Today's Gospel

Stay Close to Jesus

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Mark 7:1-13. Now when the Pharisees gathered together with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is unwashed. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they purify themselves. And there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.

And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?" And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites? As it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold fast to the tradition of men." And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition." For Moses said, "Honor your father and your mother, and he who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die." But you say if a man tells his father or his mother, "What you would have gained from me is Corban, that is given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition, which you hand on in many such things you do."

So Jesus is talking to the Pharisees again today, talking to the scribes, and there are so many things that Jesus says to the Pharisees and the scribes that I'm pretty sure you and I would never want Jesus to say to us. He starts out by saying, "You hypocrites." And I'm pretty sure none of us want Jesus to call us a hypocrite. He says to them, "The prophets spoke well about you." In particular, he quotes Isaiah, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." And I think that's the phrase that gets me today, that captures my attention. Where is our heart? And Jesus says that their hearts are far from Him. And so he defines it in space and time, right? “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

Where is your heart in relation to Jesus? Is your heart close to Jesus? Is your heart in Jesus? Is your heart far from Jesus? Is your heart turned toward Jesus, turned away from Jesus? Where is your heart in relation to Jesus? And the further our heart gets away from Jesus, the less the center can hold. That's when our lives begin to fall apart. That's when chaos and confusion begin to reign. The center can't hold. The more our hearts get away from the heart of Jesus.

And so today is like an invitation to a spiritual heart transplant, is to take our heart and place it back in the heart of Jesus, in the center of our lives, and to make that the focus. Have a great day. Remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

I hope you're enjoying the Daily Gospel Reflections. It's one of the things I love doing, spending this time with you each day. Recently, I released a book called 33 Days to Divine Mercy. If you haven't had a chance to check that out yet, I encourage you to do that today.