Wednesday, February 11, 2015
5th Week in Ordinary Time
OUR LADY OF LOURDES
1st reading: Gen 2:4b-9, 15-17
Gospel: Mk 7:14–23
Jesus called the people to him again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and try to understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can make that person unclean. It is what comes out from within that makes one unclean. Let everyone who has ears listen.”
When Jesus got home and was away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about this saying and he replied, “So even you are dull? Do you not see that whatever comes from outside cannot make a person unclean? Since it enters, not the heart but the stomach and is finally passed out.” Thus Jesus declared that all foods are clean.
And he went on, “What comes out of a person is what defiles, for evil designs come out of the heart: theft, murder, adultery, jealousy, greed, maliciousness, deceit, indecency, slander, pride and folly. All these evil things come from within and make a person unclean.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Is eating pork sinful in itself? Today’s Gospel reading settles the issue. Jesus declared that not what enters a person’s mouth but what comes out of it would defile hima. Food intake became an issue because Judaism did not allow Jews to eat certain types of food, like pork. Jesus challenged this prohibition when he pointed out that only those that come out of the person makes him unclean.
Did Jesus question the validity of the Law? No, he was merely raising the issue to higher levels. From so much fuss about food Jesus moved to the greater evils of theft, murder, adultery, jealousy, greed, maliciousness, deceit, indecency, slander, pride and folly. Externals have little value to the Lord when they eclipse the internal. The external serves its purpose only when, like the proverbial “tip of the iceberg”, it leads you to deeper spiritual realities and moves you to address them. Let’s take care of the internal first and the external will follow. For just as a poisonous tree bears poisonous fruits, so good trees necessarily bear good fruits. Spirituality, when so intense necessarily comes out because good diffuses itself (bonum diffusivum sui).
Admittedly, food intake can interfere with a person’s apostolic works. While eating pork is not evil in itself, too much intake of it slows a person down. So it is also wise to be wary about what we take into our mouths. The reason, however, should remain at the biological level because no food that enters a person’s mouth defiles him; what comes out of his mouth does.—Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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