Day 35, Mark 7
Hi Everyone and Happy 2nd Sunday of Lent!
It is so great to have the Transfiguration as the Gospel — Good News today!
I see three mountain top moments in this chapter:
- Tradition Not Contradiction
- From Inside to Out
- Be Opened!
1- Tradition Not Contradiction –
The main thing I see here in a special way is that the tradition of the Pharisees definitely contradicted the commandments and that is what Jesus had an issue with.
In the meantime the Pharisees are obsessed with catching Jesus breaking tradition — and that is how they are proving that He is not the messiah!
Crazy!
They don’t like that Jesus’ disciples don’t wash their hands before eating their meals — and they call it the tradition of the elders!
When they ask Jesus about all this — WHY?
Jesus responds with the words that I love and ring true throughout the generations…
He quotes Isaiah saying that Isaiah had prophesied about these men –
“This people honors me with their lips,
but there hearts are far from me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts”
Jesus specifically brings up the contradiction that must have bothered Him the most –
“You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition”
Jesus refers to the fourth commandment here:
Honor your father and mother — and how the tradition was causing men to dishonor their father and mother by following the tradition to give the money that they would have given to support them in their old age to the temple instead.
I have two things to relate this too. One is to say that we can all at sometime be guilty of honoring God with our lips and not our hearts!
The Second Vatican II is all about getting to the heart and the changes that were supposed to be made in the WAY we worship God were meant to assist us as the People of GOD — in honoring God with our hearts and not our lips!
Unfortunately there were a lot of misinterpretations and many things changed that shouldn’t’ have … but Jesus is still in control and the Church continues to direct us on the right course to honoring God with our hearts.
The time in the church before Vatican II 1965 was a time when the number of people were practicing their faith at a record highs!
However, many people were practicing because they HAD to and not because they understood or wanted to.
I visited with some family last night that I haven’t seen in a while… and they shared with me that their idea of the faith was fear of Hell — and that is what was preached to them… follow the traditions of the church “OR ELSE”
and so what happened?… when they were old enough to make their own decisons they fell away -
- I have another friend who said when he was old enough and didn’t go to church one Sunday and saw that he didn’ t die or go to hell and nothing bad happened to him…. he stopped going forever!
The 2nd Vatican Council is filled with beautiful documents that get to the heart of our relationship with God — and teach us what it means to be fully conscious of HIM — in our lives and in how we worship Him – especially at Mass.
The documents are not new information or revelation about JESUS CHRIST – but teaching about this relationship in a way that makes it clearer that we are to have a personal relationship with God and how we can be experiencing Him more fully in the liturgy.
The second thing that I see in this point is that tradition can NEVER contradict God’s law –
Our traditions should never lead us to sin! That is what was happening here… and that was what Jesus was bringing to light with all that He taught –
Jesus wasn’t coming to change everything… but to fulfill the law with the new covenant in Him — but Jesus had to show them all the ways that the traditions were contradicting the law and causing people to sin.
We have many traditions in the Church – and they are good because they help us to worship God as a family better — we also have traditions in our families…. notice the little “t” — little t traditions can change — big T cannot change –
Our traditions in the Catholic church do not contradict the revelation of Jesus Christ -only help us to live Jesus’ teachings better!
– and that is the measure to which we measure all our decisions as to how we are to act — we want to act and honor God from our hearts and not our lips…
this would mean that we are not hypocrites — saying we love God and then acting another way — anywhere we break a commandment for the sake of God it is sin…
and so we repent and turn to Jesus and ask Him to help us!
2- From Inside to Out – Jesus goes on to say,
“Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”
The Jews were obsessed with cleaning and purifying the outside of man — and that was ok because they did not yet have JESUS teaching about the heart –and they did not have the HOLY SPIRIT — aren’t we blessed?!
Later the disciples wanted Jesus to explain this further as even they didn’t understand this idea –
Jesus makes it clear here that all evil comes from the heart — it is not something that is on our outside — something we touch and catch like a disease – Jesus says,
“From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. ”
All these evils come from within and they defile.
And So it is so important that we do a heart check! We must deal with our insides before we worry about our outsides —
We can understand this too when it comes to explaining the body — we know that if we have issues with our weight — it is NOT only about what we eat it is about the emotions driving the eating — it is coming from the heart –
if we drink too much — it is not only about the specific drink it is about the cause driving the effect — the heart that is desiring the drink!
If we curse all the time — it is not about what is going on outside — the situations that are causing the arguments — but the person’s heart!
We must go inside to find the causes INSIDE driving the EFFECTS on the outside!
This can be a lifelong journey — but this is the journey of conversion of the HEART!
And we can only see the inside by the light of the HOLY SPIRIT — the question is are you willing to be true to yourself and look at what is really going on in your heart?
Are you willing to stop denying yourself of the truth? Living in denial is living in lies and that is living on the outside –
Fr. Bill Halbing says, that this scripture also is saying that there are people on the inside and outside when it comes to disciples and the body of Christ!
Do you want to be living in the heart of Jesus or on the outside of that heart?
He says all of us who are close to Jesus and follow Him are like the disciples here and are on the inside — so we have the extra responsibility of looking inside and understanding the Gospel and to live it –
He says that these verses prove that even those on the inside did not always understand but were constantly seeking understanding to continue converting in their hearts -
that is what we are to do — constant conversion through prayer and repentance!
3- Be Opened – How do we seek constant conversion in order to live in the inside of the heart of Jesus? WE must BE OPEN — this is by the grace of God!
And so here we have the Healing of a Deaf Man!
Interesting that this man was not only deaf but also had a speech impediment!
Interesting that Jesus set him apart and took him by himself away from the crowd –
Sometimes Jesus has to get us alone — notice here that “the people” were the ones who BEGGED HIM to lay His hands on the man!
Now what is this about?
He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he said to him, “Ephaphatha!” which means “BE OPENED”
AND IMMEDIATELY — the man’s ears were opened and his speech impediment was removed and he spoke plainly!!!
The people now were saying… “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak”
Remember that this was the sign of the Messiah that was coming — one of the things that he would do!
So it is so good to see that the people at one point knew that this was GOOD… as the walk to Calvary gets closer people forget…
Kind of like you and I — ask we get closer to suffering and the cross– sometimes we forget — even when we are called to be there with another brother or sister in Christ who is suffering — we tend to run from the cross and forget!
We must be reminded everyday!
Now why did Jesus put His finger in the man’s ear and spitting touched his tongue -
I mean wasn’t JESUS concerned about the SWINE FLU?
Jesus looked up to heaven and GROANED, then He said, Ephaphatha!
This is a good one to take to some silent time today in contemplation — ask Jesus and see what He might tell you —
Here is what I see — that JESUS wanted to get right in there and touch what needed to be opened — What Jesus touched was healed –
and then putting His spit on the man’s tongue was as if He was giving the man his own speech – uniting with him in an intimate was!
But what really FIRES ME UP TODAY is that……
– Jesus knows that the only way we will convert and desire to change is when WE HEAR THE WORD OF GOD!!! Scripture teaches us that
“FAITH COMES FROM HEARING AND HEARING BY THE WORD OF CHRIST!”
JESUS knows that for us to have more faith we must be able to HEAR!!!
JESUS IS THE WORD — and so by HIM we can hear — and by HIM we can grow in faith!
This also shows that our speech is effected when we cannot hear — meaning our ability to hear and grow in faith — determines what comes out of our mouths —
there are so many connections here!!!
Usually only a mother would do something like that -uniting in saliva
– Jesus puts Himself into this healing — and HE groans to heaven — which is what we are called to do —
GROAN TO HEAVEN!
OK so let me know what you receive in prayer today on this —ask JESUS to OPEN your ears today so that you may HEAR HIS WORD and grow in FAITH!
God bless you all today on Such a JOY FILLED DAY!!!
