In Ignatian fashion, I am meditating all week on last Sunday's Gospel. What has struck me today is that Christ saw, of course, as He is God, the stupidity of modern psychologically and warned us against it.
What do I mean? In the verses here, Christ rebukes the Pharisees and scribes. Note in Mark 7:15 and 21-23:
| "Hear me, all of you, and understand: | |
| 15 | there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him." |
| 21 | For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, |
| 22 | coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. |
| 23 | All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man." |
What Christ is saying is that our Spiritual Nature overcomes nurture and the culture. What is outside of us DOES NOT have to be appropriated by us.
That a man is not made evil by what is outside, but only by what he has on the inside flies in the face of some modern psychology. Some people honestly believe that they are not responsible for their own actions.
Wow! They blame everything and everyone but themselves for their faults, sins, evil.
The financial status of themselves and the world, whether they are loved or not, or recognized or not, whether they are poor or rich, people blame the complications of their lives for evil.
Christ cuts through all of those excuses and emphasizes free will. We choose evil and appropriate it.
We remain in ignorance by choice in the Western World. We are responsible for what we take in-be it porn, food, things, or whatever.
Christ points to the heart as the centre of good or evil. Where is your heart? If it is in politics, you have strayed into idolatry. If you have exchanged your freedom for ideology, your heart is no longer capable of purity without great work and prayer.