Jesus summoned the crowd and said to them, “Hear and understand. It is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.” Then his disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He said in reply, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. If a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a pit.” Then Peter said to him in reply, “Explain this parable to us.” He said to them, “Are even you still without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that enters the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled into the latrine? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, false witness, blasphemy. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”  

“I can’t stand to fly,” the group Five For Fighting begins their song “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” “I’m not that naïve. I’m just out to find the better part of me. I’m more than a bird; I’m more than a plane, more than some pretty face beside a train. It’s not easy to be me.” The person in the song is looking to discover who he really is, and playing the part of a superman takes away from his real self. Discovering who we really are is important as we attempt to become better people.  

“It’s not easy to be me,” the group Five For Fighting sings. It’s not easy because there are too many things that make us “false” in our approach to life. We become false people when we act as if we are something that we really are not. We are called to be people who are “out to find the better part” of who we are.

One time when he was criticizing the religious leaders in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus pointed out that there can be empty reverence in matters of religion, doing things of religion with the wrong motives. The motive for doing things of religion must be, Jesus says, to change the inside, that is, to get rid of the wicked designs that come from within. Simply doing things of religion with no change on the inside is empty reverence. Purifying hands and so forth, Jesus says, must be done with the motivation that the person must change the heart, that is, the inside.

Both the group Five For Fighting and Jesus of Nazareth say to us that we must concentrate on our “insides,” that is “being me.” We have to work on our thoughts—so that we think good things in order to make us do good things. Jesus reminds us that the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, from the mind, from our thinking. We must allow our thinking to become the thinking of a truly loving, caring person, a person who lives in this world, sees the evil that is there, but sees the good as well. Such a person realizes that we can be so much better than we are, and attempts to bring it about.                      

THOUGHT
 
PRAYER

Good and gracious God, your Son told us that we have to understand what makes a person good, namely thinking good thoughts. Help us purify our thinking by choosing to follow what your Son wants us to do in our lives. Be with us, we pray.

Questions, comments? Let me know. Email Fr. Mike

©2007 Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America