Today’s liturgy invites us to purify our hearts and make sure that they are centered on the Lord. We could think of it as a spiritual decontamination. I think that the spiritual contamination we suffer can often mirror the environmental contamination we hear about in the news, like this story from Los Angeles:
Under the watchful eyes of neighbors, scientists in white lab coats knelt to spread a flour-like mineral over a lawn in Huntington Park. The dusting of zeolite doesn’t take long, but it could be key to mitigating a disaster that has festered for decades across southeast Los Angeles County: lead contamination in the soil around thousands of homes. “It’s 20 minutes of work, and it’s a lifetime of lead remediation for a person’s backyard,” said Aaron Celestian, mineral sciences curator with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and lead scientist with the Prospering Backyards project. (Nathan Solis, L.A. Times, 2 May 2023).
Zeolite’s Decontaminating Power
Zeolite, the wonder material discussed above, works by absorbing lead and other toxins from the soil, mitigating the threat of these contaminants to residents. Exide Technologies had a battery recycling plant in that contaminated area for years, all the while it dispersed lead and other toxins all over the neighborhood.
Soil samples show levels lead several times what California officials deem safe. If we look at our hearts, do we not also perceive contamination from the vices listed in today’s Gospel? Do we not also need purification?
From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile (Mk. 7:23).
Our Own Decontamination
Now, it is not that I have participated directly in all of these vices (and one need not have in order to feel contaminated by them), but I do feel deeply affected by them. We hear and see so much through popular music, television, movies, and the like. How are we supposed to deal with a world where so much sin is glorified all around us? Is there any way for us to save our souls in a world given over to debauchery? Can we achieve spiritual decontamination?
Like those contaminated yards in Southeast LA which needed a dusting of zeolite, we need a spiritual dusting to help cleanse us. What can serve as a spiritual dusting? First, we need to see the level of contamination. We need to grow in self-knowledge. Looking at our friend group is a good start.
Law of Averages
If you look at your ten closest friends, you are most probably the average of all of them. I remember once I was speaking with a young man and pointing out some of his moral deficiencies. He defended himself, saying his friends were even worse. This may be so, but it does not indicate that he has a great chance of improving his moral behavior in the short term. You must look for friends who are better than you so they can pull you to be better than who you are today.
It is important for us to learn from the Church. Something I enjoy in confession is seeing how people are waking up with their consciences. Maybe they spent a period of their lives in the darkness. Now that they come back to the Church, they have a sincere desire to live out the faith. Nevertheless, they don’t know everything right away. Their small group can be a useful way to discover topics which, to their surprise, they had always thought about in the wrong way. Our small groups are called to challenge us, always in line with the faith. Our small groups can be a way for us to encounter the true doctrine of the Church.
God is Close
It is such a grace that God has desired to be close to us. We hear about it in the first reading today.
For what great nation is there
that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us
whenever we call upon him?
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees
that are as just as this whole law
which I am setting before you today?” (Dt. 4:6-8).
Closeness, however, does not mean indifference. He is close to us but he wants to communicate his laws. It is something hard for modern men and women to accept, but not impossible with God’s wonderful grace.
The divine initiative in the work of grace precedes, prepares, and elicits the free response of man. Grace responds to the deepest yearnings of human freedom, calls freedom to cooperate with it, and perfects freedom (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2022).
Every call to conversion is truly a gift from God, and a small group may be one of God’s desired tools to to convert your heart and help you grow closer to him.
Take time this week to go through your own habits and consider how you can take advantage of your small group to take some steps in the right direction.
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