💖 HOMILY - FEBRUARY 7 💖

First Reading - 1 Kings 10:1-10

Gospel - Mark 7:14-23

In the Catechism class, we all might have come across the following question: Why did God create us? A simple answer to this question is; to love Him, to serve Him and to adore Him. This question actually defines the purpose of our existence on earth; to love God, to serve God and to worship Him. The readings of today guide us, how to fulfill this very purpose of our creation.

In the first reading, we hear about a well known passage of the visit of the queen of Sheba to the king Solomon. The fame of the wisdom of Solomon spreads like a wild fire. The queen of Sheba also hears about it and her curiosity compels her to verify the hearsay, thus she pays a visit to the king Solomon with precious gifts and some tricky questions to test the king and ferret out the facts. The king calmly and hospitably welcomes her and solves her queries tactfully. The queen is captivated by seeing the wisdom of Solomon as reflected in everything from the smallest furniture to the administration. Seeing everything, the queen praises the wisdom of Solomon and also the God of Israel who blessed him with such a great gift. The gift of wisdom of Solomon leads the queen to glorify the God of Israel. 

In the gospel passage, Jesus explains about the root cause of evil after the controversy over the written law and oral religious law. He stresses on guarding our hearts. He explains that nothing from outside that can defile a person but what emerges from within or heart. Regarding biblical anthropology, the 'heart' is regarded as the seat of emotions and intellectual activities, even thinking and reasoning. Jesus employs this understanding of the audience to explain and underscore the need of the education of heart. He further explains that evil things emerge from the heart and that is realized in our action. Hence, Jesus emphasizes that it's by weeding out the root cause of evil and cleansing it, the real purity can be achieved and not merely by eating food which are defined a certain food as pure or impure. 

Dear friends, we have received ample gifts and talents. Our gifts and talents sometimes make us proud of ourselves. It is because they give us a distinctive identity from among many people. The first reading reminds us today that the gifts and talents we have received are from God and it's our duty to render Him praise for that. It will be a real credit to God, if our gifts and talents lead others to recognize God's goodness in us. In fact, this way, we can offer true honour and worship to God. 

The gospel of today warns us to guard our hearts which, if not guarded, can become devious and inamicable to God. We can't give praise to God or worship or honour Him, if we harbour evil things in our hearts. The root cause of evil must be sorted out to fulfill our duty to God to love Him, serve Him, and worship Him.

Let's try our best to remain faithful to God in carrying out our fundamental duty towards Him.