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[Jesus said], nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.    Mark 7:15.

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First, a thought about today’s gospel which seems to be very concerned with pots and pans and clean hands and other things. Mark’s gospel, from which today’s gospel is taken, was clearly written for a congregation which was either totally Gentile (non-Jewish) or at least was made up of a significant number of Gentiles. How can one tell? Because if Mark were writing for a group of Jewish people, he would never have had to explain the traditions which he does in today’s gospel. They would have followed these traditions all their lives and wonder why on earth he was being so pedantic! And that is one way scholars can begin to analyze certain Scripture passages with some confidence. It also suggests that there were few if any such ritual cleansing traditions among Gentile communities at that time. It is only in the last 200 years or so that we have all adopted these purifying rituals with our knowledge of infection and spread of disease. These Jewish traditions predate all that, and their sources are no doubt lost in the mists of time, but they were all very sensible! Indeed, the second reading states “every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…” Perhaps the Lord was also being super protective with the Chosen People! 

Today’s lesson from Scripture, however, has nothing to do with protection from germs and generally avoiding infection. Instead it has to do with what is happening inside the heart and soul of an individual. That’s where real cleanliness is to be found. Or not. It is all very well to be super scrupulous about external cleanliness, but what about what is going on inside the person? I think Jesus is making us aware that the intentions and ambitions and thoughts of an individual are much more important than what that individual is showing to the world. So, putting aside all the traditions and gestures, the external signs and wonders of a person, it is what the person does in life that counts for most, including the terrible list of evils that Jesus enumerates in today’s gospel. He points out that it is from within that an individual infects the world, from envy to murder, from arrogance to adultery. Those evils count for much more than forgetting to wash your hands or purifying kettles and jugs. Purification is required first and foremost inside each of us, requiring us to recognize our sins, our weakness, and ensure they are addressed, never to be unleashed in the world, but to be transformed within. That will allow each of us to be a true child of God, a true disciple of the Lord, one whose example and action in the world are worthy of imitation and praise, the opposite of the destructive evils the Lord lists. So we are called once more to search rigorously within ourselves for any sign of the negativity which is sin, the very absence of God, and ensure that the light and love, the grace of God reign supreme, the identity of a true child of God. In that way we can respond to God’s call to love God, neighbor and self fully and happily, a true servant of the Lord, not of ourselves.

Love God, Love People, KLove.com, September 20, 2020.

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