Defilement

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 defile.”

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 declared all foods clean.) “But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mark 7:14-23)

This is wisdom attributed to Jesus by Mark.  It is universal and has no time bounds.  Every one of us can relate to this warning about defilement. Examine the list of evils that defile the heart.  They all come from within.  No one plants those seeds.  

However!  That which defiles us can be what we watch on television or on our computers.  Our minds and hearts are formed and transformed by “garbage” programs, advertisements, propaganda, and shows that pollute us [You know what I mean]. The more we watch and partake, the more we are affected by that which our eyes see and our ears hear.  Catholic morality slowly crumbles. Our consciences get numbed and stunted.

We voluntarily defile ourselves by that which is outside us.  The Devil knows how to have us fill our own latrines.

Jesus was focused on punitive and unnecessary purity codes.  He declared all foods clean and while doing so also made the so-called “unclean” outcasts welcomed into his Kingdom. 

Deacon David Pierce