Mk 7: 14-23
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Grow in Love
Jewish tradition held that some foods were clean and others unclean. Jesus said that all foods were clean. What mattered was not what goes into us, but what is in our hearts. By ‘in our heart’ he meant what is inside us: moods, thoughts, plans, attitudes, choices, conscience, knowledge, and intentions. All these must be kept clean. It can be hard to accept that what is within us may lead us away from sharing God’s love, even though that is not what we want.
Our Christian faith is based on a love-relationship with God. From this love our actions and our rituals flow. Into this love, happiness enters from God and flows from us to others. God’s chosen task for us is that each of us grow in love, until our capacity for loving matches that of Jesus.
—Kathy England is a Pastoral Associate at St. Francis Xavier Church in Cincinnati, OH.
Prayer
Lord, you see into my heart. A pure heart create in me. Take away my heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh, so that I may become as compassionate as you are. Amen.
—Kathy England