Live Fully in Christ

Gospel Reflection for Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 - Mark 7:1-13

Going through the motions.

It’s not hard to do honestly. We wake up, get dressed, grab our coffee, something to eat, head out the door, and get on with our day. If you have children at home, it’s a slightly more chaotic, and louder affair but essentially the same.

If you’re like me, often times there is simply too much I have to try to do in a day to be intentional, nothing is quite done well, or as well as I’d like, and there is little room for thinking beyond the moment because in that moment you have to get (insert whatever it is here) done! Dinner, laundry, sports practice, helping kids study for a quiz, packing lunches for the next day, cleaning up an unexpected mess, mowing the lawn, walking the dog.

The list can be endless.

If you are brave enough to look interiorly, the image is not much improved.

And so we go through the motions of our lives, feeling overwhelmed or overburdened, failing to see the reality that we live within, feeling more like a shadow of our true selves.

Yet, today’s Gospel calls us to something higher. Or maybe to something more real and alive.

It calls us to the heart of the matter - our heart, alive in Christ.

In today’s Gospel we see Jesus calling out pharisees and scribes who go through the motions of their faith. He is calling out those who are more concerned with following the traditions laid down by men for them, than the why behind what they are doing. These scribes and pharisees have lost sight of where their hearts reside - not with God but with traditions of men.

In so many ways we can be like these pharisees, stuck in the motions of our lives or our faith, and our hearts are far from God. We fail to invite Him into our busy days, fail to carve out time for Him, to know Him, to speak with Him. Intentionally seeking out God can be far from our hearts. It leaves us hollowed out.

No wonder we feel so overburdened.

Yet, we are called to something more alive, more beautiful, and full of meaning than to simply go through the motions of our faith.

We are called to live in Christ. We are called to the living Word. We are called to the light of the world, so that we will not walk in darkness but have the light of life (Jn 8:12).

We are called to truly live.

3 ways to Live intentionally for the Lord

1. Go to Mass and thank Jesus, in the Eucharist. Ask Him to help you love Him more.

2. Carve out 5 minutes of prayer in the morning to invite God into your day, your hopes and struggles.

3. Slow down. Take stock of your surroundings. Pay attention to something small. It seems silly but noticing these little things helps train our minds to focus, and will help us notice the little things God does for us daily. Ask Him to help you see how He moves in your day.

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"
He responded,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
In vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.

You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."
He went on to say,
"How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
'If someone says to father or mother,
"Any support you might have had from me is qorban"'
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things."