Diseased souls: Sin damages us from within

		Living the Scriptures  with St. Paul University  Catholic Center  Jenni Barr

When I was in grade school, there was a popular anti-smoking poster that featured a badly disfigured woman with tar in her hair, rotting teeth, and blackened boils across her face.

Across the top of the poster it read, "If smoking did to your outside what it does to your inside, would you still do it?" The poster reminded its viewers that even though smoking destroys largely the inside of one's body, the damage is still very real and very devastating.

Similarly in today's readings, we are reminded how vulnerable our souls are to the sins inside of us. We must be aware of what is going on inside of us. Do we have a desire to serve? Or are we clouded by pride, envy, and other evil thoughts?

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Sunday, Sept. 3, 2006) Dt 4:1-2, 6-8 Ps 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5 Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27 Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Visualize for a moment how thoughts and actions can damage a person. We start out at Baptism with a white garment, clean and pure. We are ready to care for the orphans, widows, and anyone else in need of a loving smile.

If only we could stay that pure. Every time we allow evil thoughts to creep into our minds, it is as if someone rubbed a little dirt on our hearts. As greed and envy sneak into the picture, our souls become increasingly tarnished and wounded.

If we allow ourselves to indulge in prideful thoughts, our hearts develop deep, festering wounds. Pretty soon they can become unrecognizable masses of blackened boils and scum. We become defiled, not from evil outside, but rather from evil within.

Just like the person on the anti-smoking poster, the effects of such sins may go largely unseen by the world. Still, they are very real and very devastating. A person cannot be healthy with diseased organs, and we cannot be good Christians with diseased souls.

	Reflection questions • Am I concerned with being Christian inside and out, or just in ways that other people will notice? • What effects are my thoughts and actions having on my soul?

Fortunately, there is hope. We need not stay covered in sores and infected by sin. We can go to Reconciliation. There, the Lord rolls up His sleeves, picks up a big brush, and scrubs us clean. We leave the confessional once again squeaky clean without so much as a scar.

As we step out into the sun, we are ready to care for others in times of need. We are better equipped to keep sin at bay. We go forth convinced we can keep ourselves unstained by the world.

Jenni Barr is a first year medical student at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She enjoys serving at St. Paul University Catholic Center as the coordinator of Elementary Family Christian Formation.

St. Paul's Web site is www.stpaulscc.org

Faith Alive!

Faith Alive! is published bi-weekly during the summer. The next Faith Alive! will appear in the September 7, 2006 issue of the Catholic Herald.