Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint 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.”
What comes out from within
1. Summoned the crowd. Jesus is categorical, He shows people that He didn’t come only to “do favors” and heal the sick. He came to teach a clear message: that religion is not above God and that the external is not the most important aspect of a person, nor is it the main thing God takes into account. God looks at the heart. In Judaism, traditions and Jewish laws were at a very high level, leaving aside the person and his inner self. We must strive not to be stiff Christians who only tick off the devotions we’ve carried out each day. We are people who have to look others in the eye and not over or through them. We are Christians, that is to say, other Christs.
2. The pure and the impure. There are times when we think we are purer because we belong to a certain community or group, or just because we comply with certain things. I was explaining to a member of a parish group that there was a new person in charge of the area. She said, “I don’t think so,” and I asked why. She answered: “Because I don’t like the way she speaks and her way of being”. I told her that if we go for that, even I couldn’t be a priest, since I’m not well spoken either. Let’s look at the cross, Jesus gave his life for you and for me. Remember one of the men who was crucified at Jesus’s side, the one we commonly refer to as “the good thief”. He can be considered the first saint of the Catholic Church since Jesus himself canonized him saying, “today you will be with me in Paradise”. And the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, stood at the foot of the cross, mocking Jesus. Isn’t that quite contradictory? The learned believer, the one who followed all the rules and traditions, killing Jesus and the condemned public sinner, entering heaven!
3. The interior. It’s what’s within you that you must work to change. This is where Jesus wants to be, working inside you, not condemning you, but illuminating you. How important it is to cultivate the heart and fill it with God. It is the interior that matters, that moves your actions. The strength and love that move you and bring about good come from within. Discover God in you and take our God to other hearts that are empty. God never abandons you because He loves you.
Remember that something good is on the way!
God bless you and keep you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
