In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Tuesday 7 February 2023

Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Word for today
The Gospel of Mark 7:1-13

Lips and heart

In the same person lips and heart can be very far away, light years apart, so far from one another that they can even be disconnected from one another.
The lips may be honoring God while the heart may be honoring realities opposed to God. But the contrary is impossible. If the heart truly honors and loves God, it is impossible for the lips not to honor God lovingly and humbly.
It is also possible to worship God with all kinds of solemnities and rituals and, at the same time, to teach human precepts, entirely the product of the human mind and generated by convictions and conventions, as if they were divine. It is possible to ignore divine indications while committing oneself to fanatically upholding human traditions. It is possible.
It is possible for deceivers and thieves to disguise themselves as shepherds and, while plundering, to shout in a loud voice, with blood-stained lips that they will always have the best interest of the flock at heart. It is possible.
It is possible to reunite lips and heart to love, to forgiveness, to detachment from things, to thankfulness, to gratuitousness. It is possible.