Reflect today on what is in your heart

“Nothing that enters one from the outside can contaminate that person; but the things that come out from within are what contamination. "Mark 7:15

On the contrary, what comes from within is what makes a person holy!

Often, we are more concerned about what's outside than what's inside. We often worry excessively about how we are perceived by others, how we look or what our reputation is in the eyes of the world. This Gospel specifically addresses the charge of the Pharisees that eating certain foods defiles someone. Jesus is not buying it. It is focusing our attention on our hearts. What's in our hearts? And what is it that comes from the heart? This is what makes us who we are.

While this addresses concerns that some foods may contaminate, it also deals with much more. Address the tendency of purely external observances of the law of God. Therefore, address the tendency of the Pharisees to worry excessively about how they are perceived by others. Their external observance of the law reveals the fact that they seem to care excessively about what others think of them and what others say about them. They want to look holy. They want to appear to be beyond the smallest of indiscretions. But it is all an aspect and not a reality.

For this reason, Jesus places attention on the inside. God sees what is in our hearts. Even if no one else sees it, we should never forget the fact that God sees everything. That's all that matters. What is in our hearts can do us much harm or do great good. There are those who, in public perception, are far from the base. But from God's point of view they are right. On the contrary, there are people in public opinion who are bright stars, but from God's point of view they are far from the base. There is only one thing that matters: what does God think?

Reflect today on what is in your heart. This introspection should also challenge you to look at your motives. Why do you do what you do and why do you make the decisions you make? Are they choices that come from an honest and sincere heart? Or are they choices that rely more on how you will be perceived? I hope your motives are pure. And hopefully those pure motives come from a heart deeply united to the heart of Christ.

Lord, please make my motives pure. Help me to live only from a pure heart. Help me always understand that holiness is found only in serving you and not in serving my public image. I love you my lord. Jesus I believe in you!