In todays Gospel Jesus teaches that true religion must first be an inward matter of the heart.  He warned against the tendency to become legalistic and hypocritical.  A legalistic person places all emphasis on performing the right actions in the right way, without regard for the inner spirit and reason for those actions.  A hypocrite is a person whose life has become insincere, whose external actions do not express what is inside.

Jesus’ point in this Gospel is that the person who is unclean before God is not the one with dirty hands but the one whose heart is full of hate.  He basically says that all external activity is empty and hypocritical unless it comes from the heart.  What use are all possible external practices if we are hollow within?

Jesus explains that it is not the appearance that counts before God, but reality; not the way someone presents himself, but what he really is.  Jesus always loved and praised what was genuine.

Our Lord tells us that evil comes from the heart.  Yet it may also have been allowed into the heart before hand.  Think about how much evil comes into our heart from malicious slander and nasty gossip if we take part in it.  Think about how many evil pictures can take root in our minds through videos, the internet, and television.  They can gradually poison our heart.  This is a new danger for our hearts in today’s world.

From our heart can come evil.  Yet, it is also true that from our heart comes everything good as well!  Things like loving thoughts and actions, those of understanding, kindness, and especially mercy.  These good gifts come into our heart as gifts from Jesus.  He gives them from His heart, which is always loving and true.  What is important is that we allow our heart to be filled with these gifts from the heart of Christ.

Jesus tells us that what makes us clean and pure is to make our heart like His.

God Bless,

Msgr. Powell