The practices of religion are not unimportant, but have you ever let observing them substitute for true faith? Do your outer actions reflect what’s really going on inside?

Jesus isn’t saying Jewish law bad, my law better. He too builds a fence around God’s law, but his fence goes deep rather than wide. Jesus doesn’t seek to control external behaviors. His fence is constructed around the heart, the seat of human will and character.

Jesus called the crowd together again and said, “Listen now, all of you— take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it’s what you vomit—that’s the real pollution."

Jesus reminded that soap and mouthwash don’t give us a pure heart. Try faith, hope, and love instead—the greatest product line ever offered!

Let us ask for God’s mercy and pray to God to make us better disciples.

Those who only listen politely to scripture and homilies and recite creeds and prayers perfectly but do not take those words to heart and live them are “deluding” themselves.

The value of his good works is not based on their number and excellence but on the love of God which prompts . . . to do these things. —Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591)