GOSPEL POWER | FEBRUARY 10, 2021

WEDNESDAY |SAINT SCHOLASTICA, VIRGIN

5TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Mk 7:14-23

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.”

REFLECTION

Jesus turns the dispute over purity of the hands into a call to purity of the heart. Today’s Gospel, which continues from yesterday’s, very aptly addresses today’s obsessive preoccupation with external appearance. People lavishly spend on cosmetics and procedures that enhance physical looks, but to please whom? God does not see as a mortal, who sees the appearance. The Lord looks into the heart (1 Sm 16:7). True beauty is projected from a pure heart. It is a beauty that never wears out, nor needs enhancement. It is the beauty of one who is interiorly free from the pressure of the world’s expectations and standards of acceptability. God’s approval suffices and is all that matters.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, create a clean heart in us and deliver us from the vanity of trying to please the world. Amen.