The Things That Come Out From Within

February 11, 2009

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

The Lord God gave man this order: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

When you send forth your breath, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. (Psalms 104:30)

Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person, but the things that come out from within are what defile.” (Mark 7:14-15)

Piety

Lord, give me the wisdom and strength to choose You always, especially when the things that come from within—unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly—seem so attractive or justifiable in the moment.

Study

I set a timer recently to see just how long it was taking my decrepit Windows 2000 computer to fully turn off after I hit “shut down.” It surely had to be at least two or three or maybe even five minutes.

It took eighteen seconds.

That’s right, just eighteen seconds.

Maybe for you, it’s the hours it seems to take for your Metro train to come in the evening, or the eons that the driver in front of you waits before putting her foot on the gas when the traffic light turns to green.

Or maybe it comes in the swift putdown of a child or spouse, an impetutous tryst with an old flame at your high school reunion, or the theft of office equipment that you don’t have the time or money to buy for use at home.

Spiritual death lies in that need for speed, in taking the easy way out when the things that defile us from within sing their instant gratification siren song rather than discerning what God wants for and from us.

Pope John Paul II spoke of God’s desire for us to choose right in an address that rings as true today as it did when he spoke thirty years ago to young people:

God … calls for our conscious and free collaboration, placing us before the "tree of the knowledge of good and of evil", that is, he proposes to us a choice, he demands from us a test of faithfulness. We know very well how Adam and Eve first of all and then their descendants, following their fatal example, had more "knowledge of evil" than of good. In this way original sin, the beginning and symbol of so many sins, of immense ruin, of physical and spiritual death, made its appearance in the world. … God, by means of his commandments teaches us in practice how we must behave in order to live in a dignified, human and serene way …

Speed kills, physically and spiritually. Resolve to slow down long enough to let God’s breath refresh your body and soul for battle with the defiling things that come from within.

Action

Make a note about three situations you will face today in which malice, envy, arrogance or the other evil thoughts cited in today’s Gospel are likely to bubble out. Pray for God’s help to respond instead in a “dignified, human, and serene way,” as John Paul the Great advises.