Wednesday – 5^th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Mark 7:14-23

Temper, Temper!

Nailing It!

There once was a young boy with a very bad temper. The boy’s father wanted to teach him a lesson, so he gave him a bag of nails and told him that, every time he lost his temper he must hammer a nail into their wooden fence. On the first day of this lesson, the little boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. He was really mad!

Over the course of the next few weeks, the little boy began to control his temper, so the number of nails that were hammered into the fence dramatically decreased. It wasn’t long before the little boy discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Then, the day finally came when the little boy didn’t lose his temper even once, and he became so proud of himself, he couldn’t wait to tell his father. Pleased, his father suggested that he now pull out one nail for each day that he could hold his temper. Several weeks went by and the day finally came when the young boy was able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

Very gently, the father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. “You have done very well, my son,” he smiled, “but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same.” The little boy listened carefully as his father continued to speak.

“When you say things in anger, they leave permanent scars just like these. And no matter how many times you say you’re sorry, the wounds will still be there.”

That’s the message of today’s Gospel when Jesus continues to call out the Pharisees for focusing on the wrong things.  They complain about the disciples eating with unwashed hands, thereby making the food unclean.  Jesus makes it clear – it’s not what goes into your body that makes you unclean; it’s what comes out of you!

We get hit with all sorts of unpleasantness and trials every single day.  The boss yells at us unfairly.  That homeless man comes up to us asking for money.  Our neighbor struggles with his grocery bags.  Our daughter asks for help with her homework.  That driver cuts us off from that prime parking space.  What matters is how we respond!  How do we act/react?  What do we do with those God-given gifts and talents?