THE CHURCH BELL! ~ CookingFood.Org

“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”

Daily Reflections

Tuesday, 7^thFebruary 2017,

Fifth Week in the Ordinary Time

Gen 1:20 - 2:4;

Ps 8:4-9;

Mk 7: 1-13.

THE CHURCH BELL!

The Church Bell cries out to people to enter the Church, yet never enters the Church itself. So also our actions might lead people to God, yet would make us far from God. In today’s gospel, scribes and the Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of breaking the traditions of the elders by not washing their hands before eating their meals. Jesus condemned their hypocrisy, quoting the prophecy of Isaiah. Hypocrites profess one thing and practice another. They profess with their lips that they worship and follow God’s commandments, but in their actual lives they led lives contrary to the commandments of God. They are people who are holy in the sight of men, but unholy in the sight of God. Men see only the externals and judge, but God who searches the hearts, judges man from within. The worship of the hypocrites is vain. Keeping hearts away from God and worshiping Him, give neither praise to God nor does it bring His blessings. God does not delight in sacrifices or in oblations or in prayers or in Sacraments, when the hearts are away (Is 1:15).

So what is the key message we should take from this for our own lives? We should take from it two simple facts. First, the will of God must take hold of our lives and become the basis and foundation of everything. His will, His law, His precepts are our rock foundation. God has established His truth as the basis of human life and we must strive to humbly embrace His law. His law includes all publicly revealed teachings of our faith, found in Scripture and in the Church, and it includes all that we hear God speaking to us in our own lives. The Pharisees, in their lack of humility, could not see these truths. Instead, they held onto their own ideas and convictions alone. God chastised them harshly for this out of love.

Secondly, we should realize that when we embrace the divine law, and His particular will for our lives, we will be pure of heart and will be freed to love Him with outward expressions. We will worship Him from our hearts and this will flow through our words and actions. But this will never happen if we do not start with His divine law.

Prayer: Lord, help me to love Your holy and divine law. Help me to embrace it with my whole heart. I do believe in You and in all that You have spoken through the ages. I believe in what You speak to my heart regarding my own life. Give me the grace to embrace Your holy will and, in that embrace, to be transformed both interiorly and exteriorly. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen!