MK 7:14-23
In Wednesday’s Gospel, Jesus tells the crowd that nothing that enters one from the outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.
The whole point of this Gospel is to dispel the myth that “food” is evil and should not be eaten as prescribed by Jewish Law and also to teach the crowd that it is the evil that they allow themselves to conjure within their hearts that is the corrupter of the soul instead.
What does all of this mean? It is my opinion one can tie this entire lesson back to one word…
Love. Let’s examine that. If you truly love your neighbor as you do yourself, you would never do anything to harm that person nor would you wish that person ill will.
Quite literally, if we truly loved our neighbors and God as ourselves, none of these actions listed in this Gospel would ever exist: murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly. Jesus points out that it is these things that we contemplate in our heart that causes us to be defiled and corrupted. Hearing this, it sounds easy enough to just stop doing these things except … we are human and are subject to weakness of our original sin. Because of this, we convince and or deceive ourselves that these actions and thoughts are justified… and we act upon them the same way Eve was deceived by the serpent and ate of the fruit from the forbidden tree. In other words, w
e disobey God. We even complicate this further in order to justify our sins, we attempt to affix varied levels of severity to them. We convince ourselves that a little white lie, it won’t harm anyone … but remember God did not draw a distinction between the commandments regarding severity of sin; therefore, a person who lies is no more or less guilty than a person who commits adultery or murder.
Jesus pointed out that we should “Love” one another and care for one another because this is what God truly asks of us. Jesus said that to love thy neighbor was the greatest of all the commandments … for if you truly follow this commandment
sin cannot exist. Give your Trust over to God … and truly love your neighbor. With all of that being said … it seems like it is impossible, after all we have original sin to deal with. How can I love that much when I am only human? Jesus is the way. Through his life, death and resurrection…he concurred sin for us. He set us free and gives us the ability to overcome the evil that seeks to corrupt us from within. All you have to do is put your complete trust in him. For if we truly follow his teaching and do unto others as you would have done unto yourself, we can starve Satan and his minions of what they desire most… your sins and the corruption of your soul.