In Pope Francis’ book entitled, “The Name of God is Mercy,” he highlights the challenge facing pastors and people today when discussing the reality of sin and God’s merciful forgiveness.

In particular, he talks about two types of people — those who’ve lost the sense of sin and those who’ve lost a sense of God’s mercy. Both attitudes are harmful because they stop us from encountering the healing grace of God’s merciful forgiveness. Today I’m going to talk a bit about the first one because it is prevalent in today’s readings.

Pope Francis refers to a fundamental problem that has been identified and considered by many popes since Venerable Pope Pius XII — the crisis of the loss of a sense of sin. Pope Francis says: “Pius XII, more than half a century ago, said that the tragedy of our age was that it had lost its sense of sin, the awareness of sin.”

This was something that Jesus was trying to combat with the Scribes and Pharisees in today’s Gospel.  The Jewish religious leaders at that time had so many laws that they were required to follow, over 600, and it became a real challenge.

We heard in that first reading that God commanded the Israelites to observe the commandments, and not to add or subtract anything to them, but they did. For example, the third commandment “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work."

Okay, seems easy enough on the surface, but then people get all technical. Does that mean I can’t cook food? Does that mean I can’t wash the dishes?  What are the limits so I can stay just inside of them?

The Jewish leaders then felt the need to make all of these caveats, okay, you can do housework on the Sabbath, but keep it in the house.  But then some people made loopholes and run wires outside of the house, into the lawn, as if to say, “these are the boundaries of the house” so that way they could work in the garden or do other chores in the lawn.

They wanted to satisfy the bare minimum for what was being put forth as the law of God, but they weren’t really doing it out of love for God.  They were worried about being defiled from outside, eating a meal with unclean hands, but had no sense that they had unclean hearts which was much more problematic.

Jesus was pointing out to them here that they were making a good show of things, they were hypocrites in that sense, but God knew their heart, and the evil thoughts that come from within are really what defile.

This can happen to us too, where we do the bare minimum of what the Church asks, like going to Mass each week, but if our hearts aren’t in it, we are just going through the motions because we feel like we have to in order to go to Heaven, that is the wrong reason. Or maybe we haven’t even thought that there is something more. Often we spend our whole lives just going through the motions because that’s what we do, but we don’t do that with things we really love. You don’t do that in healthy marriages. In fact, when you realize that you’re doing that, you need to stop, reevaluate, and be more intentional. 

It is important for us to examine our motivations, to take a serious look at our heart, and ask ourselves if we really love God? Are we doing this or that for how it looks to others, because it’s just what we do, or are we doing it for the love of God and neighbor.

Our reading from James said, “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.”

If we come to Mass each Sunday, we hear the word of God and receive His body and blood, and it doesn’t change how we treat one another during the week, then we are deluding ourselves, we are only fooling ourselves, God is not fooled!

James goes on to say, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

Caring for the orphans and the widows means to care for our neighbors who can’t care for themselves. So our worship here has to translate to how we treat our neighbors. No matter how much we feel like we love God, we can’t settle for a “good enough” attitude. There is always more to be done. There is always more growth to be had. 

And to keep oneself unstained by the world is difficult, there is a lot coming at us, but ultimately nothing in the world can cause us to lose our salvation, it is only our own hearts, it is only if we truly love God that matters. 

When we do fall or start to pick up that stain of the world, it is then that we should return to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, humbly allowing God to free us from our sins and give us His healing grace.

We shouldn't lose our sense of sin... It is our own awareness, the awareness of what is truly going on in our hearts that truly matters to God.  As we go through the week, it is important to examine our motivations for why it is that we do what we do, prioritizing our internal disposition over our external show.

When we truly love Him then we will do what we can to do His will and serve our neighbors.