Even when believing we hear His voice, we often seem to get the message confused. God clearly instructs us to take care of His world and everything in it, but time and again people decide to distort the message. In today's second reading, Paul instructs the Corinthians to not be obsessed with any sin except the ones which come from within ourselves. He, like Jesus before him, warns against being focused on following the old rituals that forbid the eating of certain foods or the idea of being made unclean by coming into contact with someone else. Rather, we are to focus on what working on cleansing our own hearts so that we can better serve those around us.
I find this idea difficult to follow. It is entirely too easy for me to ignore what God is telling me that I need to do and instead focus on the wrongs that I feel are in others. Too often, I hope to cleanse myself through ritual and tradition rather than to truly address my own failings. I feel that I am improving in this area, but I still fall so very far from what I know that I should do. Still, with God's continued encouragement, I believe that I can continue to work on being a better person.