to his senses, when he put things into proper perspective, when he used the blessings of God as blessings and not consumables, then he heard and received God. He said, “I have tasted you. Now I hunger, and I thirst for more.” I have tasted you and now I hunger and thirst for more.

In his darkness he said, “What am I to myself without thee, but a guide to my own downfall?” 

With you, O Lord, we have our direction — the way, the truth, and the life. 

The apostle James wrote, “Humbly welcome the word that’s been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.” 

That wisdom, that good psychology of James, that revelation from God is something that will always be given to us and can always be received. Receive from God, the author of life and of justice, the fullness of his revelation. The law in our hearts. Having received that law — taste it, consume it, rest in it. In this Eucharist we receive, in the spiritual meaning in your hearts — taste the goodness of the Lord. Taste the goodness of the Lord.