In Mark 17:18-22 Jesus tells us what defiles us and why. I encourage you to go to your Bible now and read this passage and prayerfully meditate on it.
God gave us the 10 Commandments through Moses and Jesus gave us The Beatitudes. I request you go read both over again very prayerfully and consider what God wants to accomplish in your life.
Every sin we commit stems from pride. This is what Jesus is referring to in this passage from Mark. Things we put into our bodies can harm us like over eating, excessive alcohol consumption and drugs among other things, but sin stems from the pride in our hearts, or rather the unbending of our wills to the will of God.
People will say “I am fine or God made me this way or why do I need to change, I am a good person”. Yes, this all may be true, but my question to you is, How do you stand with God? Reflect on this question and answer it honestly. Do you have a personal relationship with Him? If you think you do, how do you perceive it? Is it one-sided or do you let God talk? Do you think you can do whatever you want, and it’s okay because you are not hurting anyone? Are you asking God to bend His will to yours or are you consciously seeking to do the will of The Father as Jesus did? Tough questions but they must be asked. Even if you consider yourself a devout Catholic by going to daily mass or you really going deeper? What are you reading right now? What kind of music or talk radio do you listen to? What kind of programs do you watch on TV? Are they helping you transform and reform your life? Are you following in Jesus footsteps? Are you studying your faith, church documents, Papal encyclicals, lives of canonized saints? Are you going it alone? Do you go to Church and worship with a community of believers? Do you meet weekly with a small band of “brothers” or “sisters” to learn and sharpen your faith and strengthen one another? Do you meet regularly with a spiritual director? If you cannot even answer yes to one of these many questions posed above where are you really headed and what is the purpose of your life. Is your life only about consumption? Can you look outside yourself and notice others in need? Do you care?
Are you living chastely in every way?!
If you think you are happy where you are at in life right now and don’t want to change, fine, no one will change you. You have to want to change. I like to say to my children, the difference between champ and chump is “U”! Are you a champ or chump? Really? Think about that.
Every sin stems from pride and that is why pride is the worst sin. The seven deadly sins are wrath, envy, lust, greed, sloth, gluttony and pride. Sloth is not being lazy, it’s having indifference in growing in your faith. I believe pride is the root of all these sins. pride tells me I am okay and don’t need to change my life.
Metanoia is a Greek word meaning to change or completely turn your way of life through penitence and sacrifice. This is what Jesus meant when He started His public ministry and proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand”.
I ask you as I ask myself every day to repent, to prayerfully seek to do God’s will. To find a small band of “brothers” and “sisters” in our faith to meet with regularly and grow in the faith with and to read and study the teachings of the church starting with The CCC and your Bible.
You and I are a work in progress and it will never end until we reach Jesus’ eternal kingdom. Don’t give up. There will be ups and downs. Swallow your PRIDE and start walking!!!
God bless you, I am praying for you. If you would like help in any way in your walk of faith, please feel free to reply or comment to this article and I will do my best to help answer any question you may have.
http://www.WorldMeeting2015.org
Charles DeFeo: Catholic Blogger and Useless Servant of Christ 