The hardest thing to do is to change yourself. It is easier, they say, to change others than to change yourself. An employer, for example, can change people’s habits and performances by withholding pay if they don’t do what he asks.

People also find it easier to follow traditions and customs than to change their hearts. It is easier to say the rosary than visit a poor person in prison. Not that the rosary isn’t a good tradition, but without Christian practice it loses its purpose. Jesus and the Pharisees got into a heated discussion about this very thing. The Pharisees criticized him for not following the religious traditions of the time, such as the ritual “washing of hands before meals, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.” ( Mark 7:1-8 ).

Now, there is nothing wrong with traditions when they serve a good purpose, but when traditions are used as a way of avoiding what is important in our spiritual lives and relationships, such as loving our neighbor, then there is a problem. Thus, Jesus accused the Pharisees, who put traditions above renewal from within, of hypocrisy :”Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites. This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” ( Mark 7 : 5-6 ).

The observance of human traditions should never take the place of reforming our lives from within. The things that come out of a person, says Jesus, are what defile, such as ” evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.” As long as people cling to these nasty attitudes, and are unwilling to remove them, there will always be mayhem in our world.

The real enemy is within ourselves, and this is the enemy Jesus wants to free us from.

Jesus began his public life by insisting: ‘Reform your lives, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:4 ). You’ve heard this simple message before. It says it all. To reform your lives means you must be willing to change, to let go and put behind bad feelings and thinking of any sort that lead to sin. These old attitudes and ways of behaving are obstacles to reform which must start from within. They are like old wineskins which cannot hold new wine because they will burst. In the same way, bad attitudes from within make it impossible for the good news of the gospel to take root in the soul.

Nothing and nobody outside of you can defile you. If someone or something repels you, chances are you are the source of the repulsion in the first place. You need look no further than within your own heart. A clean-minded person sees nothing but cleanness everywhere. Did not Jesus say, “blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.” Jesus did not hesitate to touch a leper, eat with sinners and let and “unclean” woman touch him. He was criticized for being a friend of sinners, and for not following ritual traditions and observances. He focused on the real cause of human evil; namely. the enemy within.

The enemy within everyone is resistance to change that prevents one from accepting and acting upon the good news of the gospel.

We have to realize that our human nature is a fallen nature. It is not perfect, but it can be perfected if we are willing to change our hearts by accepting the good news of the gospel to “love one another as I have loved you.” The observance of this new commandment can only flow from a pure heart within.

—Fr. Hugh Duffy