Why Don’t You Mind Your Own Business?

The Feast of Saint Scholastica

 1 Kings 10: 1-10;  Psalm 37: 5-6, 30-31, 39-40;  Mark 7: 14-23

 From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly

Mark 7, 21-22

 In today’s gospel reading, Jesus weighs in on the matter of impurity.  First he summons the crowd and says, “Hear me, all of you, and understand!” (v. 14)  Then, afterwards, his disciples tell him that his sermon went over their heads.  Jesus scolded them, “Are even you likewise without understanding?” (v. 18)  The people of Jesus’ day had trouble getting a handle on the reality of impurity.  For a variety of reasons, Americans in the 21^st Century are at even more of a disadvantage.

Jesus identifies impurity as ‘evil thoughts’ or ‘evil designs’.  In order to understand what he’s talking about, you’re going to have to develop a knack for stepping back from your own mental process and examining the way you think, and what motivates you. 

Dance Sister, Dance

The Bible, quite frankly, can easily become a prison – and whenever you discover that you’ve been incarcerated, you need to have the good sense to pray for someone to come by and pick the lock.  There’s no point at all in having a Holy Book if it doesn’t draw you closer to God – and any passage that isn’t leading you to joy, to compassion, to a growing trust in the Almighty is a passage that’s locking you up.

I’m convinced that the greatest challenge facing Christians of our era is finding a way to look at the scriptures with “new eyes”; and if you want to do that, it’s a good idea to surround yourself with people who are connected to the Gospel in ways that are fresh and true.  Don’t be surprised, though, when you discover that these are the same people who make repentance an ongoing aspect of their spiritual exercise.

 

Feast of St. Agatha

 

Reading 1

Like the choice fat of sacred offerings,
so was DAVID in Israel.
He played with lions as though they were young goats,
and with bears, like lambs of the flock.
As a youth he struck down the giant
and wiped out the people’s disgrace;