Please note: two reflections are given below, each based on the First Reading and/or Responsorial Psalm of the day. The Year I readings apply to years ending in an odd number (for example, 2023), while the Year II readings apply to years ending in an even number, such as 2024. The Gospel Reading is the same in both years.
Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time [I]
Genesis 2:4-9,15-17 + Mark 7:14-23
“… the things that come from within are what defile.”
Jesus speaks at length, and quite unflatteringly, about what comes from “within the man, from his heart”. He mentions thirteen evils, though one gets the impression that He easily could have continued. He is describing the fallen human heart, which does not have the law of God within. Jesus wants us to realize our utter need for grace.
Consider this in light of today’s First Reading from the Book of Genesis. We hear the beginning of one of Scripture’s accounts of the creation of man: “the Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.” The phrase “the breath of life” we might consider as a description of the human soul. While man resembles other animals in many ways, it’s by means of this breath that man transcends them.
However, the Latin proverb reminds us that “corruptio optimi, pessima”: “the corruption of the best results in the worst.” By sin—as we will hear in Friday’s and Saturday’s First Readings—God’s gift of the breath of life becomes the very source of death. This death has many names, and Jesus give us only thirteen in today’s Gospel passage. Such is the power that each human person has: to disallow God from working through God’s own creation.
Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
I Kings 10:1-10 + Mark 7:14-23
The mouth of the just murmurs wisdom.
Today’s Responsorial comes from Psalm 37. The refrain—“The mouth of the just murmurs wisdom”—is the beginning of one of the Entrance Antiphons for the first Mass from the Common of Doctors of the Church. Such luminaries as St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Thomas Aquinas inspire us with their dedication to wisdom. They sacrificed of themselves in order to be instruments by which God could communicate His wisdom to others. How can we understand this refrain in regard to ourselves on this weekday in Ordinary Time?
One of the notable features of this passage from Psalm 37 is that it actually speaks more directly about the Lord than about “the just”. Why is this? The psalm makes it clear that the Lord is the source of all that is good in man. The refrain demonstrates this: the just man “murmurs wisdom” and “utters what is right” because the “law of his God is in his heart”.
This message from Psalm 37 stands in a certain contrast to Jesus’ words in the Gospel. Jesus speaks at length, and quite unflatteringly, about what comes from “within the man, from his heart”. He mentions 13 evils, though one gets the impression that He could just as easily have continued. Here Jesus is describing the fallen human heart that does not have the law of God within. Jesus wants us to realize our utter need for the law of grace if we are to transcend our fallen selves, and serve as instruments of God’s Wisdom.
