Inner purity more than just following rules

That’s what we can gather from the Gospel of St. Mark (7,14-23) where Christ said, “There is nothing from without a man that entering into him, can defile him.

- Fr. Roy Cimagala

But the things which come from a man, those are they that defile a man.”Further down, he explained: “Everything from without, entering into a man cannot defile him, because it enters not into his heart, but goes into the belly, and goes out into the privy, purging all meats.” Rather, he said, what can defile a man are the things which come out from him.

That’s when he listed what can come out of the heart of men: evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.

This gospel episode teaches us that in order to have inner purity, we should take care of our heart, making it clean, pure and full of love, compassion, and the whole gamut of virtues.