When Jesus had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’
-Mark 7: 17-3
Once again, the Pharisees and scribes are determined to trip Jesus up on some technicality. I understand their desire to find a softer, easier way. I am sure it was much easier to wash their hands, food and cooking utensils in a certain way (to follow the law) than to open their hearts. Yet, Jesus was clear that we are to love--simply that--love. This reminds me of a poem by the Jewish poet and Buddhist practitioner, Steven Levine.
If Prayer Would Do It
If prayer would do it
I’d pray.
If reading esteemed thinkers would do it
I’d be halfway through the Patriarchs.
If discourse would do it
I’d be sitting with His Holiness
Every moment he was free.
If contemplation would do it
I’d have translated the Periodic Table
to hermit poems, converting
matter to spirit.
If even fighting would do it
I’d already be a black belt.
If anything other than love could do it
I’ve done it already
And left the hardest for last.
Musical Reflection - What the World Needs Now - Dionne Warwick (by Burt Bacharach)
Loving God, please help me to avoid the pitfall of searching for loopholes and technicalities and to simply love You, my neighbor and myself. Amen.
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