Evil Intentions – Mark 7:14-23 Reflection
Society seems to be moving towards actions without consideration for others. For the most part, limited self-expressions do not impact Jesus’s request for the unconditional love of neighbor. However, some situations create judgments of right and wrong from non-factual truths, ignorance, and insufficient information. Doesn’t this expose a moral compass that makes it easy to ignore the impact on neighbors? This is one of the hidden natures of evil intentions. To place oneself at the center with limited consideration of others makes it difficult to be partnered with all of humanity. This focus on self is the personal defilement that Jesus speaks of because God and neighbor become less discernible.
Jesus Discourses with His Disciples by James Tissot (full-resolution image of painting).
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Additional Ordinary Time Gospel Readings
Mark 7:14-23 – Scripture*
14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Additional Thoughts
Thank you for meditating on this Gospel and reading this Lectio Divina on Mark 7:14-23 Reflection – Evil Intentions.
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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: Evil Intentions