First Reading
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8

1. How would “wise and intelligent people” create the “statutes and decrees“ needed today to fulfill the “love your neighbor” part of the law (commandments 6-10), that God gave to Moses? Feed the hungry? Fix the climate change? Welcome the immigrant?

2. Discuss some human rights issues that would change if everyone in the world observed the law (love your neighbor)? Would everyone have access to housing, clean water, clean air, good education, health care? How might your community or city change?

Second Reading
James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27

1. James says the law is planted in us. Would you like to see it planted in your mind or in your heart? What difference would it make? Discuss Karl Rahner’s statement: “in the heart of knowledge stands love, from which knowledge itself lives.”*

2.  Are you a hearer of the word or also a doer of it? Have there been times when you just “talked the talk” but did not want to “walk the walk”? How would you feel if you went ahead and did the walking?

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

1. What was missing from the Pharisees’ observance of the law? How much is religious observance worth if it is just exterior? On the other hand, what is it worth if what you do comes from the Word living in your heart, whether it’s fishing or fasting?

2. Why does Pope Francis remind us not to close ourselves in with legality? How does the spirit of legality affect the spirit of going forward?

They [the Sadducees and Pharisees] were truly an example of formality. But they lacked life. They were, so to speak, “starched.” They were rigid. And Jesus knew their soul. This scandalizes us, because they were scandalized by the things Jesus did when he forgave sins, when he healed on the Sabbath. They rent their garments: “oh! What a scandal! This is not from God, because he should have done this” [instead]. The people didn’t matter to them: the Law mattered to them, the prescriptions, the rubrics.

Be careful around those who are rigid. Be careful around Christians—be they laity, priests, bishops—who present themselves as so “perfect,” rigid. Be careful. There’s no Spirit of God there. They lack the spirit of liberty. And let us be careful with ourselves, because this should lead us to consider our own life. Do I seek to look only at appearance, and not change my heart? Do I not open my heart to prayer, to the liberty of prayer, the liberty of almsgiving, the liberty of works of mercy?

Pope at Mass: Be Careful Around Rigid Christians
Mass at Casa Marta Oct. 26, 2018