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Mark 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.”
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Have you ever wondered why the Saints tell us the path to holiness is so difficult?
It requires a slow, consistent turning away from ourselves to the point that, as Saint Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me.”
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The Native Americans think about it in a similar way. They believe there are two wolves living within us.
One wolf feeds on things that are evil, which Jesus mentions in today’s Gospel: pride, selfishness, gossip, anger, judgment, and lust.
The other wolf feeds on things that are good: patience, humility, honesty, forgiveness, kindness, and love.
The question is, “Which wolf wins?”
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The one we feed.
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How do I feed that good wolf within?
Or, using Paul’s imagery, how do we feed Christ living within us?
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May we continue feeding that good wolf until it is no longer “we who live, but Christ living within us.”
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Image credits: (1) Pin on Following Christ, Pinterest (2) Verve Team (3) Jesus Christ, Biography