Coffee With God

Reflection: Mark 7:14-23

Where does evil come from and is there a solution to eliminate it from our lives? While addressing the issue of impurities arising from neglecting the traditional rituals, Jesus focuses on the human heart, the abode of all choices – both good and bad. The religious leaders taught the people to observe the laws and traditions to avoid the punishment of God and to please him. Ritual purity was meant to protect the chosen people of God from any contacts with anything that was associated with pagans – non-Jews or unclean animals. The creation story in the book of Genesis tells us that God created everything and he saw that everything that he created was good. But later, humans interpreted some people and some animals as unclean and any physical contact with them would make one impure. Do our religious observances, prayers and even attending Mass arise out of fear of God’s punishment? If we go to Mass to fulfil the days of obligation, how are we any different from the religious scholars of Jesus’ time? Jesus points out the source of true defilement — evil desires which come from inside a person’s thoughts and intentions. When Cain was jealous of his brother Abel, God warned him to guard his heart: “Sin is couching at the door; it’s desire is for you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:7). Do we allow sinful desires to couch at our doors? Not to succumb to sinful desires or thoughts, there is no better option than to seek refuge in God. Jesus in the desert, Jesus in prayer teaches us to spend time with the Father, to confront the forces of evil. The Lord waits for us to transform and purify our hearts through his Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Do we believe in the power of God’s love to transform your heart? Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote that virtue is the transformation of instinct or passion. Courage and hope, for example, are transformations of the aggressive instinct; love is the transformation of desire. What comes out of person depends on how one transforms one’s experience. Our faith is a transformation of our experience of God’s love and the response we make to the world, to others, and to God. Thus my relationship with Jesus helps me to transform those bad stuff into good, curses into blessings and sufferings into prayer.