Meeting the Enemy

Gospel: Mark 7: 14-23

We human beings are adept at blaming others for our sins and misfortunes of life.  We create categories of unclean things and people, then blame these things for the misfortunes of the world and our own lives.  We then come to abuse and malign such people, committing all sorts of injustices against them.  We then create a religion of ease - just avoid these things and people, and all will be well for you.  

But Jesus rejects all this thinking.  He places the blame squarely where it belongs regarding our sins and evils - with us alone.  We are the creators of our own misfortune, we alone have sinned and done what is evil.  This is much more difficult a religion, for not only does it require us to deal with the only enemy we have - ourselves - but it also requires us now to love everyone without exception, friend and foe without distinction and without hierarchy.  

Each day we must come before God and lay bare our sins, blaming no one but ourselves.  Each day we must come before God seeking to love our neighbor more and more each day - every human being without exception, just as Jesus did.  For it is love of neighbor that will enable us to overcome the evil that lurks within, the enemy that is ourselves, our egos, attachments to self-interest, and all else that is not love.