Purification and God

September 22, 2024

The concept that human beings must purify themselves before entering the presence of God is a common belief found in all religions. However, the elaborate rituals that were prescribed for the purification of the body,  and found in many religions,  e.g. purification by the use of water or fire, or by avoiding certain foods and certain practices, etc, were practices that Jesus spoke out strongly against: “Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them,” ((Mark 7:15-23). And it is this same theme that is repeated in today’s second reading when James writes: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 

On the other hand, purification from ‘inside’, or purification from sin,  is of course necessary.  And so we may ask ourselves from what do we need purify ourselves?

 

In a previous blog (Is there a Heaven and Hell, November 26, 2023)  I had described sin as every freely chosen act of ours that moulds us into becoming more hate-filled persons. And taking up the dictum that “we become what we do”, we can draw the further insight that sin or virtue is no more to be understood as limited to specific ‘acts’ but rather refers to our life-orientation, - which we  could call sinful or virtuous.

We, therefore, need to ask ourselves, what are the ‘sinful’ orientations in ourselves that seem to reflect, and in fact even foster, the sinful orientations that we see playing out in the world around us?  Think of the environments around us - our work environment, our neighbourhood, our community. If we find ourselves in a competitive work space, we find ourselves also becoming more selfish, more manipulative, less honest, and less caring, in order to get ahead. Even in a workspace that isn’t toxic, do we create barriers of class, race, gender and the like, so that we let only  certain kinds of people enter our circle, all the while preaching equality and inclusiveness? In a neighbourhood where people do not interact with each other or seem to have any care for each other, don't we too tend to become less caring, less loving, less helpful? In the same way, when I look around at what is happening in the world around me,  I often personally find that sometimes I get so angry with those who cause hurt to others who are less powerful than themselves, that I want to hurt these perpetrators too. And perhaps if I had the power, and the opportunity to do so, I might have actually done that. 

But does just having such a tendency within myself harm the kingdom?  I believe it does, for we are not only what we do, but also what we think and feel within ourselves. At the very least, when I do not fight such tendencies within myself, I am working against the establishment of the kingdom within myself.  As a result I may sometimes feel a sense of elation when a ‘bad’ person gets what I might consider his/her just deserts. Similarly, I find it so difficult to forgive those who harm others, especially when they harm those close to me, and I am often not willing to take that painful step to forgive. These then are sinful orientations which I must purify within myself.  

I remember recently seeing the Japanese anime serial DeathNote, in which a decent young person is given a Notebook through which he can arrange to kill anyone whose name he writes in that notebook.  And the young man wants to make the world a better place and decides to kill criminals,  starting with those  who he believes have committed heinous crimes, and might not get punished in a protracted judicial law system where they might tend to escape only because the prosecution might take a long long time, or may not be able, to prove without a shadow of doubt that they are guilty. But gradually that ‘good’ intention begins to warp him until he becomes what he wants to destroy, a criminal himself.  And so very often while we may find ourselves complaining about these toxic environments that surround us, rarely do we realize that we contribute to these environments, - because by harbouring selfishness, violence and dishonesty in our own lives, we too are cultivating an environment that promotes this kind of a world, that is the very antithesis of the kingdom that Jesus came to proclaim. 

And this is why James writes in today’s second reading:  “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” And it is when we lack this "wisdom that comes from heaven" while trying to protect our nation, our religion, our family or our self, that we forget that the world we want to  bring about can only come from this kind of wisdom. So it is that which is inside us that will bring about the kingdom of heaven, not only that which is without.  Gandhi said this well when he reportedly asked his followers to "Be the Change you want to  bring about".

First Reading: Wisdom 2: 12, 17-20

“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training. (He professes to have knowledge of God,  and calls himself a child of the Lord. He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; the very sight of him is a burden to us,because his manner of life is unlike that of others,  and his ways are strange. We are considered by him as something base,  and he avoids our ways as unclean); he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father. Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life; for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries. Let us test him with insult and torture, so that we may find out how gentle he is,  and make trial of his forbearance. Let us condemn him to a shameful death,  for, according to what he says, he will be protected.”

 Second Reading: James 3: 16 – 4: 3

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

 

Gospel: Mark 9: 30-37

 

They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise. ” But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them,  “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”