Catholic Hermit: Perilous Pitfalls

Once again, we have truth told us from God in His Living Word.  Mark 7 reminds us of the perilous pitfalls of clinging to laws created by humans and the imbalance of those who develop issues within when placing themselves into these human precepts.  

Those within Christ's Church should take seriously what Jesus warns, and this is especially true in the scandalous times in which we live currently.  Consider those corrupt in the ecclesia as well as those who have placed themselves under what may be blind obeisance to confused or lost shepherds.

"[Jesus] 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 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.'

'From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.'"

I have added emphasis to Jesus' warning of the blights of deceit, envy and arrogance that so easily come from within, and so easily without our realizing we are living hosts to these vile, parasitic vices.

Any of us, especially those of us avowed and living within the consecrated life of the Catholic Church, should all the more be careful to turn to God and His commandments, of which Jesus speaks.  We should not place the laws created through human precepts, created by perhaps well-intentioned but imperfect humans--perhaps very much so those created within recent decades in which many in the ecclesia were enveloped in grave moral sin as well as those involved in cover ups of scandal.

Always, always, keep God's commandments and His Living Word foremost and as the ultimate of holy perfection in commandments and laws by which any Christian soul ought regard, follow, and live.

Not only as a Catholic hermit do I shudder at those who justify and manipulate with debate and argue otherwise, but as a life-long Christian do I fear such deception and prideful arrogance.  

Jesus meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine.  

Jesus, I trust in Thee.

God bless His Real Presence in us!