Lent is fast approaching and soon we will hear the words ‘from dust you came, from dust you shall return’ though many would rather hear the words “Turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel” instead as they see this as a blessing rather than the former which comes across more like a curse. But why would this be??
For was it not the Lord of all life that fashioned and created us His masterpiece in love? Yes singular as in One Body in Him! He breathed life into us and saw that it was good. We bear His likeness and image and by our baptism have been grafted unto the vine of life, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
We have all in essence an expiry date and so could look at this morbidly or we can choose to see it as quality time given to us; to share a lived experience of God’s love through the humble service of others, before returning to eternal life with Him. After all Heaven in our final destination! What we have therefore in this short time is an opportunity to grow in Holiness as we are called to do. To be Holy as our Heavenly Father is Holy. To have our hearts moulded after His.
Essentially in the dignity of being human, all of us need food to survive. To grow, strengthen and sustain us. Christ in His great love has given us of Himself to partake of, we therefore have spiritual food, the bread of life! So if want to grow in our love of Him, of neighbour so as to live according to His Will then what do you think we should feed ourselves with? Is it not on His daily Word? His body, blood, soul and divinity in Holy Eucharist? In praying for the Holy Spirit to fill us up so as to be sent forth to the Will of our Heavenly Father? Or do we want to continue to feed ourselves with the ‘Food’ of the world? Food that does not last!
Lord Jesus feed me with Your love, fill me with Your grace, cleanse my heart from within so that I may serve You and my brethren faithfully according to Your Will. Amen
First reading
Genesis 2:4-9,15-17 ·
The Lord God fashioned man out of dust
At the time when the Lord God made earth and heaven there was as yet no wild bush on the earth nor had any wild plant yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth, nor was there any man to till the soil. However, a flood was rising from the earth and watering all the surface of the soil. The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being.
The Lord God planted a garden in Eden which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. The Lord God caused to spring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden. The Lord God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it. Then the Lord God gave the man this admonition, ‘You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. Nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die.’
Gospel
Mark 7:14-23
It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean
Jesus called the people to him and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.’
When he had gone back into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Do you not understand either? Can you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean, because it does not go into his heart but through his stomach and passes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he pronounced all foods clean.) And he went on, ‘It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.’
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