The 2nd reading on this 22nd Sunday in ordinary times, year B, tells us that “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” (James 1:27). The Responsorial Psalm went ahead to lay out how one can achieve this. While our contemporary culture wants life to be determined by whatever seems convenient, whatever feels good, and whatever gets me ahead, it cannot be like that with us, my friends.
The Responsorial Psalm lays out four interwoven lifestyle categories that can help keep us unstained by the world and ends it with a definitive promise: “Whoever does these things will never be shaken”.
(a) Integrity: doing what is right, speaking the truth and speaking truth to conscience, faithfulness to word and promises, disavowing injustice, credibility in dealings, and holding honor as a virtue. A child once told me that he thinks his father is a saint, and when I asked him why, he said, “because he keeps his word and promises”.
(b) Wholesome speech: Here, the Psalmist focuses on avoiding the sins of an untamed tongue—slander, gossiping, insulting, belittling, bragging, manipulating, false teaching, exaggerating, complaining, flattering, lying, reviling, and discrediting others. It is so easy to deal others with mockery or derogatory speech done in an ironic way or making malicious, hurtful, or even de-humanizing comments about others, especially when they’re not present. An uncontrolled tongue can be deadly, destructive, and inflict irreversible damage. The Bible compares it to “a raging fire” and describes it as “a restless evil, full of deadly poison”. Taming the tongues is not easy. It requires grace and constant prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to give us power to deal with our emotions, monitor and filter our speech, and diligently exercise self-control in moments of anger.
(c) Piety: this involves rejecting acts of wickedness, not being part of anything that celebrates the wicked and dishonorable, doing what we can to honor and celebrate those who fear God, and showing respect and having reverence for holy things. There is this young lady who said that respect for holy things has helped her tremendously in respecting herself and others.
(d) Discretion: Here the emphasis is on not letting greed pervert our sense of justice, not letting the desire for money dominate our thoughts, staying away from extorting others, and giving to others what they truly deserve, with no strings attached. There is this rich guy who said that being generous has helped him break the hold money could have had on him”. Generosity is a powerful discretion against greed and selfishness.
After laying out these precepts, the Psalmist went ahead to declare that those who live by these standards will experience an unshakeable stability in their day-to-day lives. In other words, the drama, chaos, duplicity, and confusion that flood our lives can be mitigated by working toward these ideals, one holy moment at a time. This is how we get into the Book of Life and achieving this, is the biggest reward of having lived on earth.
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