Let Love Surface – Mark 7:1-13 Reflection
Society implies that we must be externally cleaned and perfected through an endless list of products and services. No doubt, vices manifest when we become heavily influenced in this way. However, can we entirely blame the forces outside of ourselves? Shouldn’t what matters the most and overrides external and internal influences be that we become pure inside? The hidden truth is that we must be willing to depend on and reach out to the holiness of Jesus when desires flare up. Loving God in this way permits the re-direction of thoughts away from self-fulfillment and towards our hearts to let love surface.
The Pharisees Question Jesus by James Tissot. (full-resolution image of painting).
More details are available on the Brooklyn Museum website.
Additional Ordinary Time Reflections
Mark 7:1-13 – Scripture*
The Tradition of the Elders
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
9 Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God)— 12 then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”
Additional Thoughts
Thank you for meditating on this Gospel and reading this Lectio Divina on Mark 7:1-13 Reflection – Let Love Surface.
Would you like to contribute related thoughts to these Lectio reflections on the Gospel readings? Since Lectio is not the only contemplative prayer style, others might appreciate these types of expressions in this ministry. Do you see God’s grandeur everywhere and unconditionally enjoy sharing the love of Christ that you have inside? Are you willing to be anonymous in what you would share? If so, email me.
Prayer for young families:
Lord, let the young families of our communities get to know your joy, peace, comfort, and love despite worldly distractions.
Attributions
*This site has permission to use the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) Bible Mark 7 passage.
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Primary Lectio Divina word or phrase: Let Love Surface
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