Mark 7: 14-23
Then Jesus 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.
What Needs Attention?
In our Examen and in our penance I believe we focus mostly on our actions — at least I do. Not as often as I should do I look “under the hood” and ask: what is the root cause of my response?
This is what Jesus is asking of the crowd, and interestingly enough, also of his closest followers today: What is driving how we act and how we respond? What is shaping our hearts?
A week out from the beginning of Lent, a time of not only of penance but of reflection, perhaps we should spend some time asking Jesus — and ourselves — what really needs attention in these coming weeks.
—Jim Bozik is a permanent deacon and Associate for Pastoral Ministry at St. Peter Catholic Church, the Jesuit church in the Diocese of Charlotte, NC.
Prayer
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
—Psalm 51:10-12
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Pray with the monthly prayer intentions of the pope.