Reflections on Scripture | Wednesday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time

Join Msgr. Don Fischer as he reads and delivers a short reflection on today’s gospel, followed by 3 1/2 minutes of contemplative music and a closing prayer. Msgr. Don hopes that today’s reflection on the gospel will empower you to carry the Word in your heart throughout the day.

Choose either the video or audio below.

Gospel
Mark 7:14-23

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.”

Reflection

As Jesus continues to describe how He wants to save us, how this whole process of our being touched by him impacts us in a way that changes everything. And I love his reference here to the heart.

He’s saying what enters your heart is what's really essential. And God has promised to enter into our hearts. And if we think about healing and transformation of grace, we need to understand that the heart, if it is the cause of those things that are destructive, the heart is what needs to be healed. In the heart is the presence of God within you.

Once you allow him into your heart, believe he dwells there, no evil can possibly flow from your heart to others. But that's the place where we connect. Heart to heart. Intention to intention. And it needs to be pure. It needs to be life giving.

Closing Prayer

Father, your grace by it’s very presence is healing. Just as you, as you walk this earth had your healing presence known. Bless us with knowing that that same presence dwells in our hearts and through us. You can do this mysterious work of driving out that which destroys us and freeing us from all that robs us of life. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Kyle Cross