A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark (7:14-23)
Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.”
When he got home away from the crowd
his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them,
“Are even you likewise without understanding?
Do you not realize that everything
that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,
since it enters not the heart but the stomach
and passes out into the latrine?”
(Thus he declared all foods clean.)
“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”
REFLECTION: Perhaps some of you may remember from the 70s, comedian Flip Wilson. He coined the phrase – The Devil made me do it! Wilson would do something outrageous, then grin into the camera and say, “The Devil made me do it”, and the audience would roar with laughter.
All of us, whether we admit it or not, are guilty, at one time or another, of convincing ourselves that our sin, is the result of something, or someone, outside of us. We say things like: I yelled at him, because he yelled at me first; or I lost my temper, because I’m under a lot of stress.
My dear brothers and sisters, the problem of our sin, goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Adam did not take blame for his sin, instead, he blamed Eve. Well, she didn’t do any better, Eve blamed the serpent.
The truth is, that whether we recognize it or not, we are often tempted, to see the source of our sin, as something outside of us, and not something within us. Our nature is to try and justify ourselves when we sin. I am guilty, as guilty can be, of that action. Human nature tries to downplay our sin, or make up for our sin, by being good. We do something outwardly, in an attempt make up for our sin, and to earn the favor of God. That’s not how it works! What we need to do is to turn inward, into our broken hearts. Our hearts are extremely deceiving. And one of the impacts of this is, that we act disobediently, to the Word of God, thereby rejecting His prescription and remedy, for spiritually cleaning, this heart of ours. Instead of placing our faith in Christ, we place our faith in religious traditions, being good, and spiritual routines, to save and cleanse us. In other words, we turn to outward actions, rather than inward actions, to clean, our evil hearts.
Jesus makes it clear in today’s Gospel, by saying it over and over; that the source of our sin, comes within in us, from our corrupted hearts, and it ruins us. There’s nothing that we can do, to make our hearts clean, but there is hope. Every one of us is born with an evil heart, and the only hope we have. is a spiritual heart transplant, that only, Jesus can give.
ACTION FOR THE DAY: Jesus came, to give us a new heart – spend time in prayer today, and ask the Lord, to renew your heart. Ask Him to take away the dirt, and make you clean, from within.
AUDIO REFLECTION:
