Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B

Reflecting on Mk. 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Within you read the bumper sticker on the car ahead of me. I’m getting better at recognizing grace when it hits me between the eyes, and so I relaxed into that beautiful message and felt more grace course through me.

Are you churning with rage over the behaviors of others? The power to forgive is within you. Are you tormented with anxiety about your children, your parents, your future? The grace to trust that the same God who has been faithful in the past will be faithful in the future is within you.

Why live a life steeped in sacramental grace if you don’t dip into it every day? It is there, within you, waiting to be activated. Jesus reminded the Pharisees of this. It’s not whatever image we try to project to others that is going to comfort us in times of need. It’s what is truly within us, and we have an endless bank of grace to see us through.

That is, of course, if we place ourselves in the direction of grace so we can receive it.

“Two wolves,” says the Cherokee grandfather, “battle within me. One is evil, anger, resentment, inferiority, superiority, and ego. The other is serenity, hope, empathy, compassion and faith.”

“Which wolf wins?” asks his grandson.

“The one I feed.”

So, says Jesus, make a conscious effort every day to feed your soul the grace that goes the distance. Give the benefit of the doubt every single time. See things from the perspective of others. Recognize―and this always comes as a shock ―that people have been forgiving you every single day too.

Graciousness, kindness, forgiveness. All these things come from within you, and they will save the world.

How will you activate sacramental grace today?

Ordinary Time - Cycle B