SERMON/HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY 5TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE II 7TH FEBRUARY 2024

SERMON/HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY 5TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE II 7TH FEBRUARY 2024

1Kings 10:1-10; Ps.37; Mark 7:14-23

The content of the Heart matters

The gospel of today is a direct continuation of that of yesterday. Yesterday, the Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciple of ritual uncleanliness since they did not wash before eating. To have eaten with unclean hands amounted to being unclean. In response, Jesus turned the focus of the Pharisees from a religiosity of conformity to a religiosity of the heart. If our actions do not emanate from a heart of love, they are mere superfluous.

The discourse on the place of the heart in our ethical and religious life continues in today’s gospel reading. Whatever goes into a man (by way of food), cannot make him unclean because it does not affect the mind. On the other hand, whatever comes out of a man is able to defile him because every action of man is first conceived in the heart.

By this analogy, Jesus was teaching the Pharisees to better focus on what goes on in their hearts rather than mere physical actions. If they had heeded Jesus’ admonition, they would have discovered that their hearts were filled with jealousy and envy. Their observation on the actions of Jesus’ disciples was born out of a desire to find fault in Jesus or his disciples, not out of a desire to keep the tradition of the elders.

For us, Jesus is asking us not to take solace that what goes on in our hearts is known to us alone. It is not a safe way to accommodate evil. In our struggle against sin, we must struggle in our thoughts too. The script of holiness of life is not just marked in our external actions but even more in the content of our hearts.