“We are the sum total of the decisions we have made.”

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.” ― C.S. Lewis: (1898 – 1963: was a British novelist, poet, & academic)

Scripture text: (GN 3:1-8)

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals

that the LORD God had made.

The serpent asked the woman,

"Did God really tell you not to eat

from any of the trees in the garden?"

The woman answered the serpent:

"We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;

it is only about the fruit of the tree

in the middle of the garden that God said,

'You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'"

But the serpent said to the woman:

"You certainly will not die!

No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it

your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods

who know what is good and what is evil."

The woman saw that the tree was good for food,

pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.

So she took some of its fruit and ate it;

and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her,

and he ate it.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened,

and they realized that they were naked;

so they sewed fig leaves together

and made loincloths for themselves.

When they heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the garden

at the breezy time of the day,

the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God

among the trees of the garden.

In the First Readings of today’s and tomorrow’s Masses, we hear of mankind’s Original Sin. Today’s First Reading presents its commission; tomorrow’s, its immediate consequences.

We might reflect upon the fact that it takes six verses in this narrative before the woman commits the original sin. Four things occur beforehand: the serpent asks her a question; she responds; the serpent refutes her response; and the woman reasons her way to the commission of the sin.

Our own sins may not concern the eating of fruit, and a serpent may not be our tempter, but the dynamics between the serpent and the woman are key. The serpent did not motivate the woman to act impulsively. Rather, the serpent used (or rather, abused) reason to sway the woman’s intellect. She freely choose to sin, believing entirely for herself that her sin was a good. We ought to consider these five verses as a sort of examination of conscience for ourselves.

“Nothing in life is stronger than perseverance; time only promotes it, failure is afraid of it, negative people hide from it, and disease is affected by it. Even rocks give way to perseverance: because if water perseveres its impacts on the surface of a rock long enough, the rock starts to wither.”

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” ― Calvin Coolidge: (1872 – January 5, 1933: was the 30th President of the United States (1923–29) )

Gospel Text: (MK 7:24-30)

Jesus went to the district of Tyre.

He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,

but he could not escape notice.

Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.

She came and fell at his feet.

The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,

and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

He said to her, "Let the children be fed first.

For it is not right to take the food of the children

and throw it to the dogs."

She replied and said to him,

"Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps."

Then he said to her, "For saying this, you may go.

The demon has gone out of your daughter."

When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed

and the demon gone.

God knows you better than you know yourself. God demands faith from us, even when we believe we have none. He is willing to “pull” our faith out of us—we might even say that He is willing to test us—in order to purify our faith. Jesus knows what sort of faith this woman has in today’s gospel noted above. And He is willing to draw it out, because without faith on this woman’s part, he will not work a miracle. Pray for the sort of confident faith that this woman has to “banter” with God and to recognize that your being an outsider is not an impediment to the grace God wishes to give you.

“God never takes away anything that He doesn’t replace with Himself.”

“Nothing can hurt you except sin; nothing can grieve me except sin; nothing can defeat you except sin. Therefore, be on your guard……… - John Bunyan: (1628 –1688: was an English writer and Baptist preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress)

Gospel Text: (MK 7:14-23)

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."

Goodness emerges from a person – from within. It is not a product of what is absorbed in the sense that external forces and concerns do not make a person ‘unclean’ or necessarily good. We choose between these poles and this is a constant throughout life.

And notice too, Jesus does not concern himself (nor does he allow people to be distracted by or satisfied by any suggestion that sin or evil arises from minor or petty issues e.g. like the failure to wash one’s hands before eating). No, Jesus speaks of sin having its origins in deeper realities – those attitudes and tendencies  that we choose to follow – that reside in our hearts and that can do great harm to others or to ourselves.

“It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.”

Hypocrisy in anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it, and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised. - Leo Tolstoy: (1828-1910: Russian writer.)

Gospel Text: (MK 7:1-13)

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem

gathered around Jesus,

they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals

with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.

(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,

do not eat without carefully washing their hands,

keeping the tradition of the elders.

And on coming from the marketplace

they do not eat without purifying themselves.

And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,

the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)

So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,

"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders

but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"

He responded,

"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,

as it is written:

This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines human precepts.

You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."

He went on to say,

"How well you have set aside the commandment of God

in order to uphold your tradition!

For Moses said,

Honor your father and your mother,

and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.

Yet you say,

'If someone says to father or mother,

"Any support you might have had from me is qorban"'

(meaning, dedicated to God),

you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.

You nullify the word of God

in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.

And you do many such things."

Pope Francis has urged Christians to examine their consciences to understand whether they are growing with good or bad leaven by asking themselves: With what spirit am I doing things? With what spirit am I praying? With what spirit do I turn to others? With a spirit that builds? Or with a spirit that becomes air? In conclusion, he stressed that it was important not to deceive themselves and to tell the truth rather than lies.

The Pope went on to say, “How truthful children are when they confess their sins! Children never ever tell a lie during confession; they never talk about abstract things. ‘I’ve done this, I’ve done that, I’ve done……’ Concrete things. Children talk about concrete things when they are in front of God and in front of other people. Why is that? It’s because they have good leaven, leaven that makes them grow like the Kingdom of God grows. May the Lord give all of us the Holy Spirit and the grace of that lucidity to discern with which leaven I am growing, with which leaven I am behaving. Am I a loyal and transparent person or am I a hypocrite?”