22nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME B
WHAT’S INSIDE YOU?
Mk 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23
MESSAGE
Do you notice that as we grow old, we become accustomed to ways of thinking and ways of acting that lead us to believe that what we do “out there,” what happens “out there,” what is said by others “out there,” and what is thought of by others “out there,” are more important and impactful to our lives? So we begin to cling to what is “out there,” – the habitual, the customary, the mechanical, the traditional ways of living – even if we do not fully understand why we do so.
The Lord Jesus frees us from our fixation with the external. He invites us to look into the more important, more essential thing in life – the interior disposition of the heart. So he says to us in the gospel: “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” So, what is inside you?
While doing translation work for an American religious foundation, I found this message inspired by Saint Sharbel, the miraculous Lebanese saint, to be a good way to understand the words of the Lord Jesus for us this week: “Whatever enters you and you receive is not yours and whatever comes out of you and you give away belongs to you. You are not evaluated by what enters you but rather by what comes out of you. What enters you is not you, what comes out of you is you. By the power of the Spirit which you receive through your prayers, transform everything that enters you, and from which you own nothing, into holiness that radiates from you and makes you own everything” (revelation of St. Sharbel to a visionary).
REFLECT
Many things outside of us affect us, and not always in a good way, for example: anger, negative thinking, revenge, laziness, sadness, etc. When they enter our hearts, let us ask the Holy Spirit to purify these thoughts and feelings instead of being led by them to a life of misery. With God’s help, what will come out of us are only those that inspire goodness and love, kindness and forgiveness, and praise and glory to God.
