Filth Comes From The Human Heart
Introduction
After the creation poem of Genesis 1, we get a second version of the creation, especially of the Earth Man (Adam, drawn from adamah, earth) in a down-to-earth story. The human person breathes with the same life-giving breath (spirit, ‘ruah’) as God, at least in the sense that he or she has to breathe at the same rhythm as God. Then the human person is placed in a royal garden, paradise, to cultivate it.
Divided, too, were the hearts of the Pharisees, as Jesus points out in the gospel; their interior attitude did not correspond to their outward practices. The question of pure/impure was very important for the early Church, as it was one of the strongest traditions of the Jews and a point of contention for them. Hence, the Christians coming from Jewry asked themselves whether they could eat from the same table with non-Jews.
According to Mark, in the light of creation that sees all foods as created good and pure, in the kingdom the rules about food are abolished.
1 Reading: Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17
At the time when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens —
while as yet there was no field shrub on earth
and no grass of the field had sprouted,
for the LORD God had sent no rain upon the earth
and there was no man to till the soil,
but a stream was welling up out of the earth
and was watering all the surface of the ground —
the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground
and blew into his nostrils the breath of life,
and so man became a living being.
Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east,
and he placed there the man whom he had formed.
Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow
that were delightful to look at and good for food,
with the tree of life in the middle of the garden
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The LORD God then took the man
and settled him in the garden of Eden,
to cultivate and care for it.
The LORD God gave man this order:
“You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden
except the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
From that tree you shall not eat;
the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.”
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 104:1-2a, 27-28, 29bc-30
R. (1a) O bless the Lord, my soul!
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
You are clothed with majesty and glory,
robed in light as with a cloak.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
All creatures look to you
to give them food in due time.
When you give it to them, they gather it;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
Alleluia: cf. John 17:17b, 17a
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth:
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
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.”
Commentary
Today’s Genesis reading comes from the second creation account, one that is more poetic and more lively than the first account found in chapter 1. Here we encounter the Garden of Eden—the garden of delights—where Adam has been placed by God. He is free to eat of any of the vegetation in the garden except the fruit of one tree, designated the tree of the “knowledge of good and evil.” Up to this point, man’s experience had been limited to “good.” In eating of the forbidden fruit, he would turn his back on God and have his first experience of “evil.”
It is interesting to note that the Genesis account is juxtaposed with die different perspective of today’s Gospel, in which we are told that what despoils us is what comes from our heart, not from what goes into our mouth.
Do we realize the harm that we cause by letting our internal sentiments take possession of our lives? Some of these heart-centered evils are listed: adultery, greed, blasphemy, and arrogance. Our experience attests to the truth of what is said. With the psalmist we say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Ps 51:10).
Hardly a day passes that we are not tempted to undermine our relationship with God. A cruel comment about another person, a dalliance with pornography on the Internet, the unkind treatment of a person with whom we have had a dispute. These are all matters of the heart that draw us away from God. Let us be vigilant against them.
Blessing
Commandments are not just observances that guarantee our salvation. They are a response to all that God has given us. We ask Him not what we are obliged to do, but what he expects us to do to respond to his love. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!