The Breath of Life

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man whom he had formed.  Genesis 2:7-8

"But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile." Mark 7:20-23

Piety

If you take away their breath, they perish and return to their dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. Psalm 104:30

Study

In making the distinction between what is internal and external, Jesus explains that whatever God has made cannot defile a person.  Only sins (which are man-made) can spoil the person. If God has made something, it is good, just like it was declared in Genesis.

Jesus overturns thousands of years of Mosaic Law about food.  More attention had been paid to what went into the body through the mouth rather than what emerged from the heart and the mind.  Jesus, in one parable, reveals that in the Kingdom of God, foods do not matter.  Only thoughts can plant the seeds of sin. Imagine that!

Jesus said this in the privacy of their home.  If the Pharisees were upset that the disciples did not wash their hands, imagine how they would have rebelled upon hearing this!  Just think of the passions which would have erupted if Jesus had not delivered this line in privacy?

Action

People need food and there are many ways to help make the miracle of food (that does not defile) a reality.  Visit www.freerice.com and play the vocabulary game.  For each answer you get right, they will donate ten grains of rice.  Play the game for a few minutes and you can generate a tsunami of food to meet the tsunami of need faced by the U.N. World Food Programme.  The world is facing an unprecedented number of hunger emergencies. The World Food Programme (WFP) is responding, but we can’t do it alone. See other ways to act at this site.