...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."...(Mk 7:14-23)
God is good, all the time.
Friends, today's creation narrative from Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17, primarily addresses a question of interest to all of us. How may we obey God's commandments so that we can have peace?
Embedded in Jesus' parable today is the lofty suggestion for that. Jesus proposes the heart as the place to begin. The heart is the seat of all our actions, good and wrong ones. Therefore, the desire to follow God's commandment means that one should be prepared to set the heart on that journey.
A journey ends with a destination. Just so obedience to God should be something that should always happen. In the first reading, the instruction not to eat from the tree of good and evil was not limited to a particular time. Yet, the man obeyed it for some time and decided to contravene it.
God's ultimate purpose for us is fullness of peace, which is intertwined with how we carefully listen to hear His instructions for us and follow them. That is why the peace that emanates from God is also not discoverable in books, computers, and libraries, but through obedience. The Lord said to the man, "From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die."
Setting our heart on the journey means that we are willing to let life put us to the test, God and others put us to the test, while we listen to the inner voice in our heart that tells us, "No, relax, and act according to the will of God." We know that the saints set their hearts on the same journey, making the obedience of God count daily for them; the holy men and women like Saint Scholastica, whose memorial we celebrate today, did so.
May the Lord grant us the grace of Courage to choose to listen to his voice and obey his commands. Amen.