Word to the Wise
Wednesday, February 11, 2026 - Wednesday in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Kgs 10:1-10 and Mark 7:14-23]"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.." [Mark]
FEBRUARY 11, [Our Lady of Lourdes]
Dietary restrictions are part of Jewish faith. Observance of kosher is a daily reality. Certain foods (shellfish, pork, etc.) are considered "unclean" and render a person "unclean" if consumed. In the Gospel According to Mark, Jesus takes an uncompromising stand against the practice. This may reflect the influence of increasing Gentile conversions in the early Christian community. At the Council of Jerusalem, when the status of Gentile converts was debated, a minimal set of rules was set (abstaining from eating blood or the meat of animals that were slaughtered in a particular way, etc. - Acts 15:28-30). Eventually, even these disappeared from Christian practice. However, what does remain is the idea of "ritual impurity" of the kind that Jesus speaks of in today's gospel. The list is, indeed, serious: "evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, etc.. It is the "impurity" of interior thoughts and exterior behavior. In Catholic practice, serious (mortal) sin must be confessed in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and absolution received before receiving communion. In short, it is sin that makes a person impure, not food. There are things that we consume that can be sinful - pornography, drugs, etc. for example. But even the desire for these comes from within. Human appetites and passions can be at war with reason and addiction to morally destructive things is ever a danger.
The notion of "ritual impurity" is still with us in our sacramental practice. But what we eat won't cause it! AMEN
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