Twenty-second Sunday Ordinary Time
August 29, 2021 •
The only way your soul can be tainted is from within - not from without. From your own heart Jesus says comes "evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, mallows, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly."
The only thing that can defile as soul, make it impure, is what that soul chooses. No external temptation, action, circumstance can cause us to sin. Sin comes from within.
It doesn't mean that external practices that we do aren't important. They may be important, but they're not necessary.
What is necessary, Jesus is trying to teach us, is the heart. What's in our heart? And is our heart conformed to the law of God?...
The Scriptures this weekend remind us that we should not be just speakers of the law of God, but doers. It's easy to say, "Oh yes, I'm a Christian" but do I act on it? Does it flow forth in my choices each day?
So what does any of this have to do with the veil?
Father shares a family story (names changed to protect the innocent) surrounding this Scripture passage....
From 1Corinthians Chapter 11: "I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the husband is the head of his wife, and God the head of Christ. Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered, brings shame upon his head, but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings shame upon her head—it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved. For if a woman does not have her head veiled, then she may as well have her hair cut off; but if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, she should wear a veil. For a man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for woman, but woman for man. For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. Woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman in the Lord. For just as woman came from man, so man is born of woman; but all things come from God." .....
There's a reason why these externals - not necessary, but important - there's a reason why they matter to us. Because they are not only a reminder, but a teacher of the truth. The deeper truth. The truth that's meant to abide in our minds and hearts. To come from within us.
Father then breaks the passage open further to help us see why God designed the natural order in this way.
Dt 4:1-2, 6-8; Ps 15:2-5; Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Homily begins at 23:00