“The devil made me do it!” “I was overcome by evil spirits.” “I am only human, what do you expect?” Have we not used these lines or at least had thoughts which were similar?
There is No bad pill we swallow that makes us bad! If we chance upon an erotic picture say on the internet and instead of closing it and moving on, we choose to stare, let our imagination run amok and then look for more erotica…can we then remain blameless? Or when something doesn’t go as we planned do we accept the challenges, react calmly and look into correcting or even improving on it or do we throw tantrums, get emotionally charged and start looking to blame someone? How then are we going to live out our Christian values? How do we remain focussed on God and His Will for us?
O Lord my God You give us Your Living Word and of Yourself in the Eucharist, so that by choosing to consume Your Word into our very being; You give us the nourishment and strength to withstand the forces of evil. Let our minds, bodies and soul dwell on and in You as You dwell in our hearts. Let us be beacons for others which draws all to come to You. So together with them we will proclaim, “Blessed be the Lord our God! Now and for ever.” Amen
FIRST READING
1 Kings 10:1–10
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.”
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