Letter of James, 1:17-27, Gospel of Mark, 7:1-23
Our society is so bent on its belief in humanity as a higher power, that we often mistake faith as a belief in God, regardless of how we characterize God or what our attitudes towards the Lord are. But according to the Fortress Commentary, James’ letter states, “Trusting in God’s unvarying goodness is the essence of faith.” Faith therefore means, not that we believe God exists, but that He’s Good.
The New Interpreter’s Bible characterizes the portion of text that these verses are from as an ‘essay on quick listening.’ It goes on to explain that quick listening means to promptly put into action God’s word and truth. Listening and hearing God’s word has not really happened unless speaking and doing follows right away. James reminds people that the word of God is implanted within and that it unifies God’s will with that of the individual (Fortress). Because the Lord is good, when our actions follow listening to His Word, our speech and deeds are also good. These good works need to be urgently and quickly, according to James.
We have opportunities in this Covid world more than ever to do good— to be gentle and generous, compassionate and empathetic, understanding and non-judgmental. The saints used to pray for hardships because it would afford them greater opportunities to be virtuous. I can explain best by way of an example. When I was in college, I used to review performances for the campus newspaper. I was at a performance for Evita, although not slated to review it. The performances were terrible. I said to the reviewer, “Can I do it instead? There’s so much to say!” He replied, “Yes, it is always much more to say when its bad!”
That’s true in our Covid world too; because so many people are suffering finically, psychologically and physically, there’s much more opportunity to do good. There are many things we can do too to help others, from simply not complaining when we want to, to getting the vaccine and wearing a face mask, to monetarily supporting those suffering finically. There are so many people who seem frustrated and agitated with the ongoing nature of the Covid crisis. By simply modeling patience and acceptance we can make a difference for good.
This is easier said than done, however. The gospel reading reminds us that things from outside ourselves are less apt to defile us than things within. In other words, Covid is less apt to do me harm than my own grumpy attitudes, harsh judgements and negative words towards others. If we allow the grumps to take us over internally, then our wills are no longer connected to God’s will to do good. To do good, we have to silence and dismiss the negative within our minds and hearts. These readings, together, remind us that our internal and external worlds need to be in harmony for us to be able to help others also find peace and joy.
Exercises
- Write three short short stories, 500 words or less, in which someone is doing ‘good.’ How do the other characters react?
- Looking back at your three shorts, what threads can you see running through them? What do these commonalities show you about your own, real life?
Resources
I use the same resources repeatedly. In this reflection, I used the Fortress Bible Commentary and the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary. There is a page of references on this site, to indicate which editions and to provide information about the publishers.
Writing to Pray 