Meditation: Mark 7:14 Then Jesus called the crowd again and said, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. 15 Nothing outside of a person can enter and contaminate a person in God’s sight; rather, the things that come out of a person contaminate the person.”[a]
17 After leaving the crowd, he entered a house where his disciples asked him about that riddle. 18 He said to them, “Don’t you understand either? Don’t you know that nothing from the outside that enters a person has the power to contaminate? 19 That’s because it doesn’t enter into the heart but into the stomach, and it goes out into the sewer.” By saying this, Jesus declared that no food could contaminate a person in God’s sight. 20 “It’s what comes out of a person that contaminates someone in God’s sight,” he said. 21 “It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come: sexual sins, thefts, murders, 22 adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.”[Footnotes:
Mark 7:15 7:16 is omitted in most critical editions of the Gk New Testament Whoever has ears to listen should pay attention!]
Our Lady of LourdesThe things that come out from within are what defile. (Mark 7:15)
Did you know that the saying, “You are what you eat” is a variation of the old French proverb, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are”? While modern science would say this is true in a nutritional sense, some historians believe that it was also part of the spiritual foundation of the Jewish dietary laws—also known as the kashrut, or kosher laws.
One part of the kashrut determines that the Jewish people must eat only certain ruminant animals—animals that derive most of their food from plants. The ruminants that are considered kosher tend to be gentle, domesticated animals that are not predatory by nature. The thought was that by eating of these gentle creatures, you would absorb some of their gentleness. By the same token, refraining from eating predatory animals would keep you from taking in these species’ aggressive, violent natures.
So if the tradition of kashrut has such a noble background, why did Jesus take exception to it? Part of the answer may come from the way some Jews of his day took excessive pride in their ability to follow these laws. Jesus rebuked them for worrying so much about which kinds of foods would make them unclean while paying so little attention to their words and actions—things that actually did defile them and the people around them. He longed to see them put a higher priority on their words and actions.
Today’s Gospel offers us the opportunity to reflect on our own choices. Are we paying too much attention to the outside, to how rigorously we follow traditions? Or are we keeping an eye on the inside, our thoughts, words, and actions, so that we can have a positive rather than a negative impact?
Mercifully, God offers us a solution: receiving Jesus in the Eucharist can help us absorb his nature—and it can give us the grace to overcome our sinful thoughts and actions.
“Lord, help me remember that receiving you in the Eucharist has the power to transform my heart and lift me out of my sin. Help me to absorb your nature so that I can become clean inside and out.” Amen!
Genesis 2:4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
World’s creation in the garden
On the day the Lord God made earth and sky— 5 before any wild plants appeared on the earth, and before any field crops grew, because the Lord God hadn’t yet sent rain on the earth and there was still no human being[a] to farm the fertile land, 6 though a stream rose from the earth and watered all of the fertile land— 7 the Lord God formed the human[b] from the topsoil of the fertile land[c] and blew life’s breath into his nostrils. The human came to life. 8 The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and put there the human he had formed. 9 In the fertile land, the Lord God grew every beautiful tree with edible fruit, and also he grew the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.[Footnotes:
Genesis 2:5 Or man (Heb adam)
Genesis 2:7 Heb adam
Genesis 2:7 Heb adamah]
15 The Lord God took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to farm it and to take care of it. 16 The Lord God commanded the human, “Eat your fill from all of the garden’s trees; 17 but don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day you eat from it, you will die!”
Psalm 104:1 Let my whole being[a] bless the Lord!
Lord my God, how fantastic you are!
You are clothed in glory and grandeur!
2 You wear light like a robe;
you open the skies like a curtain.[Footnotes:
Psalm 104:1 Or soul; also in 104:35]
27 All your creations wait for you
to give them their food on time.
28 When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled completely full!
29 But when you hide your face, they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to dust.
30 When you let loose your breath, they are created,
and you make the surface of the ground brand-new again.
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