Mc 7,14-23 – Wednesday of the V Week of Ordinary Time
In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls the crowd to him and makes a decisive gesture: he shifts the center of faith from the outside to the inside of man. It is not what enters us that makes us impurebut what comes out of our heart, because that is where the truth of our life is played out.
Jesus forces us to stop hiding behind religious practices, habits or traditions when these become an alibi to avoid conversion. It is easier to control what you eat or what you touch than to really let yourself be questioned by your intentions, by your hidden thoughts, by the words you speak without love. Jesus does not trivialize evil, but takes it seriously, indicating the place from which it originates: the human heart, capable of immense good but also of profound contradictions.
Violence, lies and harshness can come from the heart, but also mercy, forgiveness and compassion, depending on what we allow it to inhabit. In this sense, faith is not a system of protection, but a path of truth that requires sincerity and humility. Today, on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, this evangelical word lights up with a concrete face, that of Bernadette Soubirous, a poor, fragile girl, without prestige or defenses, but with a willing heart. Maria does not ask Bernadette for extraordinary gestures, but trust, prayer and penanceand above all he asks her to dig, to go deep, until a spring flows where previously there was only mud.
It is a powerful image of today’s Gospel, because even our heart, if left to itself, can seem cloudy, but if it accepts to let itself be excavated by God it can become a place of life. Bernadette holds nothing back for herself and does not feel better than others, but becomes a sign that God can act precisely through what is small and hidden. Mary, as then, continues to show us Christ as the only true source that purifies from within. The purity that God desires is neither formal nor apparent, but that of a reconciled heart. If we allow the Lord to inhabit who we really are, even what comes out of us can become healing for those we encounter.
Wednesday 11 February 2026 – (Wednesday of the V Week of Ordinary Time – Even year)
