Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis

Homily for Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s psalm offers a beautiful ode to humanity’s fundamental orientation to praise, worship, and enjoy God. In coming home to the house of the Lord, the Psalmist encounters not just the God of his ancestors, but the living God of the present moment. There is a contemplative dimension to Psalm 84, calling us not so much “to do,” but simply “to be” – to spend time with God in prayer, to let our hearts bask in God’s love, to rest in the courts of the Lord.

But the allure of worship can also be a danger, as the prophet Jeremiah reminds us in this challenging first reading. Jeremiah is audacious because God is calling the people to return to the heart of Israel’s law, namely the intertwining of the love of God and the love of neighbor (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18). Jeremiah recognizes the ever-present danger that religious piety and worship become escapist or compartmentalized from the rest of our lives. Orthodoxy, literally “right worship,” requires orthopraxis, or “right action.” Nor does Jeremiah speak in vague platitudes. Rather, the call to charity and justice is tangible: we should “deal justly with the neighbor,” respect the “resident alien, the orphan, and the widow,” stop the theft, murder, adultery, and lies, and refuse to run after the idols and strange gods that deceitfully promise a fortune in exchange for our obeisance.

Held together, then, Jeremiah 7 and Psalm 84 cut to the heart of the good news of the Jewish and Christian traditions. God calls us to a holistic gospel, connecting mind, body, and spirit, inner and outer, personal and social. We are called to recognize that genuine spirituality entails reforming our lives and reflecting in action what we profess with our lips. Yearn and pine for the courts of the Lord, yes, but first love your neighbor and do justice to the innocent. Then, by the grace of God, may we be counted among the wheat on the day of final harvest.