Wednesday February 12th: Hope – an inside job!

 “… For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come”.

Mark 7:14-23

At a recent workshop we were asked to look carefully at someone and identify an item we observed on their person, and what thought it led us to have about them.  Then we had to share how that thought made us feel and what action we would like to take.

We were told that this exemplified the human condition: we act, based on feelings from a thought/judgment triggered by something we saw, heard, smelt, or touched.

Jesus knew that the Pharisees were judging him and his disciples because they saw them eating with [unclean] hands, i.e., without a ceremonial washing, so he pointed them to the source of evil—our hearts.  What about us? Do we focus on  externals, like the Pharisees?

In this Jubilee Year are we so busy visiting Sacred Sites to get our Pilgrim Passport stamped, that we forget to be engaged internally as Pilgrims of Hope?

Or are we using this time to cleanse our hearts of unforgiveness and resentment? Let’s start with visiting the Holy Door of our hearts.