5th Week of OT 2020 - Wednesday - What defiles a man?

Following his miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and feeding of the five thousand, a group of Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem come to question Jesus. Initially, they are not impressed. Jesus and his disciples eat their meals without the ceremonial purifications that had become popular. The Law of Moses prescribed rules for ceremonial washing for the priests serving at the altar in the Temple, but the Pharisees extended these rules to everyone. For the Pharisees, Jesus’ contact with sinners, his traveling to pagan territories, eating with what they considered unclean vessels, and unclean foods, without proper purification, meant that he was unclean, he was a sinner, he couldn’t be a true religious leader, he couldn’t be trusted.

This back and forth with the Pharisees reaches a climax in today’s Gospel, so much so that the Lord summons a crowd to listen to his pronouncement. “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters a person from outside can defile that person,” rather what defiles are the moral evils that fester in the human heart, moral evils that are acted upon: unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, and so on.

The Pharisees were perverting the Law of Moses and missing its purpose entirely. You want to know what defiles a person? Human sin, evil conduct.

So, as followers of Jesus, we seek that interior purification and doing everything we can to remain clean interiorly.

This means examining our conscience daily and consider if our actions and attitudes have been unclean, and to repent of them. We make frequent use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation for its cleansing power. We reflect upon God’s cleansing Word. We avoid using dirty language and fixating on dirty images. We seek freedom from unforgiveness, ingratitude, selfishness, greed and gluttony.

Jesus makes a very powerful promise to the pure of heart. Do you remember, from the beatitudes? Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. The Pharisees were unable to see that Jesus was God because they may have been ritually pure on the outside, but inside, they were full of corruption and defilement.

So too in our culture: so many have lost touch with God precisely because they have allowed themselves to be defiled and refuse to repent and seek that purification that can only come from Him.
Lord, cleanse us, make our hearts new, purify us that we may see your face, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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For the Holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her, and bring cleansing to all the impurity which afflicts her members and leaders.

For the conversion of all those who have fallen into serious sin, for a return of fallen away Catholics to the Sacraments, and that all young people may be protected from the perversions of our culture.

For healing for all those suffering disease, especially diseases without known cures, for the people of China and all people afflicted by the Coronavirus, and all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief.

For the dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Holy mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you are the source of all goodness, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith, we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.