I have a good friend of mine that I went to college with, a long time ago, back during the Civil War, who played a lot of sports.  Today, we’d say that he lived a very “active” lifestyle.  Back then, we just said that he played a lot of sports and he sweat a lot.  Because he was always exercising, he was also always taking a lot of showers.  One Friday night, a bunch of us were playing cards, and my friend was there with us, and a couple of other friends of ours, started making fun of him for stinking.  Now, I couldn’t smell anything.  And with a nose like mine, I’m pretty good at picking up smells.  But these other two guys wouldn’t let up.  They kept telling him to go take a shower and one of them offered to let him borrow his deodorant.  The result was that our friend was so embarrassed, so humiliated, that he became obsessed with the way that he smells.  That was years ago, still today my friend uses all of these body washes, and deodorants, and all sorts of colognes and sprays, to smell good.  He is still terrified that somebody is going to make fun of him for smelling bad.  It kinda makes you think about how fragile we all are, and how sometimes stupid, little, meaningless comments can have a lasting effect.  My friend is a great guy.  I hope that someday he’ll see that and worry less about the way that he smells.

       Today our Gospel goes back to St. Mark’s book.  And today St. Mark has Jesus running into these Scribes and Pharisees who also appear to be more than a little obsessed with cleanliness.  In particular, they are very concerned with the Jewish ritual washings.  In fact, they want to use the Jewish ritual washing to define who is, and who is NOT, a good Jew.  And on this particular day, Jesus’ own disciples don’t pass their test.  And they, of course, have to bring this up to Jesus.  Jesus is not embarrassed or humiliated by their questioning.  Instead, He turns it around on them, to point out that God is concerned about a whole lot of other things way before you get to the washing of our hands.  He’s telling the Scribes and the Pharisees that they’ve got it all wrong.  It is not the outside that matters.  It’s what’s going on inside, in the heart, in the soul, in the mind, that matters.  Jesus goes on to say that that is where is sin comes from, not from dirty hands.

       This is a powerful Gospel for all of us to hear today.  A lot of times, we too need to be reminded of what Jesus is saying.  We can get so wrapped up in appearances and what we see on the outside, that we forget that what matters to God, is what’s going on in the inside.  That’s what we are going to be judged on: not what we look like, or sound like, or smell like, but what’s going on in our hearts and souls!  That’s what we need to be more sensitive about: what’s in our hearts and souls.  Think of the hours, the hundreds of hours, and all of the money, that we spend on our hair, our face, our clothes, our breath, our bodies.  If we are neglecting our souls, what good is it going to do us?  And why do we allow those exterior things to define who we are and what’s most important to us?

        Today, Jesus calls all of us to concentrate on all those things that God is going to care a great deal about, on Judgment Day.  What is coming out of our lives?  What good are we producing?  He gives us the list of evils to avoid, and what we need to root out of our hearts, but what do we need to fill our hearts up with to become what Jesus wants?  It’s simple really.  We are to become like Him!  We are to have pure hearts, and live chaste lives.  We are to respect other people’s property and not covet anything.  We are to respect and treasure life.  We are to remain true to our commitments.  We are to be self-less and honest and humble, working together to get along and to accomplish God’s will.  Isn’t that exactly the way of life that Jesus taught us?  Notice that nowhere does Jesus say that we are to “look good”, or sound “good”, or smell “good”.   God is so much more concerned about all those interior things, than the exterior ones.  If only we could have that perspective more often.  We would have more peace.  And we would have that lasting peace that we have been taught, goes on forever.

         We worry about too much.  We all do.  I wish that I could get my friend to worry less about the way that he smells, and to concentrate more on the goodness that is within him.  There’s no cologne, or perfume, or deodorant that can cover up sinfulness.  Only God can clean up those messes.  But there is a scent, a beauty, a peace to holiness, that permeates our whole lives.  May we, with God’s help, seek that aroma every day of our lives!

May God bless us,  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti…Pray for us !!!