This is a re-post from last year, but it's what my heart and mind needed to hear this morning and so it might also be for someone else today....
I know that we are steeped in a generation that loves to blame everyone and everything for something. We explain our behavior away with excuse after excuse from all kinds of outside influences. Well friends, this is not a new thing, the blame game has been going on since the very beginning when Adam told God that Eve made him eat the apple and we’ve been spiraling in it ever since! It’s time for a change in our thinking. In today’s gospel Jesus continues to address the religious leaders’ fixation on the rules and the regulations rather than on the heart of the matter. Jesus always wants us to focus on the purity of our hearts because that is where he resides and he wants his residence to be a safe and beautiful place for us to go and be loved. If there is clutter and dirt and filth and inhospitality, we will let those things take our attention away from His love, His mercy, His peace, His joy, His tenderness, His compassion, and His presence. I don’t know about you, but I want my heart to always remain open and hospitable to Jesus.
To get our hearts supple or squishy, as I love to say, we must begin with our minds and our thinking. What gets stuck in our head sinks down into our hearts and let’s face it, mind games are a rampant effort of the enemy’s to harden our hearts. The best way to change our thinking is to spend time in the Word, particularly the Gospels and the Psalms. Soaking in scripture tills the soil and gives us a greater capacity to host the Lord’s presence. Another way to purify our hearts is to spend time there. If we just look around and see the clutter and the mess, we will be more inclined to deal with it and hopefully get rid of it so that Jesus can be more at home. Otherwise, the filth will begin to ooze out and that is what Jesus talks about in today’s gospel. Things like, “evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly”, can be what presents itself from within us if we don’t tend to our hearts and minds in a loving and holy way. Jesus wants His residence to be a safe and beautiful place for us to go and be loved. When we come at life from a place of security, beauty, and love, then we come at life with life itself and that is the opposite of being defiled. Jesus wants us to have the FULLNESS of life and to have it MORE.
Let’s tend our minds this morning so that we can begin to work on the roominess of our hearts. Let’s ooze goodness and love and grace and blessing rather than the list of ugly that Jesus mentions in today’s gospel. These things are decisions that we have a choice over when we stop blaming things from the outside in. We can change our world from the inside out. It is well with my soul.
Reading 1 1 KGS 10:1-10
The queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomon’s fame,
came to test him with subtle questions.
She arrived in Jerusalem with a very numerous retinue,
and with camels bearing spices,
a large amount of gold, and precious stones.
She came to Solomon and questioned him on every subject
in which she was interested.
King Solomon explained everything she asked about,
and there remained nothing hidden from him
that he could not explain to her.
came to test him with subtle questions.
She arrived in Jerusalem with a very numerous retinue,
and with camels bearing spices,
a large amount of gold, and precious stones.
She came to Solomon and questioned him on every subject
in which she was interested.
King Solomon explained everything she asked about,
and there remained nothing hidden from him
that he could not explain to her.
When the queen of Sheba witnessed Solomon’s great wisdom,
the palace he had built, the food at his table,
the seating of his ministers, the attendance and garb of his waiters,
his banquet service,
and the burnt offerings he offered in the temple of the LORD,
she was breathless.
“The report I heard in my country
about your deeds and your wisdom is true,” she told the king.
“Though I did not believe the report until I came and saw with my own eyes,
I have discovered that they were not telling me the half.
Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report I heard.
Blessed are your men, blessed these servants of yours,
who stand before you always and listen to your wisdom.
Blessed be the LORD, your God,
whom it has pleased to place you on the throne of Israel.
In his enduring love for Israel,
the LORD has made you king to carry out judgment and justice.”
Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty gold talents,
a very large quantity of spices, and precious stones.
Never again did anyone bring such an abundance of spices
as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
the palace he had built, the food at his table,
the seating of his ministers, the attendance and garb of his waiters,
his banquet service,
and the burnt offerings he offered in the temple of the LORD,
she was breathless.
“The report I heard in my country
about your deeds and your wisdom is true,” she told the king.
“Though I did not believe the report until I came and saw with my own eyes,
I have discovered that they were not telling me the half.
Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report I heard.
Blessed are your men, blessed these servants of yours,
who stand before you always and listen to your wisdom.
Blessed be the LORD, your God,
whom it has pleased to place you on the throne of Israel.
In his enduring love for Israel,
the LORD has made you king to carry out judgment and justice.”
Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty gold talents,
a very large quantity of spices, and precious stones.
Never again did anyone bring such an abundance of spices
as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
Responsorial Psalm 37:5-6, 30-31, 39-40
R. (30a) The mouth of the just murmurs wisdom.
Commit to the LORD your way;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will make justice dawn for you like the light;
bright as the noonday shall be your vindication.
R. The mouth of the just murmurs wisdom.
The mouth of the just man tells of wisdom
and his tongue utters what is right.
The law of his God is in his heart,
and his steps do not falter.
R. The mouth of the just murmurs wisdom.
The salvation of the just is from the LORD;
he is their refuge in time of distress.
And the LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
R. The mouth of the just murmurs wisdom.
Commit to the LORD your way;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will make justice dawn for you like the light;
bright as the noonday shall be your vindication.
R. The mouth of the just murmurs wisdom.
The mouth of the just man tells of wisdom
and his tongue utters what is right.
The law of his God is in his heart,
and his steps do not falter.
R. The mouth of the just murmurs wisdom.
The salvation of the just is from the LORD;
he is their refuge in time of distress.
And the LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
R. The mouth of the just murmurs wisdom.
Alleluia JN 17:17B, 17A
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth:
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth:
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel MK 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.”
“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.”
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.”
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