WEEKDAY HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 5TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (1)

WEEKDAY HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 5TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

THEME: WHAT DEFILES A MAN?

BY: Fr. Mike Lagrimas

HOMILY: Mk 7:14‐23

He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”

When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) “But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”

There have been many Ecumenical Councils in the Church. The latest of them is the Second Vatican Council. The first Council is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. It was held in Jerusalem and participated in by the apostles themselves, including St. Paul, the greatest missionary of all times. Hence, it is also called the Apostolic Council or the Council of Jerusalem. The biggest issue that the early Church faced was regarding Gentiles or non-Jews who have embraced the Christian faith. The first Christians were all Jews, and they continued to observe Jewish customs. But when the Gentiles or non-Jews began to be accepted into the Christian communities, the problem that has to be resolved is whether or not they have to follow these Jewish laws and customs.
In the Jewish law, there are certain kinds of food that are considered unclean, and are, therefore forbidden to Jews. The question that must be answered is: Should non-Jewish Christians be obliged to avoid such forbidden foods? The apostles seriously debated on this issue. At one point, Paul publicly corrects Peter.

This is mentioned by Paul in his letter to the Galatians: “And when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong. For, until some people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to draw back and separated himself, because he was afraid of the circumcised. And the rest of the Jews [also] acted hypocritically along with him, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not on the right road in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of all, “If you, though a Jew, are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

When Peter had a vision of a large sheet coming down from heaven filled with four-legged animals, he became convinced that there are no persons or foods that are unclean. The voice in his vision told him: “What God has made clean, you are not to call profane” (ck Acts 10).

This is precisely what the Lord has taught while He was with them. There are no such foods that are unclean. Impurity and uncleanness do not come from outside but from inside man’s heart: “What comes out of a person, that is what defiles.” This teaching is the Lord’s response to the question as to why His disciples do not observe the traditional ritual washing of hands and vessels before eating.
Real uncleanness is not in what we eat, but in all the evils that come from within: “evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.” They all come from the hearts of people.

Nowadays, there is no problem with the kind of food we eat, with what goes into our mouth. However, we are warned about what comes out of our mouth, about what comes from our heart. As the classic Latin dictum says, “ex abundancia cordis, os loquitur” (from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.)
“Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God” (Mt. 5:8).

Fr. Mike Lagrimas
St. Michael the Archangel Parish
Diocese of Novaliches