22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year B-1 September 2024
(Deut 4: 1-2, 6-8; Ps 15: 2-5; James 1:
17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mk 7: 1-8, 14-15,21-23)
The Problem: There
is a war being fought in the world today. It’s not a military war rather it’s a
supernatural war. A war fought between God and Satan, between heaven and hell.
That war is being fought for the hearts of men and women. One side wants to protect our hearts-the other
side wants to attack our hearts. Every heart is vulnerable to attack.
Why this war?
Proverbs 27:19 says “As the
water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man”. Proverbs 16:9 says “In
his heart a man plans his course”. The course our lives take will be determined
by the condition of our hearts. It’s in our hearts that we determine who we
will live for, who we will serve, who we will love. Will it be the God of
heaven or the God of this world? That’s why the Bible mentions the heart 779 times!
Solution:
We need to imitate the man who was close to God’s heart. In Psalm 86:11-12 King
David prayed “Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me
an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord my
God, with all my heart…”. But many of us would struggle and therefore say what
the psalmist said in Psalm 25:17 “The troubles of my heart have multiplied;
free me from my anguish”. Psalm 40:12 “For troubles without number surround me;
my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my
head, and my heart fails within me”.
Why Is an Unhealthy Heart
So Dangerous? Mark 7:20-23: ‘‘What comes out of a man
is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil
thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly…’” That’s why Solomon said …..Proverbs
4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. If we are not careful spiritual heart attacks has
the power to make people grow spiritually weak and eventually spiritually sick.
They become spiritual patients for the rest of their lives-they never become
“healthy Christians”. This spiritual sickness is caused by countless little
things that slowly eat away at a person’s heart over time. Things like bad attitudes,
wrong relationships, poor choice of priorities, little compromises. Too often
those things go unnoticed until it’s too late. Then people end up with; Guilty
hearts, diseased hearts, hardened hearts, distracted hearts or numb hearts. When such hearts surface in a Christian life you
stop feeling the things you should feel such as love and gratitude for God; care
and concern for others, compassion for hurting people; anger over injustice; conviction
over your own sin; frustration over other people’s apathy.
What is the treatment?
It’s important to
understand that there is no human cure. You can’t fix your own heart. Pure
motives and good intentions are not enough. We need God. He does not repair
hearts. He does not do heart surgery. He
does transplant and gives you a brand new heart “I will give them an undivided
heart and put a new spirit in them; i will remove from them their heart of
stone and give them a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19). But even after
transplants, hearts are vulnerable. That’s why there needs to be a change in a
person’s lifestyle after surgery. A daily dose of the holy spirit; a steady
diet of the scriptures and a regular routine of spiritual activities.
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