Jesus said: "Wicked designs come from the deep recesses of the heart" (Mk 7:21), and not from eating the wrong foods (see Mk 7:19). He denied the old saying: "You are what you eat." Food is not the issue; the heart is.
What affects us permanently is not so much what we put in our mouths, but what enters our lives through our eyes and ears. Jesus said: "The eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyesight is sound, your whole body is lighted up, but when your eyesight is bad, your body is in darkness" (Lk 11:34).
Paul taught: "Faith, then, comes through hearing" (Rm 10:17). What we believe and don't believe has been affected by what we have heard with our ears. Therefore, Isaiah described a righteous person as "stopping his ears lest he hear of bloodshed, closing his eyes lest he look on evil" (Is 33:15). We must guard our eyes and ears. Otherwise, our hearts will be in great danger of defilement. If defiled, they will spew forth "acts of fornication, theft, murder, adulterous conduct, greed, maliciousness, deceit, sensuality, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, an obtuse spirit" (Mk 7:21-22).
Consequently, you can see how dangerous a TV is. It can bombard our hearts with thousands of pictures and words which, unless extremely good, will be extremely devastating in their effect on us. TV can destroy our hearts.
Guard your heart (see Phil 4:7).
| PRAYER: | Jesus, Doctor and Surgeon, remove any foreign elements from my heart. |
| PROMISE: | "Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord, my God, You are great indeed!" –Ps 104:1 |
| PRAISE: | Patricia teaches young people about the freeing power of receiving the grace of the sacraments. |
Reprinted with permission from Presentation Ministries, a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community. Their ministries include:
· One Bread, One Body
· Daily Bread Radio Program
· Annual Bible Institute
· Discipleship Retreats
· Guadalupe Bible College