Word to the Wise
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - Wednesday in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Kgs 10:1-10 and Mark 7:14-23]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 I was a child I was taught certain "codes" of behavior: how to address adults, how to sit at table, how to behave in church. These rules had the force of law and if I did not obey them I was considered "bad" or "naughty." This could be especially true if it was a matter of religious behavior. In that case, not only would my parents and the Sisters of Divine Providence, who taught in our grade school, be made at me, but GOD would be mad at me! This is serious matter! The rules of external behavior are important. They govern our relationship with our neighbor, society, and church, and to God insofar as they concern sacred matters. However, human sinfulness can distort any system of rules or codes of behavior. If the laws, rules or codes which are designed to help us become better people are actually used by bad people to their own personal convenience, the results can call into question the whole system.
In today's gospel, Jesus makes the point that it is not external behavior that makes a person "clean" or "unclean." It is the human heart which produces that behavior that is either clean or unclean. This was a direct attack on the way of life espoused by the scribes and Pharisees who made a career of knowing the 613 precepts of the Mosaic code Some of them were well-intentioned, no doubt, but others found ways to interpret the law which distorted its purpose. Jesus' point is that real "uncleaness" is a matter of interior intention. The heart is the tree that produces good fruit. In other words, the heart must have the law and its purpose inside so that the conduct has integrity. Right behavior done for the wrong reasons or from an unclean heart leaves the person unchanged or unconverted. The goal is holiness and love of God and neighbor. Hearts and laws that get in the way of that goal are dangerous. AMEN
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