REFLECTIONS TODAY
People are often judged by their external behavior. However, Jesus focuses his attention to the primacy of the “heart”— the interiority of intention and volition.
The Scriptures figuratively use the “heart” (Greek kardia) as the seat and center of human life, since it is the center of man’s personality, and it controls the intellect, emotions, and will. It is not the external things that make us holy or unholy, but the heart which expresses our intentions, our choices, and the will to do all for the love of God. External behavior is the result of what we decide in the heart, and not the other way around.
The standard between good and evil starts from within us and not from outside of us, that is, from the beginning motives/intentions and not just at its ending goals. But the intentions and the desires of the heart are not often holy; in fact, a lot of mundane cravings spring from the heart. The prophet Jeremiah declares: “More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9). That is why the heart needs purification and conversion. Furthermore, the Lord declares, “I, the Lord, explore the mind and test the heart, giving to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their deeds” (Jer 17:10).
It is God who judges the real motives and value of things. The heart is the repository of what we hold dear. Jesus declares, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Mt 6:21).
Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”
When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”
