The Real Source Of Our Troubles
Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time Scriptural Readings: Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17; Psalm 104:1-2a, 27-28, 29bc-30 Mark 7:14-23
My dear encountered couples:
Deep within our subconscious are many things of which we ourselves might not be aware until they are awakened. In very early infancy, maybe from the time you were in your mother’s womb, you experienced things that found a home deep down within what is called your subconscious. As you grow older other experiences just might be doing the same thing. If an experience is powerful enough, or repeated often enough, it just might also take up residence in your subconscious. And without you understanding why, you find yourself with certain feelings and performing certain actions that are prompted by these subconscious dwellers.
Maybe you experience fear when certain things happen, and you find it almost impossible to turn off that fear. A possible explanation is you experienced something powerfully frightening in your past that became imbedded in your subconscious.
Maybe anger is your problem. Why do you sometimes find it very difficult to control your anger when other people seem to have no difficulty at all? Possibly it is from some experience in the past that made you angry but you suppressed it all the way down into your subconscious. Or were you born that way?
Jesus tells us in our reading today that wickedness comes from inside us, not from the outside. When we do something sinful, it originates within. “Wicked designs,” said Jesus, “come from the deep recesses of the heart: acts of fornication, theft, murder, adulterous conduct, greed, maliciousness, deceit, sensuality, envy, etc. etc. etc.” Is he talking about our subconscious? Does that mean we aren’t responsible for our bad actions? For our sins?
Nope! It just shows us the source of our troubles so we know where to direct our efforts. Not to others, not to things, but to ourselves. Good luck! Don’t forget to ask God to help you.
