What Defiles Comes from the Heart

God is Just and Merciful

Jesus Teaches about Justice

Mark 7:14-23 The Message
14-15 Jesus called the crowd together again and said, “Listen now, all of you—take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it’s what you vomit—that’s the real pollution.”
17 When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, “We don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”
18-19 Jesus said, “Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you see that what you swallow can’t contaminate you? It doesn’t enter your heart but your stomach works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed.” (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)
20-23 He went on: “It’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution

For Reflection

Vomit from the heart.  Your heart, or soul, desires all things.  Our egos can drive us to greatness, but also, to darkness.  There has to be a balance in our souls that limits our need to desire selfish things and enhances our desire to become altruistic.  There is a point in our souls that cries to be united with God. God made us that way so that we cannot be contaminated and live our lives at the expense of others.

Pray

Pray so that your life is not contaminated by selfish desire. Pray so that through the Holy Spirit, the divine point in our souls can grow and you can become one with God.  

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