Purify our hearts
But the things that come out from within are what defile (Mk 7, 20)
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.” (Mk 7:14-23)
One of the burdens that we inherit from original sin is the tendency, as St. Paul says in the Letter to the Romans, to do the evil we do not want instead of the good we desire (Rom 7: 18-25). Let's receive the sacraments with devotion to allow the grace of God to purify our hearts, where the evil intentions are born and cultivated.
