I don’t know about other cities, but if you’re from Chicago, like I am, and other Chicagoans ask you where you lived in that city, you automatically answered with the name of your family parish. St. Rita’s was always my answer. They would respond naming their parish, and we’d think nothing of it! The parish was our second home and much of our lives revolved around it.
Our readings today focus on that worship part of our lives, and what true worship is. In our first reading we hear about the incredible Temple that Solomon built in 950 BC. It was a magnificent structure thought to be the finest building in the world at that time. Of all Solomon’s accomplishments, and they were numerous, this Temple stands out above all the rest. He wanted a place suitable for God to dwell. It was a place of prayer and reconciliation for the Israelites, and for foreigners, of Israel. What we heard in the first reading was Solomon’s most eloquent and beautiful prayer that he said when this breathtaking Temple was dedicated. His prayer points out the paradox, however, that God who lives in the heavens cannot really be contained within a single building.
In our gospel reading, Jesus is once again challenging the Pharisees for focusing on ritualistic practices of worship that totally ignored the prayerfulness of their hearts. One of the comments I read about the Pharisee’s handwashing practice was that as clean as the Pharisees hands were, they often used them to pick and point, to finger and accuse. That was exactly Jesus’ message to them.
Perhaps today Jesus is inviting us to take another look at how we worship. We have so many opportunities in our liturgies to respond to God with our whole heart. When we say “Lord, have mercy”, is our heart in it? Do we mean it?
When we say “And with your spirit”, do we say it joyfully, conscious that we are merging our humble spirit with the Holy Spirit of God? In other words, do we merge the words and responses of our Mass with the spirit of our heart?
Lord, free our hearts to worship you with joy, enthusiasm, sincerity, and boundless love.
