The gospel for Wednesday of the fifth week in ordinary time is taken from Mark 7:1423. 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 defiles. 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 declares all foods clean. But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man. From his heart comes evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.

If we go back to the Old Testament, there’s a moment in God’s relationship with the people that is always difficult to fully grasp. And that is when he wanted to destroy the entire world, everyone he wanted to destroy. And he did it out of the frustration of a situation. He saw so clearly that in every man, every woman’s heart, every child’s heart was darkness, evil. Now Jesus brings that same image into the New Testament and He makes it clear. What he’s saying is that your heart is the key to being open to all that God longs to share with you.

He dwells in your heart. He lives there. He purifies the heart, purifies your intention, and makes you more and more like Jesus himself. Goodness, kindness, compassion. This is who we must become. This is who the promise of Jesus takes place in changing our hearts.

Foreign Closing Prayer Father, we pray for those who have never been taught, never been shown who they really are. Help us always to have compassion for them and long for them to see what they don’t see and not to fall into the trap of judgment and condemnation. Evil is real. It’s stronger than we are. But God’s grace, God’s healing is stronger than anything. It’s what we hope in, it’s what we trust in.

And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.