Spit Happens

Today’s gospel is a beautiful trust walk. Jesus leads the blind man outside the city because he knew that not only was he going to touch his eyes, but also he would use his own spit to heal him and if the Pharisees witnessed this act of “uncleanliness”, it would have caused some serious scandal. While Jesus could handle the scandal he didn’t want to bring scandal to this man, his faithful friends, and his family, so he gently moved him to a more private place. I love the tenderness that we see in Jesus today. Meditate on it because it is a special and lovely scene.

When Jesus spit on the man’s eyes, I wonder if he spit into his own hands first or if he gently spit directly on his eyes. Both ways have an intimacy about them that reveals Jesus’ true nature. He wants and needs to be close to us. Jesus takes his own breath (or Spirit) and combines it with his own DNA (or spit) and places his very essence on this man’s eyes (on our broken hearts, or our wounded lives). He does it once, and then checks in with the man, “Can you see anything?” The man responds truthfully, yes, but things are still a little blurry. How powerful this exchange is. Healing is a process and it is Jesus, God Himself, who checks back in with him (and us) to see where he (and we) is (and are) in the healing process. When the man tells him he’s not there yet, Jesus goes in again and this time touches his eyes with his hands. He will never stop the healing process if we ask. This, my friends, is an excellent model of prayer. 

·     Begging for God to be near to us, to hold us, to touch us 

·     Receiving the grace that He breathes on our hurting lives 

·     Listening when God asks us where we are in the process 

·     Responding in faith and

·     Allowing God to finish the good work He began in us

His sight was restored and he saw everything. This indicates that the man could see before and he went blind rather than was born blind. It’s a good metaphor for how sin can steal our vision. Jesus sent him straight home and didn’t want him to go into the village, A. Share your blessings first and foremost with your family, B. He knew that the village would immediately begin to gossip over the scandalous way in which he was healed and Jesus really really really wants us to avoid this kind of behavior, and C. Jesus knows when he tells people to keep things a “secret” they will tell all and that was his plan. We need to tell people how we experience Christ in our lives. 

This sweet little scene has so much depth to it.

·     Let our faith be big enough to trust that Jesus will heal us just by being close

·     When he takes us by the hand he will lead us to a place where he can be intimate with us

·     Receive his Spirit when he gives it

·     God is constantly checking in with us

·     If we need further healing, don’t be afraid to ask

·     Eventually, we will be restored to the way we were before hurt and sin stole our sight. 

Spit happens and it is well with my soul.

Reading 1 GN 8:6-13, 20-22

At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark,
and he sent out a raven,
to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.
It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth.
Then he sent out a dove,
to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.
But the dove could find no place to alight and perch,
and it returned to him in the ark,
for there was water all over the earth.
Putting out his hand, he caught the dove
and drew it back to him inside the ark.
He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark.
In the evening the dove came back to him,
and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf!
So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth.
He waited still another seven days
and then released the dove once more;
and this time it did not come back.

In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life,
in the first month, on the first day of the month,
the water began to dry up on the earth.
Noah then removed the covering of the ark
and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up.

Noah built an altar to the LORD,
and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird,
he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
When the LORD smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself:
“Never again will I doom the earth because of man
since the desires of man’s heart are evil from the start;
nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done.
As long as the earth lasts,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
and day and night
shall not cease.”

Responsorial Psalm PS 116:12-13, 14-15, 18-19

R.  (17a)  To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
 How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD. 
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones. 
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem. 
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Alleluia SEE EPH 1:17-18

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the eyes of our hearts,
that we may know what is the hope
that belongs to his call.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 8:22-26

When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida,
people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked,
“Do you see anything?”
Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.”
Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly;
his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.

Then he sent him home and said, “Do not even go into the village.” 

Who Brought The Bread?

Raise your hand if you are an overachiever. Raise your hand if you think you always need to get it right. Raise your hand if you are a bit of a control freak. Raise your hand if you find yourself confessing the same thing over and over again. Well today’s gospel is for those of us who may or may not have raised our hands. The disciples were bummed that they forgot to bring bread for the journey….AGAIN! They were thinking, “Jeez, he gave us one job and we screwed it up again!” And yet Jesus was thinking with a different mind, the mind of His Father. He said, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” The disciples thought the leaven reference was a cryptic rebuke because they forgot the bread, however, it was a metaphor to teach them that the sin of pride is like the yeast that multiplies like wildfire when activated. The Pharisees suffered from the pride of thinking that if they followed all the rules and if they did “religion” then God would love them more. That somehow their “doing” religious stuff or practices was what determined God’s love or favor. I know for me, I can easily get sucked into this kind of thinking. I want to strive for God’s love and I think that if I behave and am good or do good things then He will somehow love me more. This is pride and it can spread and rise just like yeast when activated, and practiced.

So Jesus challenged the disciples with a question, “Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread?” In other words, why do you think this has anything to do with something you have done or not done? He then points out and reminds them of the very recent miracle of the loaves and fishes, which had everything to do with the Father’s love, compassion, and mercy for His people, and little to do with anything they had to offer. All that was required was obedience and surrender to His power. If I look back on my life and all the answered prayers, the healings, the miracles, the getting me through the trials, the wonders, the love, the kindness, the mercy, the forgiveness, and the blessings, I hear him saying to me, “Why would you concluded that any of these wonders were a result of your doing and not mine? Stop kicking yourself for not getting it right and for forgetting the bread again, and just trust in my already proven faithfulness. Do you still not understand?” And of course, the over achiever in me wants to say, I understand and I trust and I believe and all the things I’m supposed to do, rather than just rest in obedience to his love. It’s a perpetual journey toward wholeness and guess what, wholeness will never be “achieved” here in this world. I know for me that I want it all now and as a result I can miss the beauty of the journey itself. When we let Jesus walk with us, it takes away our need to do the saving, our compulsion to remember to bring the bread, our thinking that we have to earn grace, and our trying to do it all perfectly. Jesus is the savior, the bread, the grace, and the perfection, and when we are with him, we too have all those things in and through him. 

So instead of focusing on what we are doing or not doing, let’s keep our eyes fixed on the working of Christ and all that he is doing and has done and in that we will have the bread of life. It is well with my soul. 

Reading 1 GN 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10

When the LORD saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth,
and how no desire that his heart conceived
was ever anything but evil,
he regretted that he had made man on the earth,
and his heart was grieved.

So the LORD said:
“I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created,
and not only the men,
but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air,
for I am sorry that I made them.”
But Noah found favor with the LORD.

Then the LORD said to Noah:
“Go into the ark, you and all your household,
for you alone in this age have I found to be truly just.
Of every clean animal, take with you seven pairs,
a male and its mate;
and of the unclean animals, one pair,
a male and its mate;
likewise, of every clean bird of the air, seven pairs,
a male and a female,
and of all the unclean birds, one pair,
a male and a female.
Thus you will keep their issue alive over all the earth.
Seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth
for forty days and forty nights,
and so I will wipe out from the surface of the earth
every moving creature that I have made.”
Noah did just as the LORD had commanded him.

As soon as the seven days were over,
the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

Responsorial Psalm PS 29:1A AND 2, 3AC-4, 3B AND 9C-10

R. (11b) The Lord will bless his people with peace.
Give to the LORD, you sons of God,
give to the LORD glory and praise,
Give to the LORD the glory due his name;
adore the LORD in holy attire. 
R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
 The voice of the LORD is over the waters,
the LORD, over vast waters.
The voice of the LORD is mighty;
the voice of the LORD is majestic. 
R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The God of glory thunders,
and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
The LORD is enthroned above the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as king forever. 
R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.

Alleluia JN 14:23

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord;
and my Father will love him
and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 8:14-21

The disciples had forgotten to bring bread,
and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.
Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out,
guard against the leaven of the Pharisees
and the leaven of Herod.” 
They concluded among themselves that
it was because they had no bread.
When he became aware of this he said to them,
“Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread?
Do you not yet understand or comprehend?
Are your hearts hardened?
Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?
And do you not remember,
when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand,
how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?”
They answered him, “Twelve.”
“When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand,
how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?”
They answered him, “Seven.”
He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

Tender Hearted Jesus

Today we get to see a very tender side of Jesus. I’m not sure if you’ve been paying attention to the last several days of the gospel, but he has been healing people right and left! He’s cast out demons and raised people from the dead. People have been healed just in the touching of his garments. The blind can see the deaf can hear. I mean the guy has been super Savior of the month with more miracles than one can count and yet, the Pharisees were still “seeking a sign from him a sign from heaven to test him.” It says that Jesus “sighed from the depth of his spirit” and he asked, “Why does this generation seek a sign?” This is the tenderness of Jesus in my opinion. Have you ever been in a relationship where the other person constantly wants you to “prove” your love for them and nothing seems to satisfy that? Have you ever been told what to get someone on their birthday or for Christmas? Love is freely given and the word “take” is not a part of the equation at all. Gifts are undeserved treasures from the giver to the receiver based on love and kindness and can never be demanded or expected. Demanding a sign from heaven must have truly broken Jesus’ heart especially since his whole life was a sign from heaven. I’m sure we all know what it feels like to be misunderstood, or to have our motives questioned, or to have others jealous of our gifts. It slices into the core of our being and it hurts. When Jesus sighed from the depths of his spirit today, it struck a tender place within me as to how much he truly loves us beyond measure. Only those that we love deeply have the ability to touch the depth of our spirit. Jesus’ love made him sigh. His response to them was that of a dejected lover, “if you can’t see the measure of my love in all that I have showed you already, then you will never see it.” The statement, “no sign will be given to this generation”, did not speak to his revoking his gifts or his generosity, but their inability to receive his gifts or to accept the miraculous that was all around them. 

The gospel ends with “he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.” Jesus and God will never force themselves onto any of us and while they are constantly showing their presence and their generosity and their love, they will never go where they are not invited. Jesus is constantly pursuing us without force. He is wooing us with all kinds of gifts of mercy and tenderness and compassion and beauty and wonder. We have the free will to receive his gifts of love or to deny them. His deepest desire is that we let him love us and when we refuse that love he sighs from the depth of his spirit. Just because he got into the boat and went off to another shore for a while, doesn’t mean that he won’t come back to our shore over and over again with extravagant signs of his love. He gave his life for ALL, and continues to pursue all. Will we be a generation that will receive his signs of love or will we continue to push him away to the other shore? The tender heart of Jesus sighs for you to let him love you today, and it is well with my soul.  

Reading 1 GN 4:1-15, 25

The man had relations with his wife Eve,
and she conceived and bore Cain, saying,
“I have produced a man with the help of the LORD.”
Next she bore his brother Abel.
Abel became a keeper of flocks, and Cain a tiller of the soil.
In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the LORD
from the fruit of the soil,
while Abel, for his part,
brought one of the best firstlings of his flock.
The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
but on Cain and his offering he did not.
Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen.
So the LORD said to Cain:
“Why are you so resentful and crestfallen.
If you do well, you can hold up your head;
but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door:
his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.”

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out in the field.”
When they were in the field,
Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Then the LORD asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
He answered, “I do not know. 
Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The LORD then said:  “What have you done!
Listen: your brother’s blood cries out to me from the soil!
Therefore you shall be banned from the soil
that opened its mouth to receive
your brother’s blood from your hand.
If you till the soil, it shall no longer give you its produce.
You shall become a restless wanderer on the earth.”
Cain said to the LORD:  “My punishment is too great to bear.
Since you have now banished me from the soil,
and I must avoid your presence
and become a restless wanderer on the earth,
anyone may kill me at sight.”
“Not so!” the LORD said to him.
“If anyone kills Cain, Cain shall be avenged sevenfold.”
So the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest anyone should kill him at sight.

Adam again had relations with his wife,
and she gave birth to a son whom she called Seth.
“God has granted me more offspring in place of Abel,” she said,
“because Cain slew him.”

Responsorial Psalm PS 50:1 AND 8, 16BC-17, 20-21

R. (14a)  Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
God the LORD has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.”
R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”
R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
“You sit speaking against your brother;
against your mother’s son you spread rumors.
When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.”
R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

Alleluia JN 14:6

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 8:11-13

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus,
seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.
He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said,
“Why does this generation seek a sign?
Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
Then he left them, got into the boat again,
and went off to the other shore.

A Wet Willy From The Savior Of The World

Today’s gospel is one that I enjoy putting myself into because it has many layers that range from humorous to very deep and I think that is pretty much how my personal spirituality works as well. One minute I’m in an I Love Lucy episode and the next I’m having a miraculous breakthrough, which sums up today’s gospel. The people brought a deaf man with a speech impediment and begged Jesus to lay hands on him for healing. The first thing Jesus does is take him away from the crowd. This speaks volumes to my heart right off the bat, because it seemed that Jesus wanted a close personal encounter with this man, and not to do some big show for the crowd. Perhaps he sensed the man’s trepidation, or that the man felt like he was being used as a trick pony, or that his disability was being exploited. Whatever the motivation, Jesus wanted to minister to him one on one and did not ever want to humiliate this man. If we look at the deeper side of things, Jesus opens our ears to hear him when we spend quiet time with just him. And now the story gets a bit humorous if you ask me because Jesus proceeds to wet willy the deaf man. It just feels a bit like a Monte Python scene and I wonder if the deaf man laughed because I would have. The point is that Jesus touched him where he was afflicted and that place of shame and anguish and loathing and humiliation became the very place where God entered and healed. He wants to come in through our deepest wounds so that those wounds no longer have power over us, but are the very thing that brought us to Jesus in the first place. This is something that I have been struggling to understand in my own life, but it is exactly where he wants to meet us. He didn’t come to be a light in the world to illuminate our shiny gifted and healthy selves, he came to dispel the dark parts, to heal the unhealthy parts, and to free the parts that are in bondage. 

Then Jesus looked to heaven and said, “Be opened.” Actually, it said that he groaned. Have you ever groaned in prayer? I have. It’s the kind of pleading that comes from a place of desperation, being at the end of your rope, and begging for freedom. Jesus knew this man’s heart and did the pleading for him! Jesus knows our hearts and did the pleading for us on the cross when he said, “It is finished.” Immediately the man’s ears were opened and his speech impediment removed. When we meet Jesus in our affliction, he wants our relief to be immediate. His grace is enough. In our knowing that, we too will become immediately opened. He told the deaf man to not tell anyone about it. Are you kidding me Jesus? I’ve had a speech impediment my whole life and you expect me NOT to tell people about it?? And that’s just it. The man simply has to show his healing. When they hear him speak, they will know. When he hears them speak, they will know. So many times we think that conversion must be this public display complete with confessing all before the world, however, Jesus would rather us show our freedom by loving others, passing on the compassion that has been offered us, and being merciful. He never wants to humiliate us, only to liberate us from the shame. When we have breakthrough, let that breakthrough show through our lives. 

Jesus wants us to be opened and for our impediments to be removed. Jesus wants to minister to us one on one so that we can hear him in the whispers and know him apart from the crowds. Jesus wants us to show our healing with our lives. I pray that today is a day of open ears and clear speech for each of us, and it is well with my soul. 

Reading 1 GN 3:1-8

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals
that the LORD God had made.
The serpent asked the woman,
“Did God really tell you not to eat
from any of the trees in the garden?”
The woman answered the serpent:
“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;
it is only about the fruit of the tree
in the middle of the garden that God said,
‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’”
But the serpent said to the woman:
“You certainly will not die!
No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it
your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods
who know what is good and what is evil.”
The woman saw that the tree was good for food,
pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.
So she took some of its fruit and ate it;
and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her,
and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
and they realized that they were naked;
so they sewed fig leaves together
and made loincloths for themselves.

When they heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the garden
at the breezy time of the day,
the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God
among the trees of the garden.

Responsorial Psalm PS 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7

R. (1a) Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile. 
R. Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,” 
and you took away the guilt of my sin. 
R. Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven. 
For this shall every faithful man pray to you 
in time of stress.
Though deep waters overflow,
they shall not reach him. 
R. Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven.
You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me;
with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round. 
R. Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven.

Alleluia SEE ACTS 16:14B

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Open our hearts, O Lord,
to listen to the words of your Son.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 7:31-37

Jesus left the district of Tyre
and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
into the district of the Decapolis. 
And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd. 
He put his finger into the man’s ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”)
And immediately the man’s ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly. 
He ordered them not to tell anyone. 
But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it. 
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
“He has done all things well. 
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Mama Bear

Have you ever known what you wanted and taking no for an answer was just not an option? Kids and teenagers are great at pleading their causes for things they know they want and they can negotiate with the best of them. No one, however, is quite as fierce an intercessor as a mom, most especially when her child is sick or in danger. Am I right? When a mom even senses that her child is in distress, the cry from within her is so powerful when unleashed and everybody better get out of the way because mama bear is ready to battle. Today’s gospel is a mama bear story. A Greek Syrophoenician woman approached Jesus and fell at his feet. I want us to picture ourselves falling at someone’s feet. This is an act of great humility and would have been humiliating for her in the shame-based culture of the Middle East. Immediately, Jesus recognizes that this non-Jew had tremendous faith and sincere humility. His heart was stirred and he knew he was in a very teachable moment. She begged him to deliver her daughter from the demon that possessed her. Ah, there’s the mama bear ready to fight for her beloved one. Jesus knew exactly what image to use to challenge her faith knowing that she would respond in such a way that would set an example for the rest of us: “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food from the children and throw it to the dogs.” Using a feeding your children image was the proverbial stick that pushed the mama bear into action, which was, of course, his plan. He knew she would advocate for her child. He knew her faith was strong enough to persist in her request. He knew that the witnesses of this scene needed to see what persistence in prayer could do. He knew that it was time to start planting the seeds that the gospel and Jesus came for all and not just the Jews. This one mama bear’s pleading gave Jesus the opportunity to teach us all about faith. How awesome is that? Her response is one of those lines that just makes you cringe because it feels like a rude response to Jesus’ already rude sounding statement. I love that she felt that she could dialogue with him in this way. Guess what, friends? We can dialogue with Jesus in this candid and real way too. She says, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” And I am quite sure that a smirk appeared on the face of Jesus, because she had not only passed the test, she passed it with flying colors. She acknowledged him as Lord, and she advocated in love on behalf of her own with the desire to drive out darkness. Jesus says, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” Yay, mama bear!! 

May our faith continue to grow. May our humility continue to deepen. May our prayer continue to persist. May our tenacity continue to rise up on behalf of our beloveds. We all have a mama bear inside of us that can advocate for our loved ones and Jesus can’t wait to see the faith with which we approach him. Might I add, that number one on our beloved’s list is our self. Yes. I guarantee that there will be no scraps served to the dogs, only a feast for ALL the children of God. It is well with my soul. 

Reading 1GN 2:18-25

The LORD God said:  
“It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him.”
So the LORD God formed out of the ground
various wild animals and various birds of the air,
and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
whatever the man called each of them would be its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle,
all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals;
but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.

So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man,
and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs
and closed up its place with flesh.
The LORD God then built up into a woman
the rib that he had taken from the man.
When he brought her to the man, the man said:

“This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called ‘woman,’
for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one flesh.

The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.

Responsorial Psalm PS 128:1-2, 3, 4-5

R. (see 1a) Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
 blessed shall you be, and favored. 
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.  
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Alleluia JAS 1:21BC

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 7:24-30

Jesus went to the district of Tyre.
He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,
but he could not escape notice.
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.
She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him,
“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed
and the demon gone.

From The Inside Out

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 and it is well with my soul. 

Reading 1 GN 2:4B-9, 15-17

At the time when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens --
while as yet there was no field shrub on earth
and no grass of the field had sprouted,
for the LORD God had sent no rain upon the earth
and there was no man to till the soil, 
but a stream was welling up out of the earth
and was watering all the surface of the ground --
the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground
and blew into his nostrils the breath of life,
and so man became a living being.

Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east,
and he placed there the man whom he had formed.
Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow
that were delightful to look at and good for food,
with the tree of life in the middle of the garden
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The LORD God then took the man
and settled him in the garden of Eden,
to cultivate and care for it.
The LORD God gave man this order:
"You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden
except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 
From that tree you shall not eat;
the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die."

Responsorial Psalm PS 104:1-2A, 27-28, 29BC-30

R. (1a) O bless the Lord, my soul!
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
You are clothed with majesty and glory,
robed in light as with a cloak.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
All creatures look to you
to give them food in due time.
When you give it to them, they gather it;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. 
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth. 
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!

Alleluia SEE JN 17:17B, 17A

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.” 

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.”