Deep Within Our Heart

February 12, 2025 – Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021225.cfm)

The human heart, though in medical science, is made up of muscle and tissue responsible for pumping blood to flow in our entire body. Yet, the human heart since the ancient times is understood spiritually as the person’s inner core. The Holy Scriptures teach us that our human heart symbolizes our inner self, the totality of our person that includes our mind, spirit and emotions. It is in our heart that we too find our hopes and dreams, our desires and passions. And it is in our heart that we encounter God, who gives us the breath of life.

Moreover, as Jesus reminds us today in the Gospel of Mark, from our heart we also shall find our selfish desires and wicked intentions from which our actions and words can bring harm, evil, and corruption to what surrounds us. This is something that the Lord wants us to realize today so that we may be able to see and discern better on what values, beliefs and spirit should we foster in our hearts.

The Book of Genesis presents to us the second account of the creation story. In this account we are reminded how the Lord created the world and us humans, particularly. The Lord God being portrayed like a potter, formed us out of the clay and blew into us the “breath of life.” That breath indeed, gives us life and it comes from the Lord. That breath still remains with us, a reminder that God’s spirit is within us.

In God’s divine wisdom, the trees of life and of the knowledge of good and evil were planted. The man was expected to exercise discernment, self-control and respect to what God has commanded. In that garden, the man was settled in order “to cultivate and care for it.” This expresses the creative power given to man, that certainly, we have the capacity to nurture and care what has been entrusted to us.

Yet, when we also choose to separate from the grace of God and forget that we are indeed given the breath of life, evil begins to consume us. We shall become dissatisfied with what we have even when we have enough. We become entitled, ungrateful and self-centered as if we are the creator and the giver of life. As the heart distances from the grace of God, the more we become indifferent from others.

This is what Jesus affirmed in today’s Gospel. Jesus said, “From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.”

What makes us unclean, therefore, are not those from the outside but those from within our heart. Jesus particularly refutes the belief of the Pharisees and scribes who developed restrictions on what to eat and what not to eat. Every creature that has been made by God is good.

It is rather that comes out from our heart is what would defile us and would bring corruption and evil around us. It is a call, then, for us to watch out on what we nurture and foster deep within our hearts.

What kind of intentions and motivations do we have then? What desires and passions that fuel our heart? What thoughts and aspirations that have become important for us?

As we bring ourselves to reflect on these matters, let us also remind ourselves that at the very beginning, God gave us the breath of life. Deep within us, God resides; with us, God recreates; and through us, God manifests the divine.

Let us retrieve and reclaim that creative power of the Lord so that our hearts will rather be more attuned and at home with God’s presence. This may hopefully constantly transform our actions and words to become more like Jesus so that we too will be able to bring goodness and kindness into our homes and communities. Hinaut pa.